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Battiato, a year without his freedom of thought

2022-05-17T16:32:30.262Z


Going beyond the surface, its artistic and ethical heritage (ANSA) A year has already passed since Franco Battiato's death , on May 18, 2021: the Italians listened to his voice for the last time during Sanremo 2020, thanks to Colapesce and Dimartino who, on the evening of the covers, interpreted "Povera Patria" , giving space to the voice of the Master who has always played a role of affectionate tutelary deity for the new generations of Sicilian artists. It was


A year has already passed

since Franco Battiato's death

, on May 18, 2021: the Italians listened to his voice for the last time during Sanremo 2020, thanks to Colapesce and Dimartino who, on the evening of the covers, interpreted "Povera Patria" , giving space to the voice of the Master who has always played a role of affectionate tutelary deity for the new generations of Sicilian artists.

It was a year dutifully full of tributes that failed to fill

the sense of emptiness

left by a unique character, a scholar with very broad horizons who knew how to practice the art of pop song but who, thanks to his vast horizons culture,

used very different languages ​​and references

, both in the musical field and in other forms of artistic expression, such as cinema, painting, opera.

A refined and witty intelligence that the country lacks, just as it lacks its humor and its freedom of thought.

Battiato had the same aversion to the clichés of power as he had towards industry: he said in no uncertain terms that he was ashamed of his great commercial successes just as he enjoyed pointing out the blunders of the record companies, such as the one who promised to change his profession if " The Hot Summer Wind "had become a hit.

"When he got to the first place I called him: he was always sitting in his armchair" said Sibylline.

The aplomb was lost when we talked about the state of culture in our country

, but also of the acoustic situation of the theaters.

In him coexisted the pupil of Stockhausen and the author of pop songs entered in the history of costume, the lover of oriental philosophies, of Sufism, of transcendental meditation, of Gurdjeff's thought and the spirit of rock, love and knowledge profound of ancient and classical music and the electronic experimenter who in the 70s aligned himself with avant-garde rock, the protest singer-songwriter, the painter and the film director.

He was a free man and an intellectual

who always looked at society and the world from a personal and original point of view, very often ahead of his time.

Just as he was a

forerunner of electronic music

, Battiato was a lover of classical and symphonic music who in his stories seemed to monopolize his listeners in his spare time.

But the list of his collaborations goes from Claudio Baglioni to CSI, from Enzo Avitabile to Pino Daniele, from Bluvertigo to Tiziano Ferro, Celentano, Subsonica, Marta sui Tubi, not to mention the decisive role played in the careers of Alice and Giuni Russo.

It is certainly no coincidence that he continues to be a point of reference:

young people see him as a model of originality and curiosity

, the older ones a defender of intelligence in a world that too often forgets its importance.

Franco Battiato left an extraordinary legacy in artistic and ethical terms: always looking for something that can take us beyond the surface, looking for an elsewhere that is not just a further reality but a different way of facing life and defining the art and the role of the artist.

Source: ansa

All life articles on 2022-05-17

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