Concert

The Coro delle mondine di Bentivoglio (Choir of the Bentivoglio rice weeders) was born in the early 1970s out of research on women’s work in the rice paddies carried out by the teacher Liliana Zagni with her pupils: four former mondine — Renata, Dorina, Iside and Gemma — decided to form a choir to keep their memories alive.

In the paddies people sang to ease the toil: their songs tell of the work, the struggles and the rebellious spirit of the mondine, and with it a working-class and women’s memory that still speaks to the present. Active until 1987 and reformed in 2000, the choir recorded the albums Pugni di riso (2006) and Con l’acqua alle ginocchia (2010).