The new record for Parco della Musica Records, byOPI – Orchestra Popolare Italiana – conducted by Ambrogio Sparagna, was recorded on January 5, 2019, at the traditional ChiaraStella concert. In this twelfth edition of the event, the Fondazione Musica per Roma took up the invitation of the Caritas Diocesana di Roma to participate in the solidarity campaign “Come in cielo così in strada,” enriching the traditional performance in Sala Sinopoli with the presence of some guests from various geographical and social realities that currently characterize street life in the capital.
Participating in this original production dedicated to ethnographic research and folk music, along with OPI musicians and about 100 choristers from the Folk Choir, were Carlos Paz, Ecuadorean singer and multi-instrumentalist, Petre Nicolae, Mitika Nicolae and Florin Preda, a trio of extraordinary musicians of Roma culture who bring to life the tightrope walker Taraf de Metropolitana, a group very active in Rome; Ousmane Coulibaly and Mahamadou Mbaye El Hadji, a duo composed of voice, kora and percussion from Burkina Faso and Senegal.
Enriched by the strength of the encounter of different musical cultures and an intense new vitality, the performance maintained the original spirit that characterizes the traditional repertoire of songs dedicated to the mystery of the Birth and the joy of life, with which this great event has continued to characterize the Christmas calendar at the Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone for decades.