The Festival entitled “Metro Art & Theater 2024 edition in the year begins Jubilee Rosaliano” signed by the ECU Association with the artistic direction of Francesco Panasci. First appointment on 16 June 2024. Metro Art & Theater in its 2024 edition will have the “Santuzza” of Palermo as its main theme with concerts dedicated to the 400th year of celebrations in Santa Rosalia.
“Santa Rosalia as Santa Cecilia, protector of Palermo artists”; this is the vision of the artistic direction and the artists involved in the Metro Art & Theater 2024 project in the Jubilee year Rosalian, who wanted, through their own artistic projects, to pay homage to Santuzza. The same musicians, actors, painters etc. who through artistic expression, from the balconies, social media, live streaming prayed to Santuzza so that, for the second time, she could free Palermo from the contemporary plague, Covid.
Who sings, who plays, who dances, who recites “pray twice” with your own style, with your own music, with your own recitations, dances and any other form of art.
Artistic expression leads to the divine, today as then, a single prayer goes up from Palermo addressed to Rosalia, with artistic representations in public places and in the presence of the public.
What is Metro Art & Theater
Metro Art & Theater is a Kermesse born in 2018, to support excellence artistic Sicilian, with particular attention to artists who are born, trained and grow professionally in the Palermo area, conceived and directed by Maestro Francesco Panasci; an initiative rooted in the territory for years and conceived and promoted by the ECU Association which in recent editions has received considerable success and consensus from the institutions that have supported it through a concrete economic contribution.
It is a “cultural and media container” suitable for to promote the territories and areas of intervention and social and cultural revitalization of the urban context and cultural sites, promoting tourism in our city and in Sicily in general.
Among the main purposes of the Festival is the valorisation territorial of places and sites decentralized from the city, so much so that in the last two editions particular attention was given to the peripheral areas of both the Municipality of Palermo and the Metropolitan City or in the municipalities of the former Province of Palermo, thanks also to the participation in the notices announced by the municipal administration of Palermo for access to the FUS.
How the edition is structured
Metro Art & Theater, in this 2024 edition, coincides with the Jubilee year Rosalian and, through entertainment activities, it will be an integral part of the packed program of shows, including concerts and theatrical performances, promoted by the Municipality of Palermo on the occasion of the celebrations for the 400 years of history, art and entertainment dedicated to the patron saint of Palermo.
The live entertainment activities of the Metro Art & Theater project have always been aimed at increasing social inclusion, territorial rebalancing and with them the employment protection of our artistsas well as the valorisation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage through the creation of artistic projects.
The project, especially in this edition, is aimed at making known other artistic-cultural forms, connected to Santa Rosalia, in decentralized areas (suburbs), thus pursuing the goals of inclusion and social cohesion in the areas of intervention and social revitalization and cultural in the urban context of reference.
Metro Art & Theater edition 2024 in the year jubilee Rosaliano is divided into n. 5 appointments and will take place in the name of the 400th anniversary of the Feast of Santa Rosalia, patron saint of Palermo and how this, in the history of the city, has positively influenced the valorization of the cultural heritage through entertainment activities aimed at cultural and social inclusion and contributed to promotion of the image of the City of Palermo while also encouraging incoming tourists.
Schedule of 5 appointments
The first appointment will be Sunday 16 June 2024 at the Mother SS Maria delle Grazie church, in Isola delle Femmine, at 9.00 pm.
Three Sicilian musicians who have the common goal of interpreting a vast musical repertoire that ranges from the classical to the contemporary period through the union of three nobles instruments: piano Giuseppina Cascio, violin Mariangela Lampasona and cello Sabrina Colajanni, better known as “Trio Mulè” which for the occasion they want to transform into “Brio” in Eterna Rosalia and the importance of the belief in the patron saint of Palermo also towards artists of the Palermo area.
The second appointment will be on June 22, 2024 FisarVoice in “It’s a rose Rosalia”c/o Municipal Amphitheater of Ventimiglia di Sicilia 9.00 pm Voice Marianna Costantino, accordion Pierpaolo Petta, double bass Francesco Rabboni, drums Fausto Riccobono.
FisarVoice is a fascinating and engaging concert by the well-known accordionist Pierpaolo Petta on accordion and the singer Marianna Costantino with Francesco Rabboni on double bass and Fausto Riccobono on drums. On the occasion of the 400th year of the celebrations of the feast of Santa Rosalia, the musical program includes the performance of compositions that evoke a certain sacredness connected to the “santuzza”, but also the Sicilian tradition with revisited and rearranged songs such as “Cu ti lu dissi” by Rosa Balistreri.
Personal prayers dedicated to the patron saint will be recited between one composition and another. The concert will open with a piece dedicated to the Patron Saint of Palermo, composed by maestro Mario Modestini “E’ una rosa Rosalia”, in honor of the 400th year of the celebrations in Santa Rosalia.
The third appointment Saturday 6 July 2024 “Song in the two Sicilies – Devote to the Saint” c/o Church of San Giovanni Bosco (Settecannoli district in Palermo in via Messina Marine, number 259, 90123 Palermo PA 6.30 pm.
An original project featuring Alba Cavallaro Voce, Totò Ferraro – Oboe and English Horn, Giorgio Gasbarro cello, Francesco Maria Martorana – guitar and decachord, recounting the songs of the peoples of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
The work was born in 1994 partly to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1944 ballad “Tammuriata Nera” by EA Mario. It is a Suite written and arranged in chamber music form where some of the most well-known motifs of the Neapolitan tradition and the (lesser known but quite captivating) Sicilian tradition are exhibited, revisited and revisited for the occasion dedicated in Santa Rosalia, the songs will be interspersed with short recitations of triumphs dedicated to the patron saint.
The fourth appointment will be Wednesday 10 July 2024 “Rosa Rosalia – Patroness of Peace”, church of San Giovanni Bosco (Settecannoli district in Palermo in via Messina Marine, number 259, 90123 Palermo, 6.30 pm a concert that brings back the traditions of our land, dedicated to the Patron Saint of Palermo, Santa Rosalia, a project strongly supported by Maestro Francesco Panasci, pianist, composer and arranger.
They will be performed during the concert tracks traditional, even by authors from our land, interspersed with narrated parts/prayers to evoke Santuzza. The coordination of the ensemble is entrusted to Maestro Salvatore Ferraro revisited for wind instruments and soprano voice and the musical direction is entrusted to Maestro Francesco Panasci.
The last appointment, Friday 19 July 2024 “Ecu Classic Ensemble, Songs for Rosalia”, municipality of Marineo in Piazza Castello at 9.00 pm. Songs for Rosa is the concert dedicated to the Santuzza of Palermo made up of a group of wind instruments and a voice (soprano) who performs in various formations: from the Reed Trio (Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon) to the double quintet.
A narrator will introduce the performance of the artists with some narratives that will have as a common thread, between one performance and another, the figure of Santa Rosalia as the protagonist.
