«A passo di danza nel cuor della notte»

**Saturday, July 18** continues with a special concert the program of “**OrgaNova**,” the international organ festival of Santa Maria del Passo, under the **artistic direction of Margherita Sciddurlo**. The appointment is **at 11:30 PM** at the **Church of Sant’Antonio in Mola di Bari** with the **midnight concert, lit by candlelight, titled "A Dance Step in the Heart of the Night,"** featuring the duo composed of **baritone Angelo De Leonardis** and **organist Angela D’Amico**.

The concert will begin late in the evening and conclude after midnight, immersing the audience in an intimate and evocative atmosphere. The uniqueness of the event will be the entire performance done in candlelight, with real candles and no artificial lighting, aiming to provide the audience with an experience of listening as close as possible to the original. The church's organ will indeed be heard in the same acoustic and environmental conditions for which it was built, when electricity did not yet exist and the bellows were operated manually. This choice is not only scenic but also philological and sonic, designed to enhance the authentic timbre of the instrument and the intimate relationship between music, sacred space, and the night silence.

Designed as a musical journey dedicated to the deep relationship between music and dance through the centuries, the program will traverse repertoires from the Renaissance to the 19th century, intertwining vocal pieces and solo organ works. The concert arises from the idea that music, even without the physical gesture of dance, manages to retain its rhythm, energy, and symbolic memory. “Music and dance,” explains De Leonardis when presenting the event, “have always referred to one another in our civilization,” transforming popular forms such as pavane, gavotte, minuet, passacaglia, and tarantella into true autonomous musical architectures.

The night’s intimate atmosphere at the concert will be an integral part of the experience: the audience will be immersed in a suspended dimension, evoked by the candlelight and a sound path that seeks to restore to dance its ritual and communal value, as a moment of gathering, liberation, and symbolic reconnection “to the sky and the stars, in the heart of the night.”

The musical program will feature works by Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Adriano Banchieri, Alessandro Scarlatti, Francesco Durante, Amilcare Ponchielli, and Gioachino Rossini, alternating with organ pieces and ancient anonymous tarantellas taken from the treatise “Magnes, sive De arte magnetica” by Athanasius Kircher from 1641. Among the most anticipated moments are “Se l’aura spira” by Frescobaldi, “Danza, danza fanciulla” by Durante, the famous “Dance of the Hours” from Ponchielli's “Gioconda,” and “La danza” by Rossini, a well-known Neapolitan tarantella from “Soirées musicales.”

Angela D’Amico obtained her Academic Diploma of II Level in Organ with the highest marks and honors at the “Nino Rota” Conservatory in Monopoli, subsequently perfecting her studies in Germany, in Leipzig and Freiberg, and then at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome and the Conservatoire de Versailles in France. She has received important awards at national organ competitions and carries out an intense concert and music research activity.

Angelo De Leonardis, bass-baritone, has over thirty years of international career experience through concerts, festivals, recordings, and musicological activities. Specializing in ancient and historically informed repertoires, he has performed in Europe, the United States, Latin America, and North Africa, also collaborating with the ILMC Foundation for the recovery of concentration camp music. In 2024, he was a guest at UNESCO in Paris for this research and dissemination work.

Admission is free, until seats are filled. OrgaNova is promoted and organized by the cultural association “Arte & Musica,” with the support of the Ministry of Culture, the Puglia Region, and the Municipality of Mola di Bari, in collaboration with the Pasquale Battista Foundation and the support of the main sponsor “Levigas Luce e Gas,” along with other local sponsors. For more information: 340.376.15.50.
Web: www.facebook.com/organova.live