Twelve days of events, fifteen appointments and over three hundred and fifty artists involved. These are the numbers DThe “songs of passion. ce custi or gaddho na cantalisi 2025“, Review promoted byUnion of the Municipalities of the Salento Grecìa with the participation of‘Institute Diego Carpitella.
Saturday 5 April, At 18.30, at the Elderly Center of Zollino there will be the preview of the 2025 edition with the presentation of the review, a video projection and the testimonies in memory of Antimino Pellegrino, with the participation of the guys of the ICS “Falcone and Borsellino” coordinated by Mattia Manco. From Sunday 6 April and until Wednesday 16, the review will stop in every municipality in the Salento Grecìa, as well as in Lecce and Alessano.
Artistically directed by the musician Antonio Melegari, the 2025 edition, scheduled from 5 to 16 Aprilit is dedicated to the historic Zollinese singer of “I Passuna Tu Christù” Antimino Pellegrino, who passed away at 93 years on January 31st. The review stops in the municipalities of the Salento Grecìa with events also in Lecce and Alessano.
“Songs of passion. Ce custi or gaddho na cantalisi” is a review of devotional songs, which is held in the week preceding the Sunday of the Palm and takes place in the main sacred places of the territory. COn the passion, the narration of the life and death of Christ reaches one of the highest expressions through popular poetry in GRICA language, which materializes with songs, music and gestures capable of exciting and creating a unique pathos. This cultural background has resisted the passage of time and, every year, it is celebrated in the small villages of Salento, among the historic buildings and the saggers of the churches, between the squares and the ancient convents that thus become natural locations to welcome the traditional performances of musical bands, companies of singers, confraternities, schools of schools and musical formations engaged in the study and research of the texts and music of the Holy Week.
“The songs of passion – he says Roberto Casaluci, President of the Union of the Municipalities of the Salento Grecìa – they fall fully in the purest and most authentic tradition of the popular culture of the Salento Grecìa. With the re -proposal of these rites that have been handed down for hundreds of years, the municipal administrations, together with the associations and the singers, united in a synergistic and consolidated work over time, enhance the historical and Hellenophon identity of the GRICA area, putting together tradition and innovation. The ambitious objective of the Union of Municipalities of the Salento Grecìa is, therefore, to build an attractive project that can transfer the passion for the culture of our territory to the new generations and which, at the same time, can meet the appreciation of the public, not only local, generating interest and widespread effects “.
“The review was born – declares the artistic director Antonio Melegari – Especially to enhance and transmit to the new generations “I Passuna Tu Christù”, considered one of the oldest forms of popular theater, characterized not only by singing, but also by a rich gestures and mimicry that accompanies the over sixty stanzas. Even today numerous teams of singers in the period preceding Easter go around in the houses to sing the passion of Christ “. Among the multiple forms of Italian musical expression of popular devotion, The repertoires of the songs of passion of the Salento Grecìa occupy a place of absolute importance. In addition to the numerous companies and teams of singers present in the Salento area and in the Hellenophon area of Salento, this edition will also have the pleasure of hosting artists from outside. There will be a training that will bring the song of Lazzaro to Albanese Arbreshe, the songs of Longi, and a formation from Ciociaria. In addition to the band groups, the Confraternity of Supersano and the Choir of Women Pie will be hosted. The boys of the Institutes comprehensive of the Grecìa will then be the protagonists in five appointments of the review, in the sign of a tradition that is transmitted to the new generations.
