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Les Ritals tour poster showcasing dates. (Teresa Romano, OMNI news)<\/p>\nThree musicians spanning Italy, Belgium and Canada are touring Quebec with a project that blends languages, styles and lived experiences of migration, turning a once-derogatory term into a reclaimed cultural identity.<\/p>\n
The tour, titled\u00a0Les Ritals, features Rome-born singer-songwriter Giacomo Lariccia, Emilia-Romagna guitarist, composer and producer Don Antonio, and Canadian-Italian artist Marco Calliari. After performances in Belgium and Luxembourg, the group is now travelling across Quebec with dates scheduled in Lac-M\u00e9gantic, Trois-Rivi\u00e8res, Laval, Chelsea, Montreal and Ottawa through June 4.<\/p>\n
Les Ritals tour poster showcasing dates. (Teresa Romano, OMNI news)<\/p>\n
Calliari points to the instruments themselves as part of that cultural blend.<\/p>\n
\u201cGodin Guitars! They are playing on quebecois wood, wood from Canada, that\u2019s always fun!,\u201d said Marco Calliari, singer and songwriter.<\/p>\n
Don Antonio describes the project as rooted in cross-cultural exchange.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanadian wood, task and experience. Italian flavour! ,\u201d said Antonio, guitarist and composer.<\/p>\n
Together, the artists say the collaboration reflects movement across borders while remaining grounded in shared musical identity.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Giacomo Lariccia, Marco Calliari, Don Antonio three Italian musicians in Montreal on May 27, 2026. (Teresa Romano, OMNI news)<\/p>\n
The tour\u2019s name,\u00a0Les Ritals, references a term once used in France, Belgium and Switzerland as a derogatory label for Italian immigrant workers in the early 20th century, often stamped on official documents as \u201cR. ital.\u201d for \u201cR\u00e9fugi\u00e9 Italien.\u201d Over time, the word has been reclaimed in cultural and musical contexts.<\/p>\n
For Lariccia, the project is closely tied to language, heritage and artistic expression.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe power of Italian language and Italian culture and Italian melodies,\u201d said Giacomo Lariccia, singer and songwriter.<\/p>\n
Calliari frames that cultural identity in more emphatic terms.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a superpower. It\u2019s a superpower,\u201d said Calliari.<\/p>\n
The artists say they have been received warmly in Quebec as they continue the tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt very welcome. We still have to discover Montreal,\u201d said Lariccia.<\/p>\n
The project also draws on the legacy of Belgian-Italian singer Claude Barzotti and his 1983 song\u00a0Le Rital, which explored immigration and identity and has since been reclaimed as a point of pride within the Italian diaspora.<\/p>\n
Calliari says their version is meant to expand that legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always loved Le Rital from Claude Barzotti, but this version is, I think, worth pushing and pushing throughout all the world, because this song is also a tribute to immigration, to being proud of being an immigrant,\u201d said Calliari.<\/p>\n
Lariccia says revisiting the song involved stripping away its original era and rediscovering its core emotion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to somehow take out the dress that this song had of the 80s that was very, very heavy on it, and we discovered the melody, beautiful melody and the lyrics that were very, and still are for me very touching. And it was a big pleasure to sing it together with Marco Caliari, of course. We had several nuances and grades of being Italian, what being Italian means today,\u201d said Lariccia.<\/p>\n
Calliari highlights the arrangement as central to the reinterpretation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the arrangement from the Don Antonio was amazing. I don\u2019t think we talked about this, but the arrangement is very western, country western,\u201d said Calliari.<\/p>\n
Don Antonio says the musical structure mirrors the broader immigrant narrative.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe start the song with something that may resemble like an old Italian orchestra taken from an old record, just the accordion, really, it might sound traditional. Then when the groove kicks in, it\u2019s more like a country song, because all of a sudden, the story of one immigrant is the story of every immigrant in the end. And a song about immigrants is a song of every immigrant,\u201d said Antonio.<\/p>\n
\t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n
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