To talk about his Taranto, Diodato starts from the tears of Etra, from the prediction of the Oracle of Delphi, and from that mythological world in which he loves to pursue his dreams as an artist. Places, faces, words that crackle in the mouth like the flame of the latest album I lit a fire, recorded on the long wave of the return to Sanremo with Ti Muovi and taken to Brazil in concert, as he himself explains to “Sound Check” , the musical format of our newspaper, while waiting to treat ourselves to some small summer events and then arrive in theaters in the autumn with its debut on 28 September at the Moderno in Grosseto.
Antonio, let’s talk about the somewhat pyromaniac title of this live show.
“Music was able to ignite something deep inside me, melting walls of ice inside me to connect me with my emotional core. I met many extraordinary people, starting with the musicians I collaborated with, facing a beautiful journey together with them to get to to the public; hence the idea of telling us all around a fire. This is because the album aims to capture that warmth there, rereading songs from the past that have transformed over the years thanks to the sharing of concerts”.
How was it born?
“At the end of the last tour I chose the songs that had best internalized that type of vibration and I re-recorded them in the studio, with the band, at the Officine Meccaniche in Milan”.
As a DAMS graduate, if this album were a film who would direct it?
“The first that comes to mind is Martin Scorsese, when thinking of the numerous works poised between cinema and music that he directed in the past. I wouldn’t even mind an Italian director like Mario Martone.”
He won two David di Donatello plus the Amnesty International Award. What effect do awards have on you?
“The David in La mia terra (from the soundtrack of Michele Riondino’s film Palazzina Laf – ed.) filled me with happiness. Not that the one in What a wonderful life for Özpetek’s The Goddess of Fortune hadn’t done so, but here the involvement personal in the events and future of a suffering land like that of Taranto was very strong”.
In the end Palazzina Laf collected three statuettes.
“Fortunately, at the time of the awards to Michele and Elio Germano they didn’t classify me because I was very excited because it wasn’t just us and the film that were winning, but the vision behind it. And the city, to which I am very attached, was also winning. Although prestigious, a recognition does not change the fate of a land, but it can help to mend human and political fragilities, perhaps helping us to believe a little more in ourselves and not to lose hope in the possibility of a future alternative. In short, the same reasons that have pushed me for years to continue the experience of artistic co-director of the Primo Maggio of Taranto”.
Speaking of human and political fragilities of the moment, which is the most insidious?
“Probably the wind of normalization that is going around. The reversal of the historical narrative. The passive acceptance of facts and situations attributable to a fascist vision of the world. Politics is politics and its interests… it is the weak response of the people to scare me.”
