L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2023 www.italoamericano.org 30 L'Italo-Americano " Like a soundtrack to our lives, music is a faithful commentary on our customs and society. Listening to i t a g a i n h e l p s u s b e t t e r understand our history and who we are, and explain it to a foreign audience. Across latitudes, music is the lan- guage par excellence, and knows no barriers." This is h o w E m a n u e l e A m e n - dola, director of the Italian C u l t u r a l I n s t i t u t e i n L o s Angeles, describes singer- s o n g w r i t e r P a t r i z i a Laquidara's performance, a show that becomes an oppor- tunity to relive the last 100 years of our country. " J u n e 2 1 i s c e l e b r a t e d around the world as the Fête de la Musique," Amendola explains, "a day created in France in 1982 and open to all, young and old, profes- sionals and amateurs, who wish to share their passion for this art form. In Italy, the initiative is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and, last year alone, more than 800 Italian cities participated. Around the world, through the network of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Inter- national Cooperation, our Embassies, Consulates and Italian Cultural Institutes join the initiative, to make the Festival also a moment of promotion and celebration of Italian musical heritage. In Los Angeles, our Cultural Institute offers a concert by singer-songwriter-sometimes a l s o a c t r e s s , a l w a y s p o e t Patrizia Laquidara, who gives us a journey through the his- tory of Italian song, from the early 1900s to today." Award-winning Patrizia Laquidara is considered one of the brightest figures in Italian singer-songwriter music. Born in Catania, Italy, but raised in Vicenza, Italy, Laquidara has released five albums and collaborated on many stage productions. In the show staged in Washing- ton and Los Angeles, the Ital- ian singer-songwriter dives poetically and playfully into the stories and emotions that inhabit Italy's popular musi- cal imagination. P a t r i z i a , t h i s i s n o t y o u r f i r s t t i m e i n t h e United States, what was your memory of the last tour? It's been many years, I toured here in 2011 as a back- u p s i n g e r f o r a B r a z i l i a n singer named Céu. We had performed in New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles. The memory I had was of a very warm and wel- coming audience, something I found again at my first con- cert in Washington. An audi- ence that gradually warmed up to the final standing ova- tion. There is always a fear about how a performance m i g h t b e r e c e i v e d , a l s o b e c a u s e I d o v e r y I t a l i a n songs. How did the idea for this show come about? T h e s h o w c a m e a b o u t thinking that we can describe an entire century through songs, because songs tell us about us, they are our chron- icle, our popular poetry. The idea was to start from the first modern Italian song, which dates back to 1918 and i s a s o n g w r i t t e n b y a Neapolitan - even though it is not written in Neapolitan - and from there to go back through the whole century with music. There are songs t h a t t a l k a b o u t h i s t o r i c a l e v e n t s , a n d o t h e r s t h a t somehow form the sentimen- tal education of a people. And from there what o t h e r s o n g s d i d y o u choose? A f t e r t h e f i r s t s o n g , I move to Italy's singer-song- writers, and go all the way to t h e m u s i c o f t h e 1 9 8 0 s . I revisit the sensitivity and poetic language of Endrigo and Tenco, De Andrè, Gucci- ni and Battisti, but also the rebel phase of 1960s' beats. T h e n , I t o u c h u p o n t h e renaissance that, between the 1970s and 1980s, brought the musical culture of our coun- try to its true peak: what was p r e v i o u s l y s e e n a s " l i g h t music" became songwriting, a kind of critical and senti- mental consciousness of the country up to the threshold of the early 2000s. There are also two songs of mine. Is there an underlying theme that ties the songs together? N o t r e a l l y . T h e t h e m e could have been love but also political engagement if we think about our songwriters. Instead each song has a topic i n i t s e l f , s o t h e c o m m o n t h r e a d i s t h e s o n g - f o r m showing itself, excuse the wordplay, in all its forms. Basically, what I tried to do was to reduce each song to t h e e s s e n t i a l , s o t h a t t h e m e l o d y a n d l y r i c s c o u l d stand out. I used a very mini- m a l a r r a n g e m e n t , e v e n where it was richer in the original. How did you get into popular music? Years ago I won a compe- t i t i o n a t M o g o l ' s s c h o o l , C E D , i n t h e p r o v i n c e o f Terni, where I was able to study popular music from Veneto and Lombardy. From t h e r e I b e c a m e m o r e a n d more passionate about world m u s i c , f r o m t r a d i t i o n a l M e d i t e r r a n e a n m u s i c t o South American music. What are the strengths of songwriting? The strength of songwrit- ing is to mix lyrics with beau- tiful melodies. The greatest songwriters knew that a word could resonate very well with a certain chord and how that combination could excite. There is a painstaking work behind songwriting, a form o f a r t I l o v e v e r y m u c h because akin to popular poet- ry. D o p e o p l e s t i l l l o v e songwriting? Songwriting has had some great moments. It has a lot of melody in it, while genres like rap and trap, which are c a t c h i n g o n i n I t a l y , a r e extremely "talky." However, they, too, rely on very beau- tiful lyrics that leave the pos- sibility of deep expression, s o m e t h i n g I a d m i r e a n d ency. At the same time, it is also said that a society that talks a lot is a depressed soci- ety. W h e r e d o y o u g e t inspiration for the sto- ries you tell? When I write songs, some- times I am more intimate, I write things that I have per- sonally experienced. Other times, I am struck by other people's stories, for example there is a song called The Miracle Balance, which I also p e r f o r m i n t h e s h o w , i n w h i c h I t e l l t h e s t o r y o f Philippe Petit, one of the greatest tightrope walkers who ever lived. You have been called a "storyteller of the world" a n d a " p o e t o f m a u d i t extraction." Which one best describes you? I really like the idea of being a storyteller, because I like the idea of telling stories through my voice. I wrote a book called I Saw You Yester- day, which came out a month and a half ago. I thought this book would be somehow dif- f e r e n t f r o m m u s i c b u t , instead, the thing I was told the most is that the book feels like it's told through a singing voice, because there are a lot of o rhythm and tim- bre. This made me realize that also, in writing a book, this musical side of mine still came out. SILVIA NITTOLI Patrizia Laquidara recounts with music a century of Italy Laquidara during her performance (Photo: Luca Arme Armellini) LOS ANGELES ITALIAN COMMUNITY

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