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Festival della musica italiana di Sanremo

11/2/2016

 
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Sanremo is a pretty coastal town in the region of Liguria close to the French border which, every year, since 1951, hosts the Sanremo music festival (il Festival della canzone italiana di Sanremo, or simply il Festival di Sanremo). The Festival is normally held in February (this years event, its 66th edition, is being staged from the 9th to the 13th of February) and, love it or hate it, it has become an intrinsic part of Italian life. The Festival is actually a competition and the format has varied and varies over the years but basically there are two categories, one for le nuove proposte, non-established artists, (referred to in past editions as i giovani  because they must be younger than 36 years of age), and one for i campioni, established artists. The texts of the songs must be in Italian and the songs must be "new" or unreleased. The Festival is screened on Italian television; it attracts generally huge audiences; and it lasts for hours! Usually it starts at 8.30pm with an Anteprima al Festival, then the Festival gets underway at about 9.00pm and ends at at about 12.30am, followed by il Dopo Festival which ends at about 1.30am. Apart from the competing singers, the Festival also features comedians and famous or remarkable ospiti (guests) - last night's guests included Elton John, Laura Pausini, and a just about to turn centenarian signore called Giuseppe Ottaviani. This evening, Nicole Kidman and Eros Ramazzotti will be appearing on stage.

Each year, the choice of the presenter, the choice of vallette (hostesses) and valletto, the clothing choices of the "valletti", the choice of guests, the quality of the songs, the choice of winner, the text or delivery of a particular song, the refusal by a famous singer or guest to appear at the Festival, the voting system and some aspect of the regolamento, the use of expletives by a particular comedian, all attract lively debate. It's all part of the fun and it has truly become an Italian tradition. Here is how the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture (2002) describes the Sanremo Festival:          

Learn Italian Sydney at Italia 500 Italian Centre for Language and Cultural Studies - Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture
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Sanremo Festival
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For one week every February since 1951, the Italian media dedicate much time and space to a song competition which is held annually in the Ligurian city of San Remo. The songs themselves arouse little interest or enthusiasm today and, with relatively few exceptions, the singers who participate are ageing has-beens or young unknowns. However, the Festival keeps alive the mythology of Italy as the land of song, and a victory by anyone other than a melodic singer is regarded as a matter of some controversy.
 
The Festival began as a publicity exercise for the municipal casino of San Remo, but thanks to radio and television interest it grew to be an event of national importance. In the conservative climate of the 1950s it offered an important forum for reassertion of the national melodic tradition (which draws from both opera and from Neapolitan popular song) after the intrusion of jazz and swing during the immediate postwar years. Although Italy was changing rapidly, bland nostalgic tunes praising village life, motherly love and chaste romance found a ready audience. It was 'the triumph of nothing, framed by violins and rose petals', as Gianfranco Baldazzi has written (Baldazzi, 1989: 77) Singers of humble origins, like the Bolognese Nilla Pizzi and Claudio Villa, a Roman from Trastevere who dominated the Festival in its early years, achieved great national popularity. Thanks to their remarkable voices and forceful personalities, they contributed to a revival of the Italian melody as a core component of a shared culture.
 
Domenico Modugno's international hit 'Nel blu dipinto di blu' (also known as 'Volare') brought a breath of fresh air to the Festival in 1958, and in the following years domestic rock'n'roll and pop singers did battle with the old guard. Instead of slightly different executions of the same song, the public was presented with alternative versions: uptempo and melodic. However, the emergence of committed singer-songwriters (see cantautori) and beat groups produced more diversity than the festival could handle. The suicide of Luigi Tenco in 1967 following the exclusion of his song from the final at the expense 'of one entitled 'You, Me and the Roses' marked a watershed. In the 1970s the festival declined in popularity, and in 1973 RAI television only broadcast the final evening.
​ 
The successful revival of the Sanremo Festival in the 1980s owed everything to a coincidence of interests between RAI and the record companies. However, the Festival ultimately failed to harness the talents of the best-selling Italian artists, though it did contribute to the success of some significant new performers, amongst them Eros Ramazzotti and Laura Pausini, two young singers from the melodic mould who achieved popularity abroad as well as at home. The Festival achieved renewed popularity with television audiences in the 1990s and its status as an innocuous, if slightly onanistic, national event was underscored in 1997 when it came to be presented again, for the tenth time in his career, by no less an iminence grise of Italian television than Mike Bongiorno. ​

A proposito di  Domenico Modugno, here's a short video regarding his 1958 appearance at Sanremo:


As mentioned above, the Sanremo Festival divides opinion. In this article, which appeared in Donna Moderna last year, Roberto Moliterni explains why he thinks that il Festival di Sanremo  is actually "good" for us: 

Italian language courses Sydney at Italia 500 - Donna Moderna Roberto Moliterni

1. Unisce l’Italia.
Un po’ come per i mondiali di calcio, è il momento in cui sento più forte lo spirito di una collettività che, per qualche giorno, mette da parte distanze e differenze, e si ritrova riunita attorno a un interesse comune. Sanremo lo guardiamo tutti, quelli che leggono un libro all’anno, quelli che ne leggono venti e quelli che non ne leggono nessuno, lo guardo io che non so come si cambia la batteria di una macchina e lo guardano i meccanici, lo guarda il mio vicino e la mia ex-coinquilina, lo guardano in Sicilia come in Liguria. Non lo guardano quelli che hanno di meglio da fare (e per fortuna sono comunque tanti!), quelli che odiano le canzoni italiane,  e quelli che non vogliono sentire lo spirito della collettività, perché la collettività non gli piace. Insomma, gli snob.

2. È catartico, tira fuori la nostra parte sadica ed è più appassionante di un giallo.
In fondo, a nessuno frega poi così tanto delle canzoni (vedi anche il punto 3). Guardandolo, quello che tutti speriamo è che qualcosa vada storto, un po’ come nei film gialli o drammatici in cui, quando due si amano e sono felici, subito ci chiediamo chi dei due morirà. E allora stiamo incollati al televisore in attesa che succeda, perché tanto prima o poi succederà: la protesta di un cantante o di uno spettatore arrampicato sulla balaustra della galleria, un tacco che si spezza, una gaffe, gli ascolti che vanno male. Penso che non ci sia stata una sola edizione di Sanremo in cui gli ascolti siano andati bene e, secondo me, anche quelle volte in cui sono andati bene, ci hanno detto invece che sono andati male, così noi lo abbiamo guardato proprio per verificare che stesse andando male male. Perché in fondo noi spettatori siamo sadici. E questo, ogni tanto, fa bene, è catartico come guardareHouse of Cards, come doveva esserlo nell’antichità andare agli spettacoli al Colosseo o più indietro ancora andare a teatro. (A proposito della teoria sadica del racconto c’è questo libro di Domenico Matteucci pubblicato da Dino Audino Editore nel 2013: La natura sadica del racconto e altre storie).

3. Ci insegna ad accettare le sconfitte.
Come per Miss Italia, e per tutte le manifestazioni competitive, non vince mai chi vogliamo noi, ma proprio quello che noi non volevamo. Un po’ come con le ex, che dopo di noi si fidanzano sempre con quelli per cui diremmo «no, proprio lui no!». Sanremo ci allena alla sconfitta, ad accettare che le cose non vanno mai come le vogliamo noi.

4. Ci educa a condividere.
Una delle scene più belle per me della commedia all’italiana è quella di Operazione San Gennaro di Dino Risi, dove alcuni ladri, con l’aiuto di Totò, pensano di rubare l’oro di San Gennaro proprio la notte della finale del Festival di Napoli; tutti i napoletani infatti sono riuniti nelle case di quelli che hanno la tv oppure nei bar per guardare i cantanti e sentire le canzoni e nessuno fa caso al furto. Ecco, per me questo rappresenta un bel momento dell’Italia: un’Italia ancora ingenua, che fonda la sua solidità sociale su quei valori di comunità che sono eredità diretta della civiltà contadina. Mi piace che ancora oggi, seppure in modo parziale e virtualizzato – vedi le “dirette twitter” -, Sanremo riesca ad attivare modalità di consumo collettive, con gruppi che si riuniscono per guardare le serate assieme. È importante soprattutto oggi che il consumo di prodotti culturali è sempre più individuale, grazie alla diffusione massiccia degli smartphone e dei tablet.

5. Ci fa cantare.
Anche se le canzoni sono brutte, anche se non vince mai chi vogliamo noi, alla fine cantiamo: i motivetti più o meno scemi o quelli brillanti e allegri che abbiamo sentito durante le serate. Proprio ieri ho ritrovato un vecchio video della mia ex-coinquilina preferita che, reggendo una mazza da scopa, cantava in camera mia una canzone di Arisa, appena uscita al Sanremo di qualche anno fa. Quello rappresenta uno dei momenti più belli della nostra amicizia.

And here's an interesting video in which a famous Italian music critic, Gino Castaldo, talks about the history of the Festival di Sanremo:


Back to this year's festival. One of the vallette is Virginia Raffaele un'attrice simpaticissima, and very very funny comedian and impersonator. In the three videos below (following photos of both Virginia Raffaele and the "real" Carla Fracci), la Raffaele impersonates appunto  Carla Fracci, the doyenne of Italian ballet who turns 80 this year (auguri alla signora Fracci!) : 

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Learn Italian in Sydney CBD at Italia 500 - Image of Carla Fracci




Here is Nicole Kidman's appearance at the Festival:


To hear this year's songs, to view clips of the Festival, and to view the Festival live (we think), visit the Sanremo 2016 site. To finish off, here's an excellent 2010 documentary produced by ArteFrance  which was screened on SBS several years ago about Italian popular music. Grazie, buona visione e ciao!!!


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    At Italia 500 we've been offering Italian courses, in Sydney, since 1995 and one of the most beautiful aspects of learning Italian is that it opens the door to a culture of unrivalled richness and diversity. In this blog we'll be sharing some of our favourite books, movies, places in Italy to visit, music, links to podcasts, information about local and international Italian themed events, and the odd "personal" view, in the hope that it will encourage you to delve further into a culture which continues to inspire us and millions of people all over the world.       

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