«I think the time has come to say who and how the people are and how the events unfolded. I’ve seen a lot faces full of masks. It’s time to reveal faces and circumstances! With these words entrusted to a post on X on April 10th, Lucio Prestaagent and former agent of many of the biggest names in entertainment, hinted that he was ready to tell his “truth” compared to the separation from Amadeus. «Truth» collected in a long interview published in the «Giornale» in which he reveals how the break with the host and artistic director came about for five consecutive editions, from 2020 to 2024, of the Sanremo Festival.
The first Festival organized together, reports the entertainment agent, retracing the events, «turned out to be a… masterpiece of complicity“, although Ama did not know “even where one could begin to formulate a regulation and what follows from it, what were rights and duties of the Artistic Director of the Festival”. With Amadeus and his family, continues Presta «I spent a few days in La Coruña, in Spain, to write the rules entirely which he then brought to Rai as his own work.” That Ama was credit for the work is registered for Presta «it wasn’t important. I was happy that the Rai Summit knew that Amadeus was prepared and above all that they had it the Festival has been entrusted to the right hands”.
Together the two then move on to build the festival’s authorial team («the direction, the set designers, the director of photography, the choreographer, etc…»), including the choice of co-hosts, born, Presta reveals, «during the repeated dinners that Maria, my cook, prepared for him every evening at my house. Amadeus didn’t even know many of the women you saw on the Ariston stage (Rula Jebreal for example).” Once the co-hosts had been chosen, to introduce them to Amadeus Presta organized «a dinner or lunch, regularly offered and maintained by the undersignedto present them to him.”
Any names? «Giorgina Rodriguez, Sabrina Ferilli, Ornella Muti. Just to have Giorgina, Cristiano Ronaldo’s wifeI organized a rehearsal room in Turin at my own expense and sent the choreographer Franco Miseria to prepare the tango which she brought to the stage. Thus I prevented her from moving from Turin and away from Cristiano and the children.” An attention which, the agent underlines, «he brought me Ronaldo’s esteem who was a free guest at the Festival”.
Presta and Amadeus therefore work in “perfect harmony” for four Festivals. The trust was such, the agent recalls, «that to lift Ama from the
driving fatiguewe asked journalists to send written interview questions”, to which to answer personally, after showing them to Ama, it was Presta himself: «Then we sent them to the newspapers as if he had written them. The same was true for the promos, the ads that we shot with my phone and brought to Tg1, after also creating the graphics for reveal the names of the guests that we kept secret from everyone.”
Presta is also entitled the undertaking of bringing to the 2023 Festival, on the occasion of theanniversary of the Constitutionnone other than the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella: «Don’t ask me how it could happen, but that dream I cherished came true. To this he added the great gift from Roberto Benigni who spoke about our Constitutional Charter and Gianni Morandi who sang the Mameli Hymn. I believe, without any arrogance, that it was the highest moment of the history of the Sanremo Festival”.
Before arriving at Amadeus’ fifth and final Sanremo, this year’s, already in September Presta realizes that something isn’t working anymore between him and Ama. He asks for a meeting with the host, who replies that he “has a lot to do and that we would certainly meet in December to clarify some things”. In the meantime, Presta does not escape the fact that «two of my close collaboratorswelcomed for years not only in the company but also in my life, they began a direct and secret relationship with Amadeus, speaking badly of myself and indicating professional paths that he could have exploited, violating the secrets of the company they worked for”.
In Presta’s story, the crack appears when «Amadeus asked me and my son Niccolò for an appointment as a producer of Suzuki Arena», musical variety broadcast from the Verona Arena. Meeting during which the host asks that «he be paid by the company for the artistic direction and that he was granted 100 percent of his rights ownership of the format. Request – Presta specifies – not collectible. Management which was already paid by Rai which had entered into an agreement with Arcobaleno Tre, owner of the format”. Presta clarifies to Amadeus «that’s not all cannot boast those titlesbut that the Rai Supervisory Commission has prohibited the possibility that artists can take money from program producers that they lead.”
At that point the entrepreneur leaves the meeting. Niccolò remains, who gives in to the host’s insistence and, in order not to break the relationship between his father and Ama, «he recognizes him 90 thousand euros, in addition to those paid in previous years and also not due. Money that Ama regularly invoiced with the wording “artistic direction”, thus contravening the Rai Supervision circular”. Presta claims he can’t find it an explanation for the behavior by Amadeus: «I believe was pushed to do so, I don’t recognize him in this gesture. After having collected the above invoice, on 3 December 2023, Ama asked for a new appointment, set for 14 December where she announced her intention to end the relationship after the end of the Festival”.
However, this rupture actually occurred before the start of the event, as Presta confirmed: «A few days after that meeting, Ama wrote me a message saying that he preferred to end our relationship immediately because my presence would have it made uncomfortable at the Festival”. The agent replies that «for any problem related to the contract I would have been available. On that occasion he confirmed to me that he would honor the payment of my dues until the end of the contract (August 2024) except that in January he informed me, through his brother-in-law (his accountant), that he intended to pay only until December. For this reason, instructions have been given to the legal office of protect my interests».
«This one true story of how things went between Amadeus and myself – concludes Presta –. Of course I have documentary evidence and witnesses. I wanted to clarify this because Amadeus said in the press conference: “Presta knows what he did”, hinting at who knows what. Otherwise, as is my well-known habit, I would never have talked about the end of our relationship. Gratitude – reflects the entrepreneur – it is the feeling of the eve and the resentful syndrome of the beneficiary it is a syndrome attributable to our times and also to great people.”
