BELLA CIAO is historically known as the show that marked the beginning of the Italian folk revival. From its very first performance in 1964 at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, which aroused violent disputes, comes the work of all musicians who nowadays bring with great success Italian Folk music to stages the world over.
Restaging the show 50 years later (June 21, 1964) meant offering a performance whose original echo has never turned off, even for the thousands of fans who came after, but it also involve, while retaining its scope and the original schedule, a necessary update on the basis of the trends and developments that the folk revival has acquired in this long period.
Today, the songs of BELLA CIAO not only retain all their expressive power, but they have acquired a new urgency in the globalized world for their values of liberty, peace and civil rights.
BELLA CIAO is a lesson of democracy that directly originates from the people. A historical narration unraveling through music, sounds and words. The innovation in this restaging created on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the original show, lies in the musical treatment entrusted to an ensemble directed and orchestrated by the accordion player Riccardo Tesi, one of the most brilliant and rigorous protagonists of the World music scene.
No more just the only guitar accompaniment, but a work of arrangement which introduces a sophisticated dialogue between sounds and meanings, creating a rich Folk Symphony, thanks to guitar player Andrea Salvadori and percussionist Gigi Biolcati. However, Bella Ciao was conceived and remains a show of folksongs and the centrality of singing is confirmed by the presence of some of the outstanding voices of the Italian Folk and Social singing during the last 30 years, who are unmistakably Bella Ciao direct expression: Ginevra Di Marco, Lucilla Galeazzi, Elena Ledda and Alessio Lega.
The idea and artistic direction of the project are ascribed to Franco Fabbri.
The musicians:
Riccardo Tesi: button accordion, arrangements, musical direction
Lucilla Galeazzi: vocals
Elena Ledda: vocals
Ginevra Di Marco: vocals
Alessio Lega: vocals, guitar
Andrea Salvadori: guitar, arrangements
Gigi Biolcati: percussions, vocals
Riccardo Tesi: musician, orchestrator and arrangements author. Button accordion player of international renown, he constantly crosses over geographical and stylistic frontiers and in his musical career of over thirty years has collaborated with prestigious names of Italian and international world music (C.Bueno, E.Ledda, D.Sepe, P.Vaillant, J.Kirkpatrick, J.Vali, M.Perrone, K.Junkera), of jazz (G.Mirabassi, G.Trovesi, M.P.De Vito), of rock (P. Pelù, G. Di Marco, F. Magnelli, Skiantos) including the great songwriters (F.De Andrè, I. Fossati, G.M.Testa, G.Gaber, C.Donà ecc). He is the founding member and leader of Banditaliana, one of the internationally most acclaimed Italian world music bands.
Ginevra Di Marco: outstanding performer, best known on the contemporary Italian music scene, started up from the Indie rock scene with CSI and PGR, then took the soloist career and gained the Tenco Award as debutant artist. In Francesco Magnelli's project Stazioni Lunari she has met artists with different styles, ranging from rock to songwriting and folk, showing again her eclecticism and performing strength. During her research, she ended up with folk music (particularly Tuscan) to which she consecrated her latest albums.
Elena Ledda: singer of classical training and experimenter of voice potentials, she represents in the world Sardinian folk music. In his musical career rigour merges in the search for a universal language through her collaboration with such artists as Fabrizio De André, Lester Bowie, Don Cherry, Andreas Vollenweider, Savina Yannatou, Maria del Mar Bonet, Paolo Fresu, Noa e Andrea Parodi, Rita Marcotulli, Antonello Salis, Gavino Murgia, Riccardo Tesi . She was awarded a Tenco plaque in 2007.
Lucilla Galeazzi: trained in Giovanna Marini quartet and with maestro Roberto de Simone she is currently held as the most versatile performer of folk music repertoires from Northern and Southern Italy. She was awarded a Tenco plaque in 2006 and can boast a notable international career, collaborating with important artists of different styles: jazz (G.Trovesi, E.Colombo, C.Barthelemy ), ancient music (Ensemble Arpeggiata with which he gained a Grammy Award in 2003), world music (B’net Houarijat, Faraualla, J.J.Mosalini, A.Sparagna, C.Rizzo, R.Tesi).
Alessio Lega: a singer and author of six albums, winner of a Tenco plaque, is currently considered the most coherent representative of social singing, in a balance between songwriting and folk music reediting.
Andrea Salvadori : composer, guitarist and sound designer, since 2000 he has shared Ginevra di Marco artistic career. Since 2003 he has been collaborating as musician and arranger, in the musical project Stazioni Lunari, directed by Francesco Magnelli, in which many artists of the Italian music scene take part. His liking of composition together with sound design makes him approaching theatre as music playwright with Armando Punzo director of Compagnia della Fortezza – not by chance director/author of the scene, with whom he sets up a deep collaboration.
Gigi Biolcati : eclectic and creative percussionist, he has been member of the Tuscan band Banditaliana for 5 years now, with which he uses an original percussion set, consisting of ethnic and self-made instruments. He can boast many collaborations on the jazz scene (Alboran trio), with songwriters (Cristiano De Andrè) and world (the English Scarp, Maurizio Martinotti, Jean Blanchard etc.).
Franco Fabbri: Italian musicologist of international fame (he teaches at the University of Turin). As a musician he had been from 1966 to 2012 the singer, multi-instrumentalist and author in the band Stormy Six. He founded in 1974 the cooperative Orchestra, the first independent organization including Italian and European folk, pop, jazz, world musicians, (among which Moni Ovadia International Folk Group, Stormy Six, Henry Cow, Guido Mazzon and Tony Rusconi, Piero Milesi and Heiner Goebbels).