An evening of Neapolitan and Spanish songs at BELEF on August 13 - a repertoire created before microphones, played without them

An evening of Neapolitan and Spanish songs takes place on August 13 at the Residence of Princess Ljubica in Belgrade, as part of the thirty-third BELEF. The ticket is 500 dinars through tickets.rs, and the start is at 8.30 pm.

The programme brings together the two Mediterranean traditions that most shaped European vocal music outside the opera stage. The Neapolitan song, canzone napoletana, is the repertoire that gave us O sole mio, Torna a Surriento and Funiculì funiculà - pieces everyone still knows a hundred years on. The Spanish side brings copla and classical song, more traditional and more tied to the guitar.

The Residence is a nineteenth-century house in the old part of Belgrade, built for the wife of Prince Miloš Obrenović and today a museum. The summer festival programme there is intimate, with a small number of chairs and no large PA. For vocal repertoire of this kind, created before microphones, that is close to the ideal setting.

BELEF, the Belgrade Summer Festival, runs this year from June 20 to September 22 and has over forty programmes at several locations. It opened with the musical Cigani lete u nebo by the Terazije Theatre at Sava Centar, and part of the programme is free entry.

The 500-dinar price is around 260 denars. Sales go through tickets.rs.