|
Oscar
Mancino: ‘The Voice of
Naples’, The North Wall, Tue 7
April
It
did what it said on the tin! We left
the North Wall with big smiles on our
faces, a spring in our steps and
beautiful music ringing in our ears.
There was a very good turn out indeed
for what most would have expected to
be a straightforward concert of
familiar Neapolitan songs. We were in
for a big surprise. The Neapolitan
lyric artist Oscar Mancino treated us
to a spell-binding show full of
humour, magically theatrical in
parts, with opaque textile partitions
almost hiding from view the very
talented bandoneon player, Jérémy
Vannereau, who eventually sneaked out
wearing a Pulcinella mask and got a
big cheer from the audience. A rear
projection of slides and video images
of Naples, and a nostalgic extract
from Vittorio De Sica’s
film L’Oro di
Napoli accompanied by
Oscar Mancino’s composition for
piano, helped set the scene,
transporting us into the heart of
Naples. Another surprise was that the
songs were all originals,
specifically composed for Oscar
Mancino, and taken from his
CD ’The Voice of
Naples’.
Oscar Mancino’s
tremendous voice, passion and
artistry overcame the language
barrier and by the time we left the
theatre we felt we had known him, and
the songs, forever
: Comme
si bella
Napule indeed,
Maestro!
|
