The Echo from the People: from research to concert
The journey through the 19th-century musical tradition of Southern Italy and the origins of the concert.
A Musical Journey of Rediscovery
How can the music of Sicily tell us, today, who its people are? This research takes you on an imaginary journey — aboard a steam train once driven by my grandfather — through the sounds of the old Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Along the way, forgotten harp works are revived and music written for other instruments finds a new voice — proving that heritage is not something we keep behind glass, but something we play.
Three echoes from the people
The Sicilian Vespers
Palermo rises against Angevin rule and Sicily first discovers itself as one people. Verdi would later turn the revolt into an opera.
The uprising and Bellini's trumpet
Revolution sweeps the island and Bellini's «Suoni la tromba» becomes its anthem — the Bourbons censored it, replacing the word “freedom” with “loyalty”.
The landing of the Thousand
Garibaldi lands at Marsala and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies begins to end. The people answered with a tarantella.
A Musical Journey of Rediscovery
A solo harp recital reviving forgotten 19th-century Southern-Italian repertoire.
The 4 Stops of the Journey
1. I Vespri (The revolt and its musical echo)
A study on opera and popular transcriptions of the famous historic uprising, showcasing the mandolin and tarantella transition.
I Vespri
I Vespri Siciliani
Concert programme
Archaeological Park of Selinunte — Baglio Florio · 28.12.2024 · 17:30
Carlo Munier
1859–1911- Rapsodie drammatiche N.2 «I vespri siciliani»
Giovanni Caramiello
1838–1938- Piccolo Divertimento sulla «Palummella» di T. Cottrau
- Rimembranze di Napoli — Fantasia sui motivi popolari
- La forza del destino di G. Verdi — Duetto per arpa e pianoforte
Francesco Bellotta
1834–1907- Fior di primavera — canzone per arpa
- Fantasia sul Trovatore di G. Verdi (op. 10)
Antonio Pasculli
1842–1924- Omaggio a Bellini — Duetto per Corno Inglese ed Arpa
Semifinalist at the 9th World Harp Competition — the only Italian among the 13 semifinalists.
The competition programme was this research. An international jury heard L'eco dal popolo in full at TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht — and put it in the world's top thirteen.
“We must make fully known the true and great soul of our land… Only in music and song, Sicilians, can fully express the true emotions.”
Multimedia Research Archive
Research Presentation at the Conservatory of Palermo
Click to load the live performance video
Southern Historical Harp Anthology (Audio)
Click to load archive audio tracks from SoundCloud
- Master's thesis in classical harp
- Royal Conservatory of The Hague · 2024/2025
- Supervisor
- Andrew Wright
- DOI
- 10.22501/koncon.3101116
Southern Italy's harp school is still undervalued, even inside conservatoires: composers long treated as isolated curiosities — Caramiello, Bellotta, Munier, Marinuzzi — turn out to belong to a single connected story, which this concert puts back on stage.
Read the full research on Research Catalogue →Academic & Performance Requests
Francesca presents her research as lecture-concerts, masterclasses and musicological symposiums at universities and music academies across Europe.