Fiorenza Calogero
Napoli
Fiorenza Calogero made a significant contribution to the research and popularity of the traditional songs of the South Italy, in particular working with Maestro Roberto De Simone, who engaged her in significant roles for several cult performances: " La Gatta Cenerentola", staged in the gardens of the Palais Royal, Paris; at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London; Festival Grec, Barcelona (1999/2000); and the major Italian theaters (Teatro La Pergola, Florence; Teatro Bonci, Cesena; Piccolo Teatro, Milan; Arena del Sole, Bologna, Teatro Valli, Reggio Emilia), "Lo Vommaro a duello" (2008), a production of the Teatro di San Carlo for the Napoli Teatro Festival Italia. The concert performance of "Li Turchi Viaggiano" by De Simone, toured Argentina in 2001 (Teatro Coliseo, Buenos Aires, Gran Teatro de Cordoba, El Circulo Theater, Rosario; Teatro Apolo, Mar del Plata, Teatro Municipal, Bahia Blanca; Teatro del Bicentenario, San Juan) as well as Uruguay (Theatre Star of Italy, Montevideo).
In 2001 she won the Prix Saint Vincent with the classic song "Indifferentemente". In 2007 she presented her Neapolitan songbook at "Columbus Day" in New York arousing an extraordinary response from the American audience.
In 2008, the journalist-musicologist Pietro Gargano devoted to her two pages in his Encyclopedia of classic Neapolitan song (Edizioni Magmata) and in 2009 she received the “Naples in the World” prize in Ravello.
Fiorenza made the first album “Fioreincanto”, a collection of classic songs in the Neapolitan language, in 2007 on the IMAIE label. Her second album, “Fiorenza”, was released in 2009 by the Dutch CNR Entertainment label. This disc presents, in alternation, classic and unpublished traditional melodies with incursions into pop-opera, in duo with the tenor Vittorio Grigolo.
Subsequently she toured with Alessandro Safina the main Dutch theaters (Vedrenburg Tivoli, Utrecht; Theater aan de Parade, Den Bosch; Muziekgebouw, Eindowen; Luxor Theater, Rotterdam). She performed in "Winter Classics" at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam (2009), The Night of the Voice" at the Theater Schouwburg Almere (2010), "Beautiful Italy" at Chasse Theater Breda (2010) in collaboration with the Dutch baritone Ernst Daniel Smid.
In 2009, she contributed her performance of the "Canto delle lavandaie del Vomero" to the film “Passione” directed by John Turturro, presented out of competition at the Venice Film Festival: one of the oldest of Neapolitan songs, authentic pearl of traditional heritage, dating from the thirteenth century.
In 2011, the label Edel published the third album Sotto il Vestito... Napoli”, accompanied by jazz pianist Lorenzo Hengeller.
Among her most important stage collaborations that should be mentioned here are those with Cristina Branco, Amal Murkus, Urna, Pino De Vittorio, Carlos Pinana. She participated, with the singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/composer Enzo Avitabile, in the biopic "Enzo Avitabile Music Life" (2011), directed by the Oscar winner Jonathan Demme, in the scene "Anola Tranola" with the Malian musician Toumani Diabate. The film was presented out of competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2013.
Enzo Avitabile is also the author of the songs from her newest album, entitled “Nun tardare sole” (2016) produced by Andrea Aragosa for the label Black Tarantella. The song "Tre Fronne e tre ciure", one of the most intense of the disc, was presented at Epiphany Concert at the Teatro Mediterraneo in Naples in January 2015, and broadcast on RAI 1.
In october 2016 she participates at Heinrich Schütz Musikfest in Dresden (Germany) with the Ensemble L'Arpeggiata directed by Christina Pluhar.
Fiorenza Calogero’s tracks
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