Extraordinary voices resurfacing from the past of the Balkans to engage with the music of the present
At the foot of Latemar, with an extraordinary view of the Pale di San Martino and the entire Lagorai mountain range, the Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices will be charged with even stronger emotions than those we’ve come to know by listening to their albums or their contribution to recordings by renowned artists such as Kate Bush, Paul Simon, and Elio e le Storie Tese.
According to an ancient legend – writes Giuseppe D’Amato – when God distributed the lands among the peoples, He granted the Bulgarians a small corner of Paradise, a wild and untouched nature, where women were trained in singing so strictly that, over the centuries, they preserved the sound produced by Orpheus’ lyre. This is what today’s female choir, Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, brings back to life.
Originally a choir composed of singers discovered in the early 1950s in rural villages, lacking formal musical education, but with exceptional vocal talents, ready to be shaped by their masters to perform ancient, mystical, and arcane repertoires from across the Danube region and even the Mediterranean.
It was Peter Murphy, lead singer of the unforgettable Bauhaus, who “rediscovered” them in the mid-1980s. He submitted a demo tape to the English 4AD record label, known for its openness to experimentation. Ivo, the label’s head, later said that when he listened to it, his knees buckled with emotion.
4AD then reissued Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, an album recorded in 1975 with Swiss musicologist Marcel Cellier. The reception was phenomenal: no non-English-speaking vocal group had ever sold 100,000 copies in the UK and 500,000 in the United States. And the rest is history.
Today, it is our knees that will prepare to buckle, when, in the Fiemme Valley, at the foot of the Dolomites, the Bulgarian Voices will make their voices heard.
Location: Tresca (2,154 m)
How to get there:
From Pampeago take the Agnello chairlift, then walk along trail 509.
20 minutes of walking, elevation gain of 30 meters, difficulty: E (easy)
Hike with Alpine Guides of Trentino at €15.00 per person (free for children under 8).
20% discount for holders of the Trentino Guest Card and Fiemme Cembra Guest Card.
Reservation required through ApT Val di Fiemme at 0462 241111 or by clicking here, by 12 PM on the day before the hike.
Limited spots available for the hike.
Weather contingency:
If the weather is bad, the event will be moved to 5:30 PM at Palafiemme, Cavalese.
Photo credits: Trentino Marketing-Alessandro Polla
