Gruppo Folk Bergamo ‎– Paciana Story - Opera Pop (1975, LP, Italy)

Tracks:
01. Ballata — 3:22
02. Tema Conduttore — 3:10
03. A L’E’ Sira — 2:36
04. Tema D’Amore — 3:22
05. Alla Moda — 2:58
06. Licenziamento — 2:14
07. Rapimento — 3:38
08. La Me Murusa Ègia — 1:35
09. Confronto — 3:20
10. Salto Dal Ponte — 5:02

Personnel:
Raffaella Cattaneo — female vocals
Aronne Cereda — guitar, vocals
Mario Marcaletti — bass, vocals
Temistocle Reduzzi — piano, keyboards
Ferdinando Ghisleni — saxophone, clarinet
Callisto Callioni — trumpet
Claudio Caio — drums

Paciana story was a mid-70's Italian project, following an idea of Dalton's keyboardist Temistocle Reduzzi and journalist Luciano Capoferri to musically perform the story of Vincenzo ''Paci'' Paciana, a mythical figure of Bergamo during the 18th century, who was the Robin Hood of the area, stealing from rich and giving the poor, unti he died falling from a bridge in the Brembo river, chased by the police.The studio project featured five additional musicians/singers, among them Dalton's guitarist Aronne Cereda and the album ''Opera Pop'' was recorded in 1975 at the recording studio I Raminghi's bassist Franco Mussita.

This is very delicate and romantic Folk Rock with plenty of acoustic textures and a few proggy overtones, while Reduzzi always supports the music with his synths, electric and acoustic piano.Lots of male and female vocals present the thrilling bio of Paci Paciana in some very good vocal arrangements with warm singing. The music, while remaining fairly soft throughout, has an inner atmospheric content, mainly due to Reduzzi's symphonic keyboards and jazzy electric piano, while half of them contain the smooth electric guitar touch of Cereda or even some ethnic vibes through the sax and clarinet of Ferdinando Ghisleni. Of course the main driving forces remain the folky textures and the album has a strong singer/songwriter feel as a whole, but Reduzzi's obsession to constantly use his keys adds always a light proggy feeling. A couple of tracks are also close to DALTON's sound like the excellent closer ''Salto dal ponte'' or the keyboard-drenched ''Tema condutore''.

Paciana story toured the theaters for some years, featuring over a dozen of musicians and actors in a very good Folk/Pop/Prog opera, that definitely should have been a great experience if caught live. Recommended to all fans of light Progressive Rock, Folk Rock or melodic Italian Prog.