I GIULLARI DI PIAZZA, renowned 35-year old Southern Italian music/theater/dance company, is proud to offer a beautiful concert version of LA CANTATA DEI PASTORI 

For your Italian Community .

  Join La Befana, the Good Witch of Christmas, Mary and Joseph, the Archangel Gabriel, Devils, Demons, and the commedia dell'arte characters who enact this beloved story of the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, and the triumph of good over evil.  

  The music - tarantellas, villanellas and pastorales - comes from traditional sources, with original music by John La Barbera.  Adaptation and direction are by Alessandra Belloni.   Songs are sung in Italian; costuming and music instrumentation is traditional Southern Italian; narration is in English.   The play ends with a singing by the Company of the oldest known Neapolitan Christmas song.The play is set during Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem, during which the Devil has dispatched demons to stop the birth of Jesus.    Along the way, the holy couple's escapades are entwined with the hapless commedia dell'arte character called Razzullo, a comic mischievous Neapolitan scribe who is always hungry and looking for something to eat.   The demons, in the meanwhile, conjure up tempests, dragons, and do all they can to stop the birth, but all are under the protection of the Archangel Gabriel (played here, in traditional style, by  Mark Mindek, well known stilt dancer who has appeared in Metropolitan Opera productions, Disney Films and special events around the world.).   The holy couple experiences funny, outrageous, and dangerous adventures before they finally reach Bethlehem and Good triumphs over Evil!    "La Cantata dei Pastori" is still performed annual during the Christmas season in the environs of Naples.   Written by Andrea Perrucci during the height of commedia dell'arte popularity in Italy, it combines commedia characteristics with those of the Italian medieval sacra rappresentazione.   These elements are fused in settings which borrow from a third genre, the Italian pastoral drama.

JON PARLES - The New York Times:   "A musical play presented by the traditional Italian group I Giullari di Piazza (is) a rarity among Christmas programs; it somehow manages to be both riotously entertaining and   curiously haunting, even profound......a vibrant and uproarious performance."