Length of the show: 90 minutes
“This “Italian Songbook” narrated by Mr. Loconsolo celebrates timeless human themes of love, laughter and loss through a chronological anthology of tarantellas, madrigals, and canzoni popolari – all sung in their original dialects – starting from the seventeenth century up through swing tunes from the 1960’s. A specialist in the music of Roberto Murolo, Emiliano is considered one of the most authentic interpreters of Italian Canzone Popolare performing in the U.S. today.
The thirty-two year old Mr. Loconsolo hopes that the program will give the audience a broader perspective on Italian music. “When I tell people I sing Italian music, especially in the Unites States, they automatically think of Mario Lanza, Louis Prima, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin, and as wonderfully suggestive as those tunes are, they are really just the most recent tip of the iceberg. Italian music has a long, rich, colorful history and a song like “That’s amore” has a lot in common with its predecessors from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, in that they all encapsulate the everyday life of our ancestors. And really, very little has changed with the human condition over the past 400 years.” Emiliano’s program will include music by Monteverdi, a medley of saucy tarantella’s from the early 1800’s, and popular songs from the 1920’s and 40’s. “