Three 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.
The tour, titled Les 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-Mégantic, Trois-Rivières, Laval, Chelsea, Montreal and Ottawa through June 4.
Calliari points to the instruments themselves as part of that cultural blend.
“Godin Guitars! They are playing on quebecois wood, wood from Canada, that’s always fun!,” said Marco Calliari, singer and songwriter.
Don Antonio describes the project as rooted in cross-cultural exchange.
“Canadian wood, task and experience. Italian flavour! ,” said Antonio, guitarist and composer.
Together, the artists say the collaboration reflects movement across borders while remaining grounded in shared musical identity.
The tour’s name, Les 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 “R. ital.” for “Réfugié Italien.” Over time, the word has been reclaimed in cultural and musical contexts.
For Lariccia, the project is closely tied to language, heritage and artistic expression.
“The power of Italian language and Italian culture and Italian melodies,” said Giacomo Lariccia, singer and songwriter.
Calliari frames that cultural identity in more emphatic terms.
“It’s a superpower. It’s a superpower,” said Calliari.
The artists say they have been received warmly in Quebec as they continue the tour.
“We felt very welcome. We still have to discover Montreal,” said Lariccia.
The project also draws on the legacy of Belgian-Italian singer Claude Barzotti and his 1983 song Le Rital, which explored immigration and identity and has since been reclaimed as a point of pride within the Italian diaspora.
Calliari says their version is meant to expand that legacy.
“I 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,” said Calliari.
Lariccia says revisiting the song involved stripping away its original era and rediscovering its core emotion.
“We 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,” said Lariccia.
Calliari highlights the arrangement as central to the reinterpretation.
“And the arrangement from the Don Antonio was amazing. I don’t think we talked about this, but the arrangement is very western, country western,” said Calliari.
Don Antonio says the musical structure mirrors the broader immigrant narrative.
“We 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’s 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,” said Antonio.
