Saturday 17 June 2017 (Sorrento Musical Show)

Sorrento and surroundings

The legend tells that the mythical Sirens who inhabited Ulisse with a melodious song resided in the sea. Still today, they go to that sea - from blue and green reflections in a thousand different shades of sunshine - one can imagine that the waves emerge - beautiful and affectionate - the Sirens. But maybe Sorrento is a Mermaid who conjures up and smells with the scents of lemon and orange trees, with the olive trees from the dark twisted trunks and the leafy leaves that move smoothly with a light sound, to the wind coming from the sea, with the rocks born from the distant fury of a volcano. Greek-Oscite, perhaps Phoenician, followed Roman, Sorrento followed the fate of Rome at its fall. In the Middle Ages, the republic (quoted among the most prominent muddy cities of the South), then subjected to the Neapolitan Ducat, it detached itself in the sec. XI. The historical process that led to the establishment of the Ducato of Sorrento is part of the evolutionary loop of the common specialism both for the Byzantine possessions (Naples, Gaea, Amalfi and Sorrento), as well as the Longobards (Benevento, Salerno and Capua) 'Southern Italy. The Sorrento duchy, which embraced the entire peninsula from Sarno to Campanella, had a certain resonance due mainly to the spread of the in-dustry of construction and naval supplies, maritime trade and the production of fruit and wine. The Sorrentine political class was, however, made up of an aristocracy that based its power on land ownership; the commercial sector remained limited to the activity of small local traders. Therefore, Sorrento never became a sailor's power. Even the Archbishop's creation was in all likelihood as a result of the Duchy's Forges. The latter was subjected to a certain period to the Duke of Longobard in Salerno (1039). Regained independence (1052) with the help of Norman, he accepted the protection by increasingly binding his policy to that of the Duke of Capua, together with which he was overthrown in the war against the other Norman Duke Ruggero Il d'Altavilla (1133 or 1134). At Sorrento, which enjoyed its own government before the conquest, greater autonomy was guaranteed. In fact, the city was not given to any nobleman, and although he had to give up political independence, he could preserve the aristocratic privileges and control of the Casali (Massa, Piano and Vico). In XIV (perhaps in 1319) there was a bloodbath in the city that led to the split of the oldest nobility in two Sects, with the constitution, as opposed to the original Seat of the Door of the Seat of Dominova. The prestige of the Seats of Sorrento went beyond the regional tightness, coming also to argue in the Spanish period some privileges to the same capital Naples. A major event in the history of the city was the tragic Turkish invasion of June 1558, for the plunder that there were and for the great amount of people who were killed or enslaved to Constantinople. The Turkish invasion hastened the work of rebuilding the city walls which was completed in 1561. The struggles sustained by the rural peoples of the Casali and the villages that had been stolen for centuries by the oppressors of the sorrowful patriots, to obtain autonomy . In this context lies the revolt of the Genoese John Grillo (1 648). By exploiting a series of secular contrasts with the local nobility, the Grillo managed to unite the poplars of the Plan and the peasants of Sorrento himself by driving an infamous siege that lasted fourteen months. In the Age of Counter-Reformation, the artistic and social life of the city "patricia" decaded in a stupefying archaism: various academies arose and countless monastic orders spread, so as to give Sorrento a marked conventual impression. By contrast, the "bourgeois" development of the Plan and other neighboring countries favored its economic and social evolution. In the first Bourbon period, the sea fishing activity and the fishing of tuna grew to the beginning of the century. XX. With the return of the Bourbons after the tragic re-launch of 1799, the nobility seats were abolished and the Plan in 1808 and Meta in 1819 obtained autonomy.After the Unity also S. Agnello became autonomous (1865) while Sorrento underwent "building renovation" that changed its old appearance. In the early years of the 16th century, XIX the woodworking industry went pro rigorously to replace the oldest (XVI century) silk weaving industry. Agriculture also developed to the point where it assumed in the early 1900s the characteristics of a genuine industrial and commercial activity, with the intensive cultivation of citrus fruits, the transformation of livestock products and exports, leading to the establishment of in Sorrento of the Faculty of Agriculture. The newer periods have seen the progressive, and in some cases very intense (around the sixties) the extension of tourist activity which has quickly become the foremost sector of the city's economy.

The Sorrento Musical Show

The Sorrento Musical is inspired by the "Tarantella" dance, typical of the southern regions born in an unspecified and far-away past. Such is the suggestion that emerges from the dragging music to the rhythm of which "dancing" the dancers, which renowned musicians like Rossini remained so fascinated to devote to it superb compositions. In time, unfortunately, the primal meaning of Tarantella went lost and it has become a repetitive show for tourists. In the attempt to revive the genuine liveliness, the owners of Teatro Tasso, for decades have started a quest in local folklore to discover the environments and characters they received through a jealous family tradition, the precious heritage of the exact movements and the spirit of the dance. Since 1999 they have set up the Sorrento Musical: a show telling moments and places of an entire day of nineteenth-century Sorrento. The show is not a review of songs and dances of the tradition of the last two centuries: it is a real reconstruction of the quo situations tidiane of work or celebration in the Sorrento peninsula of the time it was.The viewer will see the dawn rising to Marina Grande fishermen's village perfectly reconstructed by the faithful scenery where before leaving for fishing a rite of pagan flavor invokes abundance. The sea will be the protagonist of all the first part, dedicated to it all the songs and to it are inspired all the stories that melodies tell. The second scene will lead the spectator to the square that with the arrival of the stalls becomes market . Typical voices and sounds of the sale are transformed, like magic, into improvised and spontaneous songs and dances that translate the joyful exchange of trades. The hours pass and the abandoned morning market activity gives an afternoon image to the square where people are walking or discuss sitting in the cafes. Morning scenes give way to the whisper of confidences and gossip, desires, and declarations on the notes of the wonderful songs that the whole world knows and appreciates. A careful ear can find out that those songs bring in them the very sign of history, are the memory of past time and testimony to the richness of the cultural roots of this land. For example, in folkloristic dancing with sticks, there is a trace of the most disturbing Moorish influences, while in the black january (narrating the unexpected birth of a child of color given to a Neapolitan woman during the last period of World War II) there is the ironic allusion to the results of the stay in Naples of the American Army. The first shadows are on the scene: it is almost night. It is the right time to give strength to the voice of the heart. All the songs in this part are the star of love: from that of the soldier away during the Great War (O surdato nnammurato) to the serenade of the sailor under the moon, to end up paying tribute to Rossini with the courtship of cats in love composed exclusively of "very human "Miagolii.A fireworks show, in the background of a festive gala illuminated by the party, closes the Musical: the characters, dancers and singers, dressed for the occasion dance cheerfully with the public asking for leave and applause.