Read the interview that the manager Lucio Presta he granted to Newspaper regarding the fracture with Amadeus one wonders: Is it right or wrong to wash dirty laundry in public? The question is insidious, and it began to meander both among the experts and among the public who only knew that, shortly before the start of his fifth consecutive Sanremo Festival, Amadeus had said goodbye to the man who up until that moment had represented his interests. From that moment on the host never spoke: no one ever asked him a question about the end of the relationship with Presta nor did he ever raise the topic. At least until now, when Hoara Borselli decided to interview the manager that she certainly didn’t tell her, explaining without even mincing words that many of the lucky finds we saw in Sanremo were her work. Presta, in fact, admits that he did everything to fulfill his client’s wishes, especially when at the beginning he didn’t know which way to turn as artistic director of the Festival. «The first Sanremo Festival done together was a masterpiece of complicity. Amadeus didn’t even know where he could start formulating a regulation and what follows from it, what were the rights and duties of the Artistic Director of the Festival. I could call Claudio Fasulo (then Rai Structure Manager) who lived those days with me to testify. With Amadeus and his family I spent a few days in La Coruna, Spain, to write the entire regulation which he then brought to Rai as his work”, says Presta adding that”he didn’t even know many of the women you saw on the Ariston Amadeus stage”.
Fiorello, Lucio Presta and AmadeusMarco Provvisionato / ipa-agency.net
The revelations, however, certainly don’t stop here: Presta says that at a certain point he was the one who responded to the interviews written on behalf of Amadeus – «I answered the questions personally and after showing them to Ama we sent them to the newspapers as if he had written them. The same was true for the promos, the adverts that we shot with my phone and brought to Tg1″ – and what if in 2023 the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella he joined Ariston, the credit was his – «Ama really wanted me to try and agreed to come with me to propose my idea to councilor Grasso. We wanted to give a strong signal to the recording industry that it had an important role in our country. That was the only time Amadeus came to the Quirinale” -. During the interview, however, the manager also talks about the “betrayal” of two of his close collaborators who «they started a direct and secret relationship with Amadeus by speaking badly of myself and indicating professional paths that he could exploit”, and of the 90 thousand euros that the host would have asked for from Arcobaleno Tre, Presta’s company, for the program Suzuki Arena as artistic director: a compensation that would have been contrary to the Rai policy on conflict of interest: «I remind Amadeus that not only can he not boast those titles, but that the Rai Supervisory Commission it banned the possibility that artists can take money from the producers of the programs they host. As manager I left the meeting, Amadeus remained with my son who gave in to his insistence to the point of recognizing him a share as artistic director of the program and for having collaborated in the creation of the program. I repeat: which is not true because if that had been the case he would have been obliged to give the format to Rai as per his contract with the company.”
Lucio Presta, Amadeus and Niccolò PrestaMaurizio D’Avanzo / ipa-agency.net
The definitive break between the two, as reported by Presta, occurred in December 2023: «I met Amadeus during the presentation of the Carabinieri calendar, we spoke to manage the various requests from the artists who wanted to be guests at the Festival and at that point I realized that something was wrong: Ama always said no and declined every proposal. I asked to have a meeting with him and the answer was that he had a lot to do and that we would definitely meet in December to clarify some things. After collecting the invoice (for Arena Suzukied.), Amadeus asked for an appointment, set for December 14, 2023, Where announced to me his intention to end the relationship after the end of the Festival”. Then the about-face: «he wrote me a message saying that he preferred to end our relationship immediately because my presence would have made him uncomfortable at the Festival”. This is where the legal dispute arose: «On that occasion he confirmed to me that he would honor the payment of my dues until the end of the contract (August 2024) unless in January he informed me, through his brother-in-law (his accountant), that he intended to pay only until December. For this reason, the legal office was given instructions to protect my interests.” However, Presta reserves the two most stinging jabs at the end: one concerns the request from Rai to provide a space inside the Ariston for guests of Rai broadcasts – a request that Amadeus would have rejected with disdain to protect the work of his wife Giovanna Civitillo – and the other concerns the case of John Travolta which, unlike what was said in public, Amadeus embraced being well aware of the advertising terms linked to the shoes that the actor would have worn that evening. He lends, in short, he didn’t hold back, but was he right or wrong in speaking? Amadeus, for his part, has chosen not to respond for the moment – perhaps also so as not to disturb the already delicate transition from Rai to Nove too much -, even if some think that the manager has committed a sin of inelegance. Perhaps, beyond everything, it would have been appropriate for the two to find a peaceful way to say goodbye rather than starting a conflict that tastes bitter whether you support one side or the other.
