Emigrant

Chanter sa langue

Carnia is the mountainous area of Friuli, a region in northern Italy just above Venice, in the province of Udine. The first time Nadia saw the native land of her father, there was nothing there, just a vast desolation. An earthquake had struck, and her father had taken her and her sister to see their grand-parents for the first time since their return to Italy, after a life as immigrants in Switzerland. She was just at the end of childhood. That evening, the choir of Ovaro, her father’s village, came out to sing. Everything had been destroyed, but in the midst of the ruins they sang.

The daughter and grand-daughter of immigrants, Nadia Fabrizio often introduces herself as an actor who sings, because her art is about stories, short fables and sung texts that are intimate, timeless and universal. They testify each in their own way to emigration, to becoming severed from one’s roots. They speak also of all those, the women and children, who remained behind in the old country. She sings with that which lies within her that remains unalterably attached to this valley, to these mountains, to her "popolo duro".

Texts Giorgo Ferigo
Based on music by Povolar Ensemble

Concept, narration and songs Nadia Fabrizio

Accordion Maryll Abbas
Guitar Leonardo Sanchez
Bass Patrice Caratini
Lighting Christophe Pitoiset

In Friulian with overhead subtitles