The first friend to go on stage is Carlo Conti. It comes after Fiorella Mannoia, in a sparkly black jacket and trousers, has intoned Mariposa, the song taken to the Sanremo Festival last February. The most recent piece of his artistic journey leaves room for rhythm A child on the lion by Adriano Celentano, which a debutant Fiorella brought to Castrocaro in 1968.
Like at the Sanremo Festival 2017
«Good evening Fiorella – he greets her – an extraordinary artist and a woman with a capital D». With the host and artistic director of the next two editions of Sanremo and Francesco Gabbani duetting with Fiorella, the trio seen on the Ariston stage in 2017 is reformed, when Mannoia ranked second right behind the interpreter of Westerners’ Karma. «I’ve already seen this trio», says Conti. Fiorella: «Don’t remind me». And Gabbani bows before her as he did seven years ago when he was proclaimed the winner.
The show broadcast on Rai1
Fiorella Mannoia & friends. Yesterday the Baths of Caracalla hosted the first of two concerts (repeated tonight) which are a single birthday party for the redhead performer and author, who turned seventy on April 4th. Fiorella invited friends-colleagues to join her, accompanied by the band and the orchestra which will then follow her on the «Symphonic» tour from July to September. More than fifty years of her career, and of her life, flow on the scene surrounded by the ruins of the imperial baths and filmed by the cameras of Rai1 which will probably broadcast the show in September.
Ornella Vanoni: «Now even the Pope speaks Roman dialect»
The name of Fiorella Mannoia has always been linked to that of singer-songwriters. And the atmosphere quickly heats up. With Ligabue she sings Put your love into circulation. Him: «I promise you that if I write a punk song I’ll run to bring it to you». With Claudio Baglioni, piano and voice, comes the romantic Amore bello. At the end she jokes: «Claudio will spend our spa years together». The rereading of is gritty Hot black coffee together with Giorgia. Irresistible and poignant is the version of Io che amo solo te with Ornella Vanoni who, in her style, digresses and does not hold back: «Now even the Pope speaks in Roman dialect. He unblocked himself. He’s my age and, at a certain age, you can’t hold on anymore.” The most obvious reference is to the word “faggot” that Pope Francis allegedly used during a closed-door meeting.
Tributes to Pino Daniele and Lucio Dalla
The tributes are inevitable: the one to Pino Daniele with Rocco Hunt on the notes of Let’s talk, and the one to Lucio Dalla with I wonder if you know, sung together with Ron. Fiorella remains alone for No consequencesdedicated «to the women who are no longer here, but above all to those who made it» and How to change, the song that forty years ago showed her the path to songwriting. In the approximately two hours of concert there is no nostalgia effect for these years lived without remorse or regrets.
The words of the songs
He always paid special attention to the words of the songs. For her, music and civil commitment go together, so with the Senegalese musician Natty Fred and the rapper Frankie Hi-NRG proposes It’s not a movie, written to honor the memory of Samb Modou and Diop Mor, killed in 2011 in Florence by a right-wing extremist. «Rome belongs to everyone, even to those who are on the edge / Because once upon a time Rome was a bit of everything in the world», he sings with Luca Barbarossa.
The duets with Enrico Ruggeri
He leaves the double to Enrico Ruggeri with The doubts of love And What women do not say. The closing, before the encores (History by Francesco De Gregori e The Irish sky by Massimo Bubola), is for Sally by Vasco Rossi, with Fiorella alone on stage, queen of her special birthday party. And she turns to the audience who sings “Happy birthday to you” and concludes: «Let me say that I am a lucky woman».
The guests of Tuesday 4 June
Tonight it will have among its guests Elodie, Alessandra Amoroso, Riccardo Cocciante, Noemi, Paola Turci, Danilo Rea, Giorgio Panariello, Edoardo Leo. And if they ask her what she expects from the future she replies: «I hope to live healthy. I will continue to fight the battles I believe in and make music with the same respect with which I have always treated it.”
