Fiorenza Calogero

Fiorenza Calogero (born July 7, 1978 in Castellammare di Stabia) is an Italian world music singer and actress from Naples, Italy. She has made a significant contribution to the research and popularity of the traditional songs of Southern Italy.

She worked with Roberto De Simone, who engaged her in significant roles in such performances as La Gatta Cenerentola, staged in the gardens of the Palais Royal, Paris; at Sadler's Wells Theatre, London; Festival Grec, Barcelona (1999/2000); and the major Italian theaters (Teatro La Pergola, Florence; Teatro Bonci, Cesena; Piccolo Teatro, Milan; Arena del Sole, Bologna, Teatro Valli, Reggio Emilia), Lo Vommaro a duello (2008), a production of the Teatro di San Carlo for the "Napoli Teatro Festival" Italia. The concert performance of Li Turchi Viaggiano by De Simone, toured Argentina in 2001 (Teatro Coliseo, Buenos Aires, Gran Teatro de Cordoba, El Circulo Theater, Rosario; Teatro Apolo, Mar del Plata, Teatro Municipal, Bahia Blanca; Teatro del Bicentenario, San Juan) as well as Uruguay (Theatre Star of Italy, Montevideo). Fiorenza's vocal repertoire includes neapolitan songs, various jazz forms, and many Mediterranean influences.

In 2001 she won the Prix Saint Vincent with the classic song Indifferentemente. In 2007 she presented her Neapolitan songbook at "Columbus Day". In 2008, the journalist-musicologist Pietro Gargano devoted to her two pages in his Encyclopedia of classic Neapolitan song (Edizioni Magmata). Her interpretations of the neapolitan classics are preserved in the sound archives of the Rai radio-station and in 2009 she received the "Naples in the World Award" in Ravello (Italy).

In 2007 Fiorenza made the first album Fioreincanto, a collection of classic songs in the Neapolitan language on the IMAIE label. Her second album, Fiorenza, was released in 2009 by the Dutch CNR Music label. This disc presents, in alternation, classic and unpublished traditional melodies with incursions into pop-opera, in duo with the tenor Vittorio Grigolo.

Subsequently she toured with Alessandro Safina the main Dutch theaters (Vedrenburg Tivoli, Utrecht; Theater aan de Parade, Den Bosch; Muziekgebouw, Eindowen; Luxor Theater, Rotterdam). She performed in "Winter Classics" at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam (2009), "The Night of the Voice" at the Theater Schouwburg Almere (2010), "Beautiful Italy" at Chasse Theater Breda (2010) in collaboration with the Dutch baritone Ernst Daniël Smid (nl).

Concurrently she collaborated with l'Accademia Mandolinistica Napoletana, with which she gave concerts in Rome, Warsaw, Crakow, Paris, London, Berlin and Luxembourg; as well as with the Lost Sound Orchestra, which widened her knowledge of early instruments (House of Music, Parma 2009; Palazzo European Union, Madrid 2010); she performed with Bruno Garofalo at the Teatro Poliorama Barcelona in the Napoli nella tempesta concert, featuring Eduardo De Filippo's adaptation of the sonnets by William Shakespeare (2008).

Several other significant points in her career should be mentioned as well: Sentieri Mediterranei, the festival of classical and world music in Summonte (Avellino) from 2003 to 2015; Premio Carosone, Teatro Politeama - Napoli (2008); Rassegna OrtoVolante (2012 and 2013), Real Orto Botanico - Napoli; Intricanti Festival (Sant’Agata sui due golfi 2013); Festival Anime Verso (Morigerati 2013); Adriatico Mediterraneo Festival (Ancona 2014); Ventotene Classic Festival (Ventotene 2014); Musica Antica in Valcomino (San Donato in Val Comino 2014).

In 2009, she contributed with her performance of the Canto delle lavandaie del Vomero (one of the oldest of Neapolitan songs, dating from the thirteenth century) to the film Passione directed by John Turturro, presented out of competition at the Venice Film Festival.

In 2011, the label Edel published the third album Sotto il Vestito... Napoli, accompanied by jazz pianist Lorenzo Hengeller.

Among her most important stage collaborations that should be mentioned here are those with Cristina Branco, Amal Murkus, Urna, and Pino De Vittorio. She participated, with the singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/composer Enzo Avitabile, in the biopic Enzo Avitabile Music Life (2011), directed by the Oscar winner Jonathan Demme, in the scene Anola Tranola with the Malian musician Toumani Diabate. The film was presented out of competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2013.

She was the soloist at the concert for the "La Repubblica delle idee" initiative in Naples in 2014.

Enzo Avitabile is also the author of the songs from her newest album, entitled Nun tardare sole (2015). The song "Tre Fronne e tre ciure", one of the most intense of the disc, was presented at Epiphany Concert at the Teatro Mediterraneo in Naples in January 2015, and broadcast on RAI 1.

Her husband is Marcello Vitale, a noted chitarra battente virtuoso.

Ernst Daniël Smid, Vittorio Grigolo, Alessandro Safina, Antonio Sinagra, Rino Zurzolo, Roberto Pregadio, Bruno Biriaco, Adriano Pennino, Peppe Vessicchio, Enzo Gragnianiello, Eugenio Bennato, Lino Cannavacciuolo, Enzo Avitabile, Cristina Branco, Toumani Diabate, Amal Murkus, Urna, Pino De Vittorio.

As soloist

• 2007 - Fioreincanto (IMAIE)
• 2009 - Fiorenza (CNR Music)
• 2011 - Sotto il Vestito... Napoli (Edel), featuring pianist Lorenzo Hengeller
• 2016 - Nun Tardare Sole (Black Tarantella/iCompany s.r.l.), featuring Enzo Avitabile, Marcello Vitale, Carlos Pinana, Pino De Vittorio, Cristina Branco, Urna

Guest appearances

• 2005 - Le terre del fuoco by Vito Mercurio (Note Di Merito)
• 2007/2008/2009 - Rosa Napoletano (vol. I, II, III) by Renato Salvetti (Rogiosi)
• 2010 - Passione: Un Avventura Musicale (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
• 2011 - Onde di terra by Peppe Sannino (Obliqua)

• "Fiorenza Calogero, Daniela Fiorentino, Lorena Tamaggio". hmvdigital.com. 
• Super User. "Note Di Merito Edizioni". notedimerito.it. 
• "Rosa napoletano III / a cura di Renato Salvetti". provincia.tn.it. 
• "Passione: Un'Avventura Musicale - Original Soundtrack - Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards - AllMusic". AllMusic. 
• Administrator. "Peppe Sannino "Onde di terra" (Obliqua 2011, distribuzione Tre Lune Records) di Fabrizio Ciccarelli". romainjazz.it. 

• 1999/2000 - "La Gatta Cenerentola", directed by Roberto De Simone
• 2000 - "L´Opera buffa del Giovedì santo", directed by Roberto De Simone
• 2000 - "Li Turchi viaggiano" (2000), directed by Roberto De Simone
• 2001 - "Dedicato a Giulia De Caro", directed by Roberto De Simone
• 2002 - "Omaggio a Giordano Bruno", directed by Roberto De Simone
• 2003 - "Sacro e pagano", directed by Pasquale dello Monaco
• 2004 - "´Na sceneggiata", directed by Antonio Calenda
• 2005 - "Napoli nella tempesta", directed by Bruno Garofalo
• 2005 - "Voci di terre lontane", directed by Karima Angiolina Campanelli
• 2006 - "Mettetevi comodi", directed by Gino Rivieccio
• 2006 - "Era la festa di San Gennaro", directed by Giacomo Rizzo
• 2006 - "Mal'aria", directed by Bruno Garofalo, choreography by Franco Miseria
• 2007 - "Signori si nasce", directed by Gaetano Liguori, with Rino Marcelli
• 2007 - "Io speriamo che me la cavo", with Maurizio Casagrande
• 2007 - "Balli di Sfessania", directed by Bruno Garofalo, with Mariano Rigillo
• 2008 - "Lo Vommero a duello", directed by Roberto De Simone
• 2009 - "Quanno ce vo´ ce vo´", directed by Gino Rivieccio
• 2009 - "Padroni di barche" by Raffaele Viviani, directed by Armando Pugliese
• 2009 - "Senza impegno", directed by Maurizo Casagrande
• 2010 - "Uomo e galantuomo" by Eduardo De Filippo, with Francesco Paolantoni, directed by Armando Pugliese
• 2011 - "La pazienza differenziata", directed by Gino Rivieccio
• 2011 - "Napoli chi resta e chi parte", directed by Armando Pugliese
• 2012/2013/2014 - "Baccalà" by Eduardo De Filippo, directed by Enzo Attanasio
• 2015 - "Io e Napoli", directed by Gino Rivieccio

• 2010 - Passione, directed by John Turturro
• 2013 - Enzo Avitabile Music Life, directed by Jonathan Demme

• Mo-Net s.r.l. Milano-Firenze. "Enzo Avitabile Music Life". mymovies.it. 

• 2015 - Concerto per l'Epifania, Rai Uno

• "Concerto dell'Epifania tra fado, rap, classici e il sax di Avitabile". Archivio - la Repubblica.it. 

• 2007/2008/2009 - Festival Migrazioni Sonore - Montefalcione (Avellino, Italy)
• 2014 - Napoli Dea Madre, Forum Universale delle Culture - Napoli

• http://www.irpiniaoggi.it/index.php/cultura-ed-eventi-irpinia/17-appuntamenti/19086-montefalcionedal-24-agosto-qper-le-vie-del-borgoq.pdf
• "Napoli Dea Madre - Napoli - il Tacco di Bacco". iltaccodibacco.it. 
• "Forum Universale delle Culture Napoli e Campania". forumculture.org. 

• 2008 - The journalist-musicologist Pietro Gargano devoted to her two pages in his Encyclopedia of classic Neapolitan song (Edizioni Magmata)
• 2009 - Naples in the World Award - Ravello (Italy)