Massimiliano Morabito

What makes pizzica really, really fascinating and interesting is, is that it was a part of the healing ritual of tarantismo, tarantism, which was, uh, this phenomenon born from the belief that when you get bitten by this legendary spider called the taranta, then you could fall down in a state of deep suffering, and then the only way you had to heal, to be well again, was by going through a complex ritual made not only by music and dance, but also other elements such as, uh, colors, smells, uh, um, water, ropes, mirrors, uh, symbols.

This is Massimiliano Morabito, an ethnomusicologist who studies pizzica and tarantism.

He is also a member of Mauro's band, Cantanieri Grecanico Salentino.

When we spoke with him, he was joined by translator Cristina Marras.