All Italian theaters must remain closed to the public, from the Scala to the parish halls. Prose closed, opera closed, ballet closed, classical, jazz and pop concerts closed, cinemas closed. All closed except, it seems, the Ariston, because we know that without the Sanremo Festival there is no salvation, and in short, for those who decide Italy is still and always synonymous with song, heart and love and so on. Amadeus repeated it a few days ago: he will do everything to make Sanremo meet the public, perhaps up and down the ship anchored offshore, the cruising crews, the reserve of buffered cheers.
Among those who do the theater and among those who go to the theater, anger has been mounting for days. Also because the first of the two categories is split between the protected, the hires of the foundations and the buildings, who take the layoffs, and the freelancers, who live on the government one thousand euros a month, if and when they arrive, and it is not that they are all stars with huge assets. So yesterday the general indignation exploded with the words of Emma Dante, great director of prose and opera, who wrote on Facebook what everyone thinks: «If you decide to do Sanremo with the public, theaters and cinemas will reopen. It is peaceful », and also quite self-evident: at least in misfortune a level playing field is valid. Open up heaven. Social media have plebiscated the exit of Dante and other statements immediately arrived. For example, that of Manuela Kustermann, actress and director of the Vascello di Roma: «If the Sanremo Festival opens to the public, let’s mobilize, let’s take to the streets. We feel mortified, forgotten. We talk about tourism, never about culture, never about theater. It is shameful that Minister Franceschini has been on the run for months, does not say anything, does not expose himself ». In fact, the Mibact seems to have evaporated, except for the nebulous idea of the “Netflix of culture” which convinces no one and will drain further resources on the only theater that really matters: what is done in the theater, in front of the public, in flesh, blood, tears and laughter.
And it is not the usual snobbish elites who say that seeing the Ariston open and the Scala closed would be a planetary shame. Renzo Arbore, champion of the national popular, is very clear: «The Festival must make a virtue of necessity. You can’t have a real audience, but there are players. It will be enough for Amadeus and Fiorello who are very good and will be able to invent something suitable to play anyway. You can’t ignore it: the spectators know very well that theaters and cinemas are still closed and that it is a Festival born in a pandemic ». And Al Bano, someone who is in Sanremo like Nutella with bread? He is even in favor of postponement: if it is to become “a halfway festival”, he asks himself, then “wouldn’t it be better to wait for better times?”. As for Iva Zanicchi, another Sanremo DOP, he says that «you can’t have a Sanremo Festival without the public and its warmth. It would be very sad. ‘
Meanwhile, the record companies are asking Rai to provide “a serious health protocol on Sanremo, which should be approved by the CTS,” well in advance, while the inevitable Codacons says it is ready to ask for the Festival to be blocked and to challenge any act that authorize. The Rai Supervisory Commission summoned the director of Raiuno, Stefano Coletta, for Tuesday to understand what the flagship network plans to do, and maybe even how. The impression remains of a politics that confuses culture and circuses (the unfortunate expression of Conte on the artists “who amuse us”), so the show may die as well but the patria song. Moreover, speaking of pop music festivals, yesterday the news that the Glastonbury one will be skipped due to Covid, and for the second year in a row. Changing the order of the arts does not change the result: Variety writes that most likely the Cannes festival will no longer be held in May but in July. If it is OK.
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