'Io odio i talent show - Adesso canto io' is the first theatre show by Mario Luzzatto FegizItaly's most famous music critic, who introduces us to his own psychodrama as follows: 'A music critic, once feared and respected, finds himself having to deal with a new reality: that of social networks, talent shows, televotes, text messages, improbable judges with a thin cultural background. Accustomed since the 1970s to making the best and the worst of things, today he is disempowered by a contestation that acts in real time, with the artists' fans ready to catch him in the act between jeers and insults. Trained to work with planetary musical certainties like Elton John or the Beatles or with Italian personalities of great stature, he discovers an unpleasant reality: artists he detests or ignores are successful even without his blessing'.
Fegiz hates talent shows because they put an end to the dictatorship of (his) critics.
Thus, in a tragicomic crescendo, he recounts with surprising humour and histrionic charisma unknown episodes, legends, facts and various misdeeds experienced first-hand with the great protagonists of the last 40 years of music in Italy. In about an hour and a half full of emotions and twists Mario Luzzatto Fegiz, accompanied on stage by musicians Roberto Santoro (voice, guitar and effects) and Vladimir Denissenkov (Russian accordion), in a sort of delirium-turned-exposé goes on a crazy journey through famous songs (interpreted by Santoro) and dozens of anecdotes, concerning legends such as Tenco, De Andrè, Dalla, Michael Jackson or Elton John, as well as the most popular artists of the last decades, such as Vasco, Pausini, Madonna and Ramazzotti, up to today's talent idols like Alessandra Amoroso, Arisa, Giusy Ferreri and Marco Carta, their songs, the Sanremo festival with its behind-the-scenes stories, in short everything you would expect from someone who, in the course of his career, has met more than 1.000 Italian and foreign artists.
And that of himself, 'a music critic in the midst of a psychodrama', he says: 'My job is to tell you whether it is worth spending 50 euros for a concert or 15 for a CD... For mysterious reasons, for 40 years I have been forcing audiences and artists to confront my incompetence. And I have seen things that you humans cannot even imagine'.
"Io odio i talent show" - written by Fegiz in collaboration with Maurizio Colombi and Giulio Nannini, produced by Claudio Trotta for Barley Arts and directed by Colombi himself - is a new show, to which the Italian public is not accustomed. With its definitive staging, which we will see on tour from September onwards in various theatres in Italy, an initial test with the public and the feared critics of colleagues took place last April at the Teatro Verdi in Milan, to unanimous acclaim. It is a one-man show about music that no one has ever dared - or been able - to stage before. Luzzatto Fegiz no longer plays the role of critic, but that of actor, comedian and entertainer, and he does so with a verve that will surprise his esteemed critical colleagues - of whom he will finally be a hostage - and that will also leave the artists, the (in)voluntary protagonists of his spectacular theatrical-musical marathon, speechless.
And it is already certain that 'I hate talent shows' will soon become a book! Scheduled for release in the first half of November and published by Guido Veneziani Editore (Gve), publisher of many popular newspapers such as Vero and Top, the book contains many of the passages from the show and various episodes that are currently unpublished.
I HATE TALENT SHOWS
on stage:
Mario Luzzatto Fegiz
Roberto Santoro (voice, guitar and effects)
Vladimir Denissenkov (Russian accordion)
The tour:
Friday 19 October - NAPLES - Trianon Theatre
Friday 16 November - LODI, Auditorium banca popolare di Lodi
Tuesday 20 November - TRIESTE, Politeama Rossetti
Tuesday 27 November - BOLZANO, Cristallo Theatre
Tuesday 15 January - LECCO, Teatro della Società
Saturday 2 February - NEMBRO (BG), San Filippo Neri Theatre
5 to 7 April - MILAN, Teatro Nuovo
