PETROSINELLA dei FABULA LUCANA

**Cultural Association LE MATINE – PISTICCI**, as part of the **“SOUND LANDSCAPES”** project, under the patronage of the Municipality of **PISTICCI** and in collaboration with the **SAN ROCCO Patronal Feasts Association – PISTICCI**, presents:

# **PETROSINELLA**
by **Fabula Lucana**

A musical fairy tale from *Lo cunto de li cunti* by G. B. Basile

**Milena Orlandi** – vocals
**Salvo Nigro** – bouzouki, drum, flutes and vocals
**Lorenzo Melchiorre** – guitars
**Giuseppe Volpe** – accordion, drum and vocals

Music by **Salvo Nigro**
Text and adaptation by **Milena Orlandi**

## Petrosinella

A musical fairy tale staged by Fabula Lucana and based on *Lo cunto de li cunti* by Giambattista Basile. The performance features Milena Orlandi as narrator and singer, as well as the author of the text and adaptation, together with Salvo Nigro, composer of the music and performer on bouzouki, drum and flutes; Lorenzo Melchiorre on guitars; and Giuseppe Volpe on accordion.

## From Petrosinella to Rapunzel, the first maiden in the tower

The fairy tale tells the story of Pascadozia, a pregnant woman who, overcome by an irresistible craving, steals parsley from an ogress’s garden. As punishment, she is forced to promise the ogress her unborn daughter.

The baby girl, named Petrosinella after that parsley, is claimed years later and imprisoned in a tall tower without doors or stairs, accessible only by climbing up her extraordinarily long hair.

A prince catches sight of her from the window and falls in love with her. With the help of three magic acorns capable of summoning a dog, a lion and, finally, a wolf, the two manage to escape and defeat the pursuing ogress before finally getting married.

Published in 1634, *Petrosinella* is the earliest known written version of the fairy tale of the maiden in the tower. It predates by almost two centuries the better-known *Rapunzel* by the Brothers Grimm, which scholars believe reached its version through an eighteenth-century French reworking rather than through direct contact with the Neapolitan text.

## Giambattista Basile and the *Pentamerone* between Naples and Basilicata

The Neapolitan man of letters Giambattista Basile spent the final years of his life as governor of Giugliano, in Basilicata, serving Galeazzo Pinelli, Duke of Acerenza, until his death in 1632 during an influenza epidemic.

It was his sister Adriana, a celebrated singer of the time, who arranged the posthumous publication of his most important work, *Lo cunto de li cunti*. Written in the Neapolitan language, it was conceived as entertainment for the courts of southern Italy during leisure moments after meals.

The work contains fifty tales from oral tradition—ten for each of the five days into which it is divided—and is therefore also known as the *Pentamerone*.

Populated by fairies, ogres and magicians, it is considered the origin of the literary fairy-tale genre in Europe and a declared—or otherwise acknowledged—source for the work of Charles Perrault and, two centuries later, the Brothers Grimm. Its setting between Campania and Basilicata, and particularly its connection with *Petrosinella*, the first tale of the second day, inspired the reworking by Arterìa for this production.

## A musical fairy tale between ancient strings and the Neapolitan language

The performance is built entirely around original music by Salvo Nigro, accompanying the whole narrative and echoing—with some artistic freedom—the forms popular during the period in which Basile’s work was written.

Bouzouki and guitar, transverse flute and recorder, drums, and a rich sonic tapestry of accordion recreate the ancient atmosphere of the Baroque fairy tale.

In the text, prepared by Milena Orlandi, the Italian translation alternates with Basile’s original Neapolitan, a language that was chosen in the seventeenth century as a revolutionary vehicle for narrative within a multilingual context: Latin was reserved for law and science, while Spanish was used for court bureaucracy.

This mixed adaptation preserves the original text’s sonic authenticity while ensuring that the story remains fully understandable.