Angelo Privitera and Franco Battiato – ©
The doors of the Fortress of Arezzo, on June 21, 2022in conjunction with the Music Festival, the review begins “Summer in the Fortress” with the concert-event “Over and Over Again – A journey with Franco Battiato”.
An unmissable event organized by Guido d’Arezzo Foundation in collaboration with the Municipality of Arezzo and thanks to the contribution of the CR Firenze Foundation, which arrives in the capital of Arezzo as a regional preview and as the first stop on the summer tour that will take the show around the most prestigious Italian stages, after the debut last May 18th at the Greek Theater of Taormina.
The concert will also see the New Italian Quartet, the strings that accompanied the Maestro on numerous tours, and it will be embellished with video contributions and testimonies of personalities who shared musical and life moments with Battiato.
“Over and Over Again” born fromexperience of Angelo Privitera and the voice of Fabio Cinti.
Angelo Privitera, keyboardist and Franco Battiato’s programmer for over thirty years, with his deep knowledge of the Sicilian singer-songwriter’s sounds together with Fabio Cinti (Targa Tenco for his chamber adaptation of “La Voce del Padrone”), they bring Battiato’s hits to the stage with his original arrangements.
Angelo Privitera and Franco Battiato
Here is our interview with Angelo Privitera
Angelo how did you meet Franco Battiato?
We met in 85, at an event in Acireale in a scientific high school that we both attended after 20 years, at the time Franco was living in Milan. We found ourselves there and started a friendship and then a collaboration. Then in ’88 he returned to live in Sicily, because as I often say our land attracts its great children.
What did Franco Battiato teach you?
I have been next to Franco for almost 36 years. The world taught me. Franco was above anything you could think of. A person who drew something even while he was having lunch. The relationship I had with him was primarily one of great affection and friendship, we were like two brothers, we lived everything together. People often thought that he was a distant person, the great spirituality of him made him look like that, but it is absolutely false.he was deeply ironic, he often told jokes.
Franco Battiato was much loved in Italy, but do you think his genius, his talent was also understood?
Absolutely yes, it is the proof that after his absence (he has been physically no longer there for a year) books, concerts, conferences about him come out, there is a strong ferment about his art and his person. Franco was a unique artist because he was not only a songwriter, his production has over 50 albums, he was also a director, made various films, wrote books, operas, was a painter. Before he died he wanted to make a film about the composer Georg Friedrich Händel for which he had studied a lot, he was a great intellectual.
Did Franco ever make you angry?
No it was impossible to argue with him, he was a very calm personprecisely for this reason our collaboration is from Guinness World Record, over 30 years together, we shared everything. Every time she spoke she left you speechless. I remember that once we came to Tuscany, we were atNormal University of Pisathere were so many people that there were five spaces for everyone to follow the conference, everyone wanted to hear what he had to say.
What will the show be like?
We are happy to stop in Arezzo because it will be the first date in Tuscany which coincides, among other things, with the Music Festival in Europe. With “Over and Over Again” we will bring our story of Battiato, after the date of Taormina, to Arezzo. It will be a 360-degree journey, a story, a testimony of friends and artists who knew him, like Vincenzo Mollica, Renato Zero, Guidalberto Bormolini his spiritual father. The goal is introduce an unpublished Franco Battiato, the person as well as the artist. His voice will also be heard.
Tickets online at www.discoverarezzo.com