By Hadi Fornaji.
Tripoli, 22 November:
Tripoli will be playing host to the Officina Mediterraneo (Off Med) on Friday, a spectacular concert featuring . . .[restrict]two quintents from the two shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
From one side will be coming the Libyan group, a renowned band of instrumental traditional local music from Libya, whilst from the other will come the Opera Quintet, a brilliant versatile band from Italy.
The evening will be opened with a rich sample of Libyan music, with artists including Abdul Razzag Al-Fahd on the violin; Hisham Bakkay on the Qanun; Mahmoud Maatug on the Riq and Goblet Drum; Habib Trabilsi on the Ney and Mohamed Al-Musciat on the keyboard. All of the musicians are well known in their field as excellent interpreters of the classical heritage of Libyan music.
Opera Quintet will then take centre stage, featuring versatile artists ranging from classical, jazz, contemporary, to vocal and instrumental ethnic music, able to perform between the score and improvisation.
On stage Maria Pia De Vito, from Naples, one of the most renowned voice in the Mediterranean sea, Lucilla Galeazzi, one of the queens of the Mediterranean songs, Gabriele Mirabassi, a virtuoso clarinetist able to perform every kind of style and genre, Sal Bonafede, a peculiar jazzman grown between Sicily and New York, Luigi Cinque, a creative player and composer, a key role inventor of the “global village” where artists traverse the globe and forge new traditions. The sound engineer of the concert is Michele Russotto, a Sicilian with a long collaboration with Peter Gabriel.
Off Med is directed by Luigi Cinque and has performed in several in several tour concerts abroad, always collaborating with local artists, fostering cultural dialogue, blending different styles in a contemporary fashion.
Amongst the many significant events at which Off Med has performed are the official concert for the anniversary of the UN Human Rights bill in Nairobi in 1998, live with then Secretary General Kofi Annan; in the Palestinian Territories in 2001; and in Yemen in 2006 and 2007 for the inaugural and final concerts with the National Yemenite Orchestra to celebrate the Year of Arab Culture.
Tomorrow’s concert has been organised to celebrate the recent reopening of the Italian Cultural Institute’s work in Libya, after its cessation following the outbreak of the revolution in February last year.
Founded in 1963 to enhance cultural relations between Italy and Libya, the centre’s main focus is the organising of cultural events and courses in Italian language.
The event commences at 19:30 in the Leptis Hall of Tripoli’s Waddan Hotel. Admission is free of charge and up to 650 seats are available for those wishing to attend. [/restrict]
