A farewell to the poison, with old and new rusts coming to the surface. The break with Amedeus (who a few weeks ago announced his farewell to Rai to move to Discovery on the Nine)? «The sad ending is that Giulio Andreotti was right. Gratitude is the feeling of the day before and the rancorous syndrome of the beneficiary is a syndrome attributable to our times and also to great people.” Thus Lucio Presta who in a long interview with the Giornale retraces the stages of the relationship with the host. «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” and with him 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, explaining that together they also built “the authorial team, the direction, the set designers, the director of photography, the choreographer, etc…”, and made the choice of the co-hosts: “Some of the met for the first time directly during the Saremo photo shoots.”
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As for the musical part, «from day one we had meetings with the discography together». In short, a solid relationship of unconditional trust, at least “for four Festivals”. Shortly after starting work for the fifth Sanremo, says the manager, “I realized that something was wrong: she loves she always said no and declined every proposal”. So “I asked to have a meeting with him and the answer was that he had a lot to do”. Presta says that in June 2023 Amadeus asked, in relation to Arena Suzuki, a program produced by Arcobaleno Tre (the company of which Presta sold the shares but remains manager) «that he be paid by the company for the artistic direction and that he be recognized 100 percent of the ownership rights of the format” and his son partially “gave in to his insistence”: “He recognized him with 90 thousand euros, in addition to those paid in previous years and which – according to Presta – were also not due. Money that Ama regularly invoiced with the wording ‘artistic direction’, thus contravening the Rai Supervision circular”.
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“I honestly believe he was pushed to do it, I don’t recognize him in this gesture”, adds the manager, explaining that Amadeus subsequently “announced his intention to interrupt the relationship after the end of the Festival”. Then, “a few days later” I wrote him a message “saying that he preferred to end our relationship immediately because my presence would have made him uncomfortable at the Festival”. «On that occasion he confirmed to me that he would honor the payment of my dues until the end of the contract (August 2024)», only to then communicate «that he intended to pay only until December. For this reason, the legal office was given instructions to protect my interests.”
