“Sarsì”, a concert for Genoa by Laura Sicignano on December 15th for the first time at the Teatro del Ponente in Genoa – Lavocedigenova.it
Sarsì is a concert dedicated to Genoa, Laura Sicignano’s new project for her city. This time not a show, but songs and stories about Cornigliano, Albaro and Sturla, Sampierdarena, Rivarolo, Nervi, Voltri and the historic center which will be heard live for the first time on Thursday 15 December at 9 pm at the Teatro del Ponente in Genoa (piazza odicini).
A journey from neighborhood to neighborhood, to be done following the songs with words written by Laura Sicignano, set to music by Giacomo Gianetta, Filo Q, Edmondo Romano and Matteo Spanò, sung by Giulia Beatini, Simona Fasano and Lydia Giordano, accompanied by images by Luca Greenhouse. A journey outside the center that ends in the alleys, with a piece that involves all the musicians and all the singers because the composite character of the architecture and the multi-ethnic inhabitants of the historical center is highlighted, as it has always been. Sarsì is a Teatro Cargo production supported by the Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Genoa, thanks to contributions to support live entertainment activities in the planned areas of the city of Genoa within the framework of the MIC Ministerial Program Agreement – Capital Municipality of the city Genoa Metro. Admission to the evening at the Teatro del Ponente is free by reservation on 010/2470793 or by e-mail [email protected], [email protected]. It will be broadcast live by Cashmere Radio in Berlin and then followed by the release of the album, available from December 30 on Spotify, iTunes and all digital music portals. The project has the artistic direction of Laura Sicignano and the artistic production of Edmondo Romano.
“Sarsì” in Genoese means to mend. It evokes networks, links, links, encounters, pieces which put together give back the network of the city. The sewing work began with five workshops held in November in the public libraries of Genoa to listen to the stories of the citizens. «We met – writes Sicignano in the introduction – we sat in a circle and talked. What is the thread that sews us to a place? What does one individual sew to another, to another, to another until they make a city?». The seven songs of Sarsì were born from reflections on these questions.
“I will follow you” in Cornigliano, music by FiloQ, text by Laura Sicignano, voice by Lydia Giordano. A young stalker, unleashed, without brakes, leaves no respite to her victim.
“You are wonderful” in Albaro and Sturla, music by Giacomo Gianetta and Matteo Spanò, text by Laura Sicignano, voice by Giulia Beatini. Tale of a young and beautiful couple and their already exhausted love.
“Our lions” in Sampierdarena, music by Edmondo Romano, lyrics by Laura Sicignano, voice by Simona Fasano. The musical portrait of a proud and combative neighbourhood.
“I forget, don’t worry” in Rivarolo, music by FiloQ, text by Laura Sicignano, voice by Giulia Beatini. The love that resists until the end, hand in hand.
“The wrong couple” in Voltri, music by Giacomo Gianetta and Matteo Spanò, text by Laura Sicignano, voice by Lydia Giordano. A thoughtful couple wrong from the world, they reflect the contrasts that make this neighborhood charming.
“Macaia definitive” in Nervi, music by Edmondo Romano, text by Laura Sicignano, voice by Simona Fasano. Lost love with its melancholy and the desire to be reborn after abandonment.
“Mesciua di curry” in the historical centre, music by Edmondo Romano, Giacomo Gianetta, FiloQ, Matteo Spanò. Text by Laura Sicignano. Voices by Giulia Beatini, Simona Fasano Lydia Giordano. Love for the neighborhood where the whole world lives.
«In my lyrics – Laura Sicignano says – you can find an echo perhaps more of poets and playwrights than of songwriters: I am an outsider in this world and I am writing songs for the first time, out of passion and curiosity. I write for the voices of three magnificent interpretations, with great singing and theatrical skills, and for the music of composers, with whom I have collaborated in many years of theater and with whom a similar sensitivity has been created. There will be theater in this record and there will be a lot of my theatrical world: all the songs have a female protagonist who tells the evolution of a feeling from her point of view; as in the theater, there is a conflict of feelings in each of these songs. Each story is loosely inspired and set in a neighborhood. Meeting the citizens helped me better understand the spirit of the place. Then the songs were born as theatrical characters. Getting off the track of the theatrical genre is very stimulating, especially at a time when I believe theater has to completely rethink itself to find its own meaning in the world. Music is an exceptional vehicle of human communication and is extremely flexible, vital and capable of being contaminated with other genres and with changes in the world. I think going outside the box is always a good way to renew artistic research».
Sarsì’s music intertwines the styles of the different authors, ranging from electronic music to retro pop, to Middle Eastern winds. «Music today – declares Edmondo Romano – is a summary of various genres, various worlds that dialogue with each other, where tradition and modernity, oral and written transmission merge into a single language. For this reason the compositions for Sarsì naturally combine minimal music with the soundtrack, the Neapolitan rhythmic tradition with the Middle Eastern one, where the electronics are synergistic with the perceived sounds of ancient wind instruments, where the archaic flavor of the song is both lyrical, street, intimist”. «Our work – Giacomo Gianetta and Matteo Spanò explain – straddles the tradition of Italian cinema music, retro pop fascinations and experimental songwriting from across the Channel and overseas. With traditional instrumentation and ambient recordings, we have tried to bring out the objective acoustic realities of the neighborhoods to show their evocative and imaginative potential».
«I worked – FiloQ clarifies – on the production of two songs with a diametrically opposite flavor as diametrically opposite are the stories they tell. In Cornigliano the end of a relationship, a stalking, a moment of violence in the neighborhood which still brings with it a series of wounds that I wanted to represent sonorously with a dark and strident techno song, while for Pontedecimo where it is the love of two long lives at the center of the composition, I used a sound world created with large reverbs, a delicate piano and a string arrangement lost in space».
The images created by Luca Serra will accompany every moment of the concert and will then constitute the video clips of the individual songs. «Luca Serra and I – says Laura Sicignano – went around the neighborhoods, looking for unusual points of view, trying to avoid the “postcards”: we hope to have found poetic and authentic glances. We walked for hours and hours to discover the unexpected beauty of the neighborhoods, the light from the bush or the bright rays in the black clouds, the industrial glimpses in the oldest parts, the hidden details, the traces of memory, the contrasts of meaning, colors and shapes . Each song has its own set of images, taken on the street and intertwined with fragments of portraits of the citizens who have generously told us their most intimate moments, their bond with the city, indeed with a portion of the city, their territory, which it is a fundamental part of everyone’s identity».
Sarsì is produced by Teatro Cargo thanks to contributions to support live entertainment activities in the planned areas of the city of Genoa under the MIC Ministerial Program Agreement – Capital Municipality of the Metropolitan City of Genoa, it is created in collaboration with the Sistema of the Genoese Civic Libraries, Voltri, Pontedecimo, Cornigliano, Sampierdarena, Nervi Libraries, Luzzati Teatro della Tosse Foundation, Cashmere Radio of Berlin, Nude Theater Association, Stellar Cultural Association, Madè Cultural Association of Catania.