I HAVE SEEN HER

I HAVE SEEN HER

I saw her win it …

And “it” is the BB Global Force award presented by Billboard magazine during the BB Women in music ceremony. 

Global Force as an award given in recognition of a woman in the music industry who has made a significant contribution to the business and who, through her work and continued success, inspires generations of women to take on increasing responsibilities in the field.

The Women in music event celebrates women at the forefront of all fields of music from composers and songwriters to educators and all other music professions.

I saw her …

She needs no introduction: Annalisa, @nali is Global Force.

I did not follow her debut, and the first time I heard of her was in the measure of “good but second best.”

Until during a play organised by the middle school my son attends, a pupil struck me by singing about a blue cat

I then went to research and discovered that the song was by Annalisa.

Annalisa who for all these years has continued undaunted to be “good, but in second place”.

And yet there is not a person who does not know her ‘I saw her …’.

Despite having my radio perpetually on the frequency of Virgin, a radio that only plays rock music, without really knowing how or why, I have found the refrain of Mon amour in my head.

And ‘I saw her…’ has officially become part of my way of speaking: when I find myself describing something mixed, tangled, entangled.

Physics graduate Annalisa Scarrone, Nali, teaches us how to chase dreams and show the world the Global Force.

Did you see her win?

I dedicate this photo to Tony: ultimate Katy Perry connoisseur.

VIGEVANO BIENNIAL

VIGEVANO BIENNIAL

Vigevano Biennial: the very moment I saw the first video introducing it, I felt a great sense of gratitude.

Arianna Forni, the creator and curator of this artistic and cultural project, during the last interview explains that she was inspired while visiting an artist’s exhibition in Vigevano, and fell in love with the Sforza Castle after about 45 seconds.

I want to point out this not so much with pride, but to remind those who, like me, live there and sometimes do not consider its value that much.

Who is Arianna Forni? Her bio is very rich, but among the many things I like to mention in particular her blog: The Greatest Coat.

On her home page, you can also find R.E.M.‘s  Loosing my religion and to me this a sign.

Music aside, Arianna with her words takes us on an artistic journey through art and with art

Alongside Arianna Forni, artistic director of all the side events: musical and otherwise, an artist capable of embodying the perfect fusion of music and painting: Andrea Fumagalli, Andy

The Vigevano Biennial has the patronage of the Municipality of Vigevano and 

of the District of Pavia 

and will be held from

8 April to 31 May, so be warned.

In the meantime, I suggest you not to miss the artists’ presentations on the Biennale Vigevano whispers of arts social pages. 

AFMetastrategy produces a crescendo of stories containing calls for artists, calls for partners, calls for endorsement and presentations of all the artists who will participate.

Truly the Castello Sforzesco and the Piazza Ducale are the place where step by step the dream becomes reality, or rather, turns into Art.

aTUTTOCUORE

aTUTTOCUORE

aTUTTOCUORE with all my heart I would like to thank my brother and sister-in-law because after Twelve Notes again this year my birthday present was a wonderful experience.

A musical experience but also a visual and sensorial one, because at every concert Claudio Baglioni manages to amaze with different versions while remaining true to himself.

After the debut in Pesaro, the indoor version of aTUTTOCUORE started at the Mediolanum Forum in MILAN on 20, 21 and 22 January and will continue on 5 and 6 February.

A show that you shouldn’t miss.

aTUTTOCUORE opens with E tu come stai? And it is just as if Claudio wanted to pick up the thread of the conversation with his fans: like a long public dialogue but at the same time intimate because of the way he gives himself.

This is followed by Dagli il via… and of course ‘the start’ is only the beginning of a long sequence of surprises.

Then Acqua dalla luna … hurry audience … you will see …

you will see the wonder created by the perfect combination of costumes by and choreography by Veronica Peparini directed by Giuliano Peparini.

I will continue with the set list:
Con tutto l’amore che posso and Quante volte featured by Claudio Baglioni’s funny dance moves and by the powerful peculiarity of this show: the images on the maxi-screens blending with the play of light and the evolutions of all the artists up and down the stairs of the stage set create an enthralling three-dimensionality

Then Un po di piu’
Gli anni più belli
Domani mai
Quanto ti voglio
Fammi andar via
Niente più
E adesso la pubblicità
A tutto cuore.

Claudio puts his heart into everything, in the sense of energy, in the sense of wanting to make music at its best, using his heart which, as he said in an interview, can also be considered a percussion instrument, as well as the calendar that marks our time.

And more: Mal d’amore
W l’Inghilterra
Sono io
Cuore D’Aliante
Uomo di varie età
Le ragazze dell’est
Uomini persi
Noi no
Amori in corso
Un nuovo giorno un giorno nuovo
Con voi

and with us Claudio sang illuminating the audience with multidirectional and totally inclusive beams of light.

Unmissable Questo piccolo grande amore
Dodici note
Io sono qui
Amore bello
Solo
Sabato pomeriggio
Porta portese
in a current version enriched with a riot of cheerful playfulness.

Avrai
Io me ne andrei
That masterpiece of Mille giorni di me e di te
My favourite for ‘the hair-raising coffee Via

E tu
Strada facendo
La vita è adesso
and concluding with the music of Poster.

At that point, instead of going far away, you just want to stay so as not to interrupt the magic, but on the screen the faces of the countless musicians, choristers, dancers, artists and performers scroll by.

One above all is the dancer Antonio Ciarciello, chosen after an epic casting, given the number of candidates, who all the time dances as a sort of alter ego.

What do you say? The set list is quite long, yet there are always a few songs missing from the poems in music that Claudio has written.

As many as there are songs, as many are the jackets that Claudio Baglioni has worn: a different one for each song, without ever a moment’s interruption, in a constant succession.

Also incessant is the kaleidoscope of images, futuristic and current, as well as evocative and suggestive by light designer Ivan Pierri

Paolo Gianolio, who has collaborated uninterruptedly with Claudio Baglioni since the 1985 album La vita è adesso.

Many years have passed since then, and yet … La vita è adesso: life is now … is it?

Which is your favourite?

THERE IS STILL TOMORROW.

THERE IS STILL TOMORROW.

There is still tomorrow which sees the directorial debut of Paola Cortellesi is the film that won the Audience Award, Special Jury Prize and Mention as Best First Work at the Rome Film Festival

Paola Cortellesi doesn’t need to be introduced, I always remember one of her gags in which she ironically listed all the things she has done, which are really so many and very different from each other, but which have the same feature in common: they are all done well.

I thank Elisa and her proposal: we went to the movies together fearing that we would have to use tissues to wipe tears and instead we mostly surprised ourselves.

The Friends.
In the movie: Delia and Marisa.

Emotion, however, was not lacking.

I, for one, was moved by the portrayal of a mother’s love for her daughter, who is played by Romana Maggiora Vergano in the film.

A love above all things, a love for which nothing is impossible, a pure and unwavering love.

Fragility and strength in a maelstrom of endurance and determination in which the ability to carry the crushing weight of a long interminable series of verbal and physical injustices and bullying, is catalyzed in the resolute will to seek a better destiny for Marcella.

Mother and daughter.

A crushed mother and a model daughter who does not understand Delia’s submission.

Succumbing and resisting at the same time, in a dance that is broken melody, is rock, is hip hop rap, is retro.

Marcella does not understand, but she will.

Marcella will look at her mother Delia and see the affirmation of a seemingly simple but extremely important gesture as a right, as a beginning.

Every change has a beginning.

There is still tomorrow represents “the music that changes” in a literal sense: I cannot fail to mention the repertoire songs from the soundtrack:
Aprite le finestre Fiorella Bini
Nessuno Naked Music
Perdoniamoci Achille Togliani
A bocca chiusa Daniele Silvestri
M’innamoro davvero Fabio Concato
La notte dei miracoli Lucio Dalla
Calvin The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
B.O.B. – Bombs Over Baghdad Outkast
The little things Big Gigantic featuring Angela McCluskey
Swinging on the right side Lorenzo Maffia and Alessandro La Corte
Tu sei il mio grande amor Lorenzo Maffia, Alessandro La Corte and Enrico Rispoli.

Surprising, isn’t it?

Surprising as what you don’t expect from There is still tomorrow: the ending.

Indeed, in my heart I hoped that Delia’s project would not be the obvious one, but at the same time I would not have guessed an epilogue like the one with which Paola Cortellesi invites everyone to a beautiful reflection.

Light yet explosive, simple yet disruptive, just like Delia, just like Paola.

Yes because Delia is Paola, she is Marcella, and she is our grandmother.

Delia is so many lives of giving up, Delia is so many years of suffering.

Like nothing at all.

MADRIGAL WITHOUT SOUND

MADRIGAL WITHOUT SOUND

Madrigal Without Sound is the book recommended by Monica to help me dealing with a period of history that is actually not in my league.

Published by Bollati Boringhieri, Madrigal without sound won the 2019 Campiello Prize.

About the author: Andrea Tarabbia has a WordPress blog and I was struck by the header image: a photograph of the entrance to apartment No. 50 on Sadovaja Street, Moscow, taken in the year 2000.

Actually, given the particular construction I should speak of authors because if the Madrigal is soundless, the book on the other hand has multiple voices.

Three different visions take the reader to look at the soul of Carlo Gesualdo, known as Gesualdo da Venosa, famous for being an excellent madrigalist, but also a bloody uxoricide.

Igor Stravinsky, Glenn Watkins, and Gioachino Ardytti.

Igor Stravinsky certainly needs no introduction.

Glenn Watkins is defined as the greatest expert of Gesualdo da Venosa.

Finally, I would define Gioachino Ardytti as the embodiment of the legends around the life of Carlo Gesualdo.

The exchange between Watkins and Stravinskji is epistolary, you know how much I love letters

And it is a prelude to what will happen in Venice in 1960: Monumentum pro Gesualdo da Venosa ad CD annum.

 

 

On the other hand, Andrea Tarabbia ascribes to Gioachino a manuscript narrating the life of Carlo Gesualdo down to the dark details of evil reported in a manner as ruthless as it is functional in portraying the character perhaps with the same criterion of repentance that he intended by extruding it in the famous Pala del Perdono.

 

Franco Battiato also dedicated a song that invites reflection on morality and the actions of men.

The madrigals of Gesualdo, prince of Venosa
Musician murderer of the bride
What does it matter?
He strikes his note
Sweet as a rose.

Strong words indeed.

Carlo Gesualdo’s bride: Maria D’Avalos, was slaughtered at Palazzo San Severo, where they lived, and various legends have been passed down about her ever since.

Certainly Maria remains a constant presence in the narrative of Gesualdo da Venosa’s life, in a sort of seesaw between alter egos and a mixture of good and evil.

I rather like to quote you this sentence from the book:
I think that music is the bride of words, and that every word is a box where all pain, and joy, and life are contained. With sounds we can explode this box, give it more pain, more joy, more life than it already has.

 

I find this to be very true: music for me can amplify states of mind.

What do you think?

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