Trains, countesses, and rebellious cats!
The extraordinary, poetic, ironic, and defiant songs of Giovanna Marini, Paolo Pietrangeli, and Ivan Della Mea.
The passing of Giovanna Marini in May 2024 marked not only the loss of a towering figure in music, song, and oral culture but also, symbolically, the conclusion of a collective journey. Giovanna, beyond being a composer and poet, was a teacher who shaped generations of singers and choirs across Europe. Through her teaching and singing of both popular and original repertoires, Giovanna ensured the survival of songs often censored by radio and television. These songs, however, had immense reach within youth festivals, experimental theaters, factory assemblies, and schools. Born from direct engagement with reality, these songs are often more beautiful, compelling, and innovative than much of mainstream pop. Giovanna's compositions, Ivan's melodies, and Paolo's verbal architectures are testament to this. These neglected masterpieces of Italian song deserve to be rediscovered, like hidden pearls. These songs are not, as detractors claim, crude or poorly crafted; rather, they are profound and often challenging to perform. Their unyielding, insolent, grotesque, and passionate nature, recounting political and personal realities and the Italy of their time, adds ethical significance to their undeniable poetic and musical mastery. Alessio Lega has devoted decades to studying and reinterpreting this world and its songs, resulting in a book ("La nave dei folli"), a CD ("Canzoniere della rivolta"), and numerous recitals. This performance, tailored to the attentive, discerning audience of the FolkClub, begins as a tribute to Giovanna Marini, conceived with her while preparing the release of a significant previously unreleased live recording from 1981—a natural “Best of” compilation of her songs and cantatas. Fate determined this would become Giovanna's first posthumous release: "Tutto questo vuole raccontato" (2024). This concert, celebrating that extraordinary album, is both a homage to a great composer and an extraordinary person and an anthology of the songs by Ivan Della Mea and Paolo Pietrangeli, which Giovanna cherished and often performed.