"Zonacalda" is the literal translation for the biological/clinical words "Hot Zone", meaning "deadly infectious area". This work is about an inner journey, with a person infected with AIDS. "Zonacalda" talks about his personal trouble, psychological as well as physical. In the recitatives the actress Federica Santoro personifies the ill and in the aria the same role is committed to the baritone voice of Roberto Abbondanza. The texts of John Keats (1795 - 1821), Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749 - 1832) and Tito Lucrezio Caro (I sec. a.C.) were chosen and adapted by Francesco Antinucci for the three arias sung by Roberto Abbondanza.
The first arias’s lyrics (from Keats’ "Ode on a Grecian Urn") express concerns about art and the soft and sweet life soon to disappear; in the second aria (from Goethe’s "Faust"), there is all the anguish for the near future and the refusal for science, which seems not to be able to defend the man; in the third aria (from Lucrezio’s "De Rerum Natura"), we see the last period of the character’s life, with a final acceptance of suffering and, eventually, death.

Castellano’s music expresses itself in two distinct "voices" (instrumental and compositive), followed by two different approaches to the text. A personnel of exceptional musicians performs in a gifted vein: Roberto ABBONDANZA  baritonal voice; Federica SANTORO actress; Paolo FRESU trumpet; Diego CONTI  violin;Fabrizio SPERA percussions; Luca VENITUCCI keyboards, piano, melodica; Pierluigi CASTELLANO: keyboards, piano, computer orchestration, director and, special guest, Alvin CURRAN piano, shofar.

In few words, a formidable "opera", in strength and beauty.