But what music, maestro! The journey of life and the music of the sea
“Sailing is also a means of retracing history, of going
in search of our origins, to understand where we come from and who
we are, in the hope of understanding where we are going. To have been
it is a condition of being.”
In search of Roman ports. Sailing along an ancient route, the latest novel by Roberto Soldatini, it is beautiful, a unique and engaging work, capable of warming the heart and refreshing the mind.
Sailing along the routes of the ancient Romans, docking in the ports that were once the sea route between Rome and Gaul, is the ultimate feat of Toy soldiers, conductor who, for 7 years, decided to live on a sailing boat in the company of a cello, “Streets”.
Author of books and composer, Soldatini tells us about the life and travels of the people who, over the years, have owned the boat, told from an alternative point of view, from the same boat, called Denecia and told in the previous novel.
“Streets”, a three hundred year old cello sometimes attributed to Stradivari and sometimes not, accompanies his story with “the music of the sea”
“Every year, for insurance reasons, an appraisal is carried out on the instrument – says the author – and depending on the expert, the cello is attributed to the master luthier himself, to his apprentices or not. For me he always remains my favorite travel companion, with whom I can sing melodies at sunset on my boat, while I am traveling or in port”.
Of travel Toy soldierswho obtained his boating license seven years ago, when he sold the house to buy Deneciahe has done so many, as he himself tells us:
“I have traveled about 25,000 miles so far, mostly in the eastern Mediterranean. I love Greece and its people, the care they take of their environment. They have retained the ability to maintain beauty. From the Renaissance onwards, depending on the era, we have not been able to preserve the integrity of some historic centers or marine ports while for them it is fundamental. An example above all is an elderly lady, in a small Greek village, who one day took a bucket and brush and covered a small stain on the facade of her house with white. She couldn’t bear that, even if it was small, that stain ruined the appearance of the house.”
This year Soldatini is retracing theItinerarium maritimum Antonini, the same route that the Roman consul Rutilio Namaziano took, when, to escape the invasions of the capital, he returned to Gaul, his homeland,
The author explains further: “It is interesting to observe the changes that have taken place and what instead is just an evolution of what was – explains the maestro – food for thought for the fourth book that I would like to write. In this case I will be the narrator but I believe there will also be room for the consul Rutilio, a good imaginary traveling companion”.
The sea is the main setting, in the books and in the life of the writer: “Living on a boat shows you the meaning of freedom. You return to the essentials, freeing yourself from the frills that weigh down life. Nature is three steps away, from below deck or from the waves, where you find the most beautiful garden in the world, a sea enclosed between the coasts and the islands”.
Thus, between one travel anecdote and another, the author does not forget to thank those who allowed his dream to come true, his traveling companions and the authorities, the Port Authority.
Those who, like myself, love the sea, but are certainly not fond of boat trips and, above all, have a completely different approach to storytelling and writing (not knowing how to play any instrument), cannot help but love the story of Toy soldiersfeel deep admiration for his art and hope that this journey will soon become a film: beautiful literary works must become cinematographic works!
After reading his book, you want to leave but not to arrive, to travel. Nanni Moretti, in “Dear Diary”he said: “I am only happy at sea, on the journey between an island I have just left and another I have yet to reach”.
Roberto Soldatini would agree.
Roberto Soldatini, Conductor, composer, cellist, director, actor, writer and solitary navigator, he was born in Rome in 1960. Since 1975 he has carried out an intense concert activity as a cellist, including: radio, record and television recordings for RAI and RCA; concert for the Pope, SS. John Paul II (1983). He was also part of the Rome Opera Orchestra, where he met Giuseppe Patanè, who offered to become his assistant. He was later chosen by Myung-Whung Chung to be his assistant at the Opéra Bastille in Paris. Since his debut in Italy, in Spoleto, he has carried out an intense activity as a conductor, divided equally between the symphonic and operatic genres, directing the orchestras of the major institutions in Europe and the United States. Since 1984 he has been a full professor of cello in music conservatories. From 2021 to the one in Bari. Roberto Soldatini is currently touring a solo concert, “La Musica del Mare”, where he plays and acts at the same time, in which the spectator experiences an imaginary route through mythical scenes of sea literature. As a writer he has published six books. The music of the sea (2014, ed. Nutrimenti), translated into three languages, won the Marinkovich prize for literature, translated into French (La musique de la mer) won the Prix Albatros 2017: first non-French author awarded. Mediterranean Symphonies (2016, ed. Nutrimenti). The novel Denecia autobiography of a boat (2018, ed. Mursia). The book-testimony Denecia lands in the pandemic (2021, ed Mursia). Ca’ Denecia living on a boat in Venice (2022, ed. Mursia). Living on a boat (2023, ed. Mursia). Since 2011 Soldatini has lived on his sailing boat, alternating every year six months of solo sailing and six months moored in port to winter, for one year in Rome (Fiumicino), eight years in Naples, one in Venice and from 2021 in Trani .
