FRANCO BATTIATO
“THE MAN FROM GARDEN ISLAND”
MUSIC LITERATURE SOLIDARITY
March 13, 2024
al Palacultura
"Antonello da Messina"
Viale Boccetta, 373 Messina
ore 11 € 5,00
ore 20,30 € 10,00
Tickets can be purchased in cash at:
Bar Eden
Corso Cavour 127
Feltrinelli Point Messina
Ghibellina Street 32
Mondadori Book Store Messina
Consulate of the Sea Street, 35
ex Ciofalo
A music, literature, and charity event dedicated to Franco Battiato will be held on Wednesday, March 13th at 11:00 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. at the Palacultura in Messina. The event features Guido G. Guerrera, Fabio Cinti, Alessandro Russo, and Giuseppe Restifo.
Guerrera, a journalist and writer who lives and works in Tuscany. A longtime contributor to "La Nazione" and "Qn," considered by Fernanda Pivano herself to be one of the foremost experts on Ernest Hemingway, he is the only Italian writer admitted to participate in the Coloquio Internacional Ernest Hemingway in Havana over a twenty-year period.
A biographer of Franco Battiato, with four publications to his credit, Guerrera recounts firsthand the long journey he and Franco embarked upon, a friendship that spanned thirty years and was punctuated by conversations and discussions on philosophical and symbolic themes dear to both, and marked by a detailed series of interviews given to the journalist over the course of those three decades. He discusses Battiato as a person, with his unique artistic output, and the man himself, who in his private life was a simple person, gifted with an extraordinary sense of humor and always available.
The story is simultaneously colored by the memory of Fabio Cinti, a musician and singer-songwriter who carries Battiato's songs and memories around.
Fabio Cinti has released eight albums and collaborated with numerous artists, including Franco Battiato, Morgan, Nada, Paolo Benvegnù, and Pasquale Panella. He served as a musical consultant for seven seasons of the TV show X-Factor alongside judge Morgan. In 2018, he won the Targa Tenco award for his work "La voce del padrone ~ un adattamento gentile," an adaptation for string quartet, piano, and vocals of Franco Battiato's famous 1981 album. He has composed several soundtracks for plays and short films (Gabriella Greison's "Ucciderò il gatto di Schrödinger" and "Argos," about the life of Sciascia).
Together with pianist and composer Alessandro Russo, another longtime collaborator of Battiato, Fabio Cinti retraces the life and most hidden events of the singer-songwriter and through the recounting of direct and indirect experiences reconstructs fragments of his work and the person.
Giuseppe Restifo, former Professor of Modern History at the University of Messina, will also speak, discussing the artist's connection to the Sicilian language.
The show, dedicated to the great and inimitable artistic talent of Franco Battiato, is organized by the ARB association and the Kiwanis Division Messina 1, in collaboration with the Filarmonica Laudamo Messina, and with the patronage of the Messina Municipal Administration and AUCLIS Associazioni Unite Cultura e Lingua Siciliana. The event aims to donate proceeds to support projects of particular social value promoted by associations such as ABC - Amici dei bimbi in corsia,
