Grec Festival de Barcelona 2023: Raül Refree / Maria Mazzota /Jordi Oriol (Evoé!)

The rhythm of the tarantella, a kind of choreographic exorcism, reread in a contemporary key by this tireless researcher of the world of sounds, a magician of words and the voice of a musical icon from the Puglia region.
He tells the tradition that often the peasants of southern Italy who worked in the fields were victims of the tarantula bite and that this fact caused them severe convulsions. To cure and accompany them, the tarantella was born, a rhythm that follows the convulsions of the patient, in a kind of choreographic exorcism. These episodes of choreomaniac attacks are reproduced throughout Europe under different names such as “the dance of San Vito”. Rituals of collective catharsis that seem to be heirs to the bacchanalian cult: the ecstatic practices of the Dionysian Bacchae, who, freed from domestic chores (from gray and dull life) and drunk with a wine that disinhibits them, flee their homes and go into in nature repeating the cry of “Evoé!” (up to the hyperventilated state of ecstasy) to enter transit and merge with the wild world.
Evoé! It is a concert that starts from the musical tradition to take a tour of those ceremonial references of catharsis and collective possession. Raül Refree, by the hand of the playwright Jordi Oriol and the singer Maria Mazzotta, recreate “tarantismo” in the key of our time, which every summer summons hundreds of people to Puglia, the heel of the Italian boot, to dance the Tarantella and thus participate in a kind of modern cathartic ritual.
We are invited to participate in this ritual by the musician, composer and producer Raül Refree, one of the most acclaimed Spanish producers of the last decade. His work with innovative artists such as Rosalía, El Niño de Elche or Guitarricadelafuente have placed him at the forefront of the so-called “new flamenco” movement and in the recovery of root music. He is accompanied by Maria Mazzotta, one of the most essential voices of traditional Italian music and of world music in general and who was the voice of the Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, and the actor, author, musician and playwright Jordi Oriol, author of productions such as L ’empestat (Grec 2016) or La mala dicció (2021).
On this occasion, the three artists will be accompanied by the Cor Plèiade, a female voice choir specialized in preparing a cappella programs by composers from the 20th and 21st centuries, both Catalan and international.

A carte blanche from the Grec Festival to Raül Refree
A co-production of the Grec 2023 Festival of Barcelona, Festival Clàssics and Fira Mediterrània de Manresa.
With the support of Fabra i Coats: Factory of creation

Directed by: Raul Refree
Dramaturgy: Jordi Oriol
Music: Raul Refree
Voice: Maria Mazzotta
Choir of voices: Cor Pléiade