Three musicians spanning Italy, Belgium and Canada are touring Quebec with a undertaking that blends languages, types and lived experiences of migration, turning a once-derogatory time period right into a reclaimed cultural identification.
The tour, titled Les Ritals, options Rome-born singer-songwriter Giacomo Lariccia, Emilia-Romagna guitarist, composer and producer Don Antonio, and Canadian-Italian artist Marco Calliari. After performances in Belgium and Luxembourg, the group is now travelling throughout Quebec with dates scheduled in Lac-Mégantic, Trois-Rivières, Laval, Chelsea, Montreal and Ottawa by June 4.
Calliari factors to the devices themselves as a part of that cultural mix.
“Godin Guitars! They’re enjoying on quebecois wooden, wooden from Canada, that’s all the time enjoyable!,” mentioned Marco Calliari, singer and songwriter.
Don Antonio describes the undertaking as rooted in cross-cultural alternate.
“Canadian wooden. Tuscan expertise. Italian flavour! ” mentioned Antonio, guitarist and composer.
Collectively, the artists say the collaboration displays motion throughout borders whereas remaining grounded in shared musical identification.
Giacomo Lariccia, Marco Calliari, Don Antonio three Italian musicians in Montreal on Could 27, 2026. (Teresa Romano, OMNI information)
The tour’s title, Les Ritals, references a time period as soon as utilized in France, Belgium and Switzerland as a derogatory label for Italian immigrant employees within the early twentieth century, usually stamped on official paperwork as “R. ital.” for “Réfugié Italien.” Over time, the phrase has been reclaimed in cultural and musical contexts.
For Lariccia, the undertaking is intently tied to language, heritage and creative expression.
“The ability of Italian language and Italian tradition and Italian melodies,” mentioned Giacomo Lariccia, singer and songwriter.
Calliari frames that cultural identification in additional emphatic phrases.
“It’s a superpower. It’s a superpower,” mentioned Calliari.
The artists say they’ve been acquired warmly in Quebec as they proceed the tour.
“We felt very welcome. We nonetheless have to find Montreal,” mentioned Lariccia.
The undertaking additionally attracts on the legacy of Belgian-Italian singer Claude Barzotti and his 1983 tune Le Rital, which explored immigration and identification and has since been reclaimed as a degree of delight throughout the Italian diaspora.
Calliari says their model is supposed to broaden that legacy.
“I all the time liked Le Rital from Claude Barzotti, however this model is, I believe, value pushing and pushing all through all of the world, as a result of this tune can also be a tribute to immigration, to being pleased with being an immigrant,” mentioned Calliari.
Lariccia says revisiting the tune concerned stripping away its unique period and rediscovering its core emotion.
“We needed to one way or the other take out the gown that this tune had of the 80s that was very, very heavy on it, and we found the melody, lovely melody and the lyrics that had been very, and nonetheless are for me very touching. And it was a giant pleasure to sing it along with Marco Caliari, after all. We had a number of nuances and grades of being Italian, what being Italian means right this moment,” mentioned Lariccia.
Calliari highlights the association as central to the reinterpretation.
“And the association from the Don Antonio was wonderful. I don’t suppose we talked about this, however the association could be very western, nation western,” mentioned Calliari.
Don Antonio says the musical construction mirrors the broader immigrant narrative.
“We begin the tune with one thing which will resemble like an previous Italian orchestra taken from an previous report, simply the accordion, actually, it would sound conventional. Then when the groove kicks in, it’s extra like a rustic tune, as a result of rapidly, the story of 1 immigrant is the story of each immigrant in the long run. And a tune about immigrants is a tune of each immigrant,” mentioned Antonio.
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