“Massimo Troisi, symbol of a painful but disenchanted Neapolitan spirit, capable of denying all the stereotypes that have always affected our city”. Words of the mayor of Naples Gaetano Manfredi “a great loss for the city and for Italy, thirty years after the death of an extraordinary artist who marked unforgettable moments in our lives. He was able to describe the world around him with his incredible irony, with his disenchantment, with his ability to ferociously attack the clichés that often grip us.
An artist who innovated the language of television, cinema and theater and who brought an idea of Neapolitanness that deconstructed stereotypes and led to a creative Naples that looks to the future, without forgetting its popular dimension”.
For Troisi’s 70th birthday, the CIOE Interdisciplinary Center for Expressive Opportunities, a project, strongly supported by the mayor of Naples, born from an idea by Lello Arena with the collaboration of Enzo Decaro, to select and train young national talents by promoting their training and professional growth. For the second edition and for his 71 years, we remember Troisi “according to his teaching – specifies Manfredi – sometimes in order to overcome the prejudice that often affects so many, we must use the very powerful weapons of irony”.
So does the artist Renzo Arbore: “a revolutionary of comedy, he founded the Trio The Grimace with Arena and Decaro, Yes they exhibited to the public in Via Vittoria Colonna, in a small venue in Naples, then in Rome the artistic partnership with Pino Daniele. A beautiful friendship with Massimo – explains Arbore – sincere, very true. We were neighbors, he didn’t like going around, signing autographs, sometimes I managed to convince him to go to the theater to listen to Paolo Conte.” And he specifies “he had extraordinary humour, with Troisi dead, long live Troisi! we had a lot of fun, we joked”, a group of five comedians, Carlo Verdone, Maurizio Nichetti, Lello Arena, Roberto Benigni and Renzo Arbore, gathered in a retirement home for old directors, Massimo in the role of the friend who died prematurely while others recounted its strengths and weaknesses.
Two artists proud of theirs Neapolitanness, Massimo by birth, Arbore by adoption, “he loved to sing, together we sang Neapolitan popular songs, the real ones, from the past, which the people liked, because they were healthy, beautiful and poetic”. And he concludes “he had to leave for Houston, I said goodbye to him for the last time, he never called me back, I was worried. His death was one of the greatest sorrows of my life.”
