JUNE 10 – REGGIO EMILIA
Giardino dello Spallanzani

“Do not make the mistake of looking down on sadness.”
— Elio e le Storie Tese

 

Elio returns to the stage with “The Reappraisal of Sadness” (La rivalutazione della tristezza). Accompanied by his band—Alberto Tafuri on piano and musical direction, Sophia Tomelleri on tenor saxophone and flute, Giulio Molteni on bass, and Martino Malacrida on drums—Elio dedicates an entire concert to sadness: an emotion that, from Catullus to Virginia Woolf, from Munch to Donald Duck, has crossed centuries of art, literature and music, yet is too often regarded today as a disabling condition from which we must protect ourselves.

The concert restores sadness to its rightful place through songs by great Italian and international composers and songwriters who transformed it into the raw material for timeless music: from Luigi Tenco to Domenico Modugno, from Fabrizio De André to Charles Aznavour, as well as James Taylor, Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill, Nino Rota, and even Elio e le Storie Tese themselves. The repertoire is broad and eclectic, moving effortlessly between singer-songwriter classics, traditional melodies, and an unexpected finale.

Because sadness should not be driven away—it should be taken in small doses. And if you overdo it, an antidote may be required…