Search - Lucilla Galeazzi :: Stagioni

Una stella luminosa dell'Italia!

Vincent E. Vizachero | Houston, TX United States | 02/15/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Lucilla Galeazzi is a shining star in Italian folk music, possessing as she does a soaring voice and an affiinty for traditional songs. She has the power of someone like Mariah Carey with the classically trained control of someone like Frederica von Stade. This CD collects some of her best work from three previous albums, two of which are difficult and one of which is near impossible to find in the USA.



Highlights include "Voglio Una Casa" and "Trema La Terra", both written by Galeazzi, along with three versions of "Notte Scura" that will knock your socks off.



Galeazzi is a world-class talent that must be heard: she simply cannot be appropriately described. This is a great introduction to her, and is highly recommended."

Is There Really a "Gap" ...

Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 05/12/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"... between Pop music and Folk music? Or between Traditional music and Classical music? This album of songs by Lucilla Galeazzi may complicate that question significantly. But I'm a person who enjoys complicated questions, and I definitely enjoy Galeazzi's musicianship.



Galeazzi sings on this CD as if no American influence had ever reached her native Umbria, yet the notes declare that she was initially enticed to study and preserve traditional Italian songs by the example of the American Pete Seeger! Another paradox: this CD avoids any flavor of "world music" or syncretic pop/folk/jazz; except for the excellent sound quality, it could pass for a field recording made in Umbria before WW2. However, the words and music of all but two of the eighteen tracks are new, written and composed in recent decades, with the majority of them Galeazzi's own 'opera'. The two versions of "Notte Scura" are formally a waltz and a tarantella, but they have been 'classicized' just as 17th C composers like Monteverdi and Landi classicized Italian "street" music. If Galeazzi's music is folkish, it's anything but unsophisticated.



From what I've heard of old field recordings and of surviving 'village' or marketplace music, the usual difference expected between the timbres of men's and women's voices are reversed in Italian tradition. The traditional Italian tenor was ultra-suave and clear; the very young Claudio Villa was such a voice, which you can hear in the film "The Big Night", singing with flute-like agility and Pavarotti-level timbre. The traditional female voice was huskier, more the timbre of a story teller; in fact, female singers in Umbria were called "cantastorie". Galeazzi has that 'sturdy peasant woman' quality in her voice but combines it with Villa's flexibility and conservatory tuning.



So... what kind of music do YOU like? Me, I only like one kind. Good."

Italian grace and power

Francoise Bourzat | San Francisco, CA, USA | 04/18/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"this is a rare voice. Totally transorting and flying into incredible heights. Touching, emotional, happy; everything is "out there", in the glory of womanhood and power. A true inspiration."