“I am four times 20, and I am training to be five times 20, it helps me to be always positive on the field,” Al Bano said last night in response to a compliment from a woman sitting in the front row. This is how the artist from Puglia defines himself since he turned 80 last year, a proclamation of youth against the passage of time that last night he turned into facts with a musical journey through his life guided by a marvelous voice, devouring songs full of Felicità .
The stands of the Coliseum theater were full of twenty-somethings, like Al Bano himself, ready to open the box of memories of those summers in San Remo, warm melodic breezes that the singer from La Puglia still knows how to caress with that voice that has sold 160 millions of records. Although in recent years her name has been heard more in the tabloid press than in the musical press, the more than 1,600 people who filled the Gran Via theater last night were eager to hear the hits that Romina Power’s musical partner has left in a prolific career that currently combines with a love of vineyards. Not in vain, 13 years had passed since her last performance, when she sang alongside Montserrat Caballé at the Peralada festival.
Al Bano did not disappoint in its return, a two and a half hour concert where songs like Ci Sarà, Libertà, Sharazan and of course Felicità were played. Old songs with new arrangements by Alterisio Paoletti that he performed accompanied by a band of five musicians (guitar, bass, drums, violin, piano) and two backup singers.
Dressed in a suit, scarf and white hat, Al Bano performed with Volare, a passport for the musical review of his life that a large part of the audience welcomed waving their arms. “I’m happy to return to Barcelona, ??I don’t know if it’s because I’m Mediterranean, but when I come to this part of Spain it’s like breathing in the roots of our life,” he said by way of introduction. And last night Al Bano wanted to talk and tell stories, always in Spanish, with the complicity of an audience that laughed, applauded and chanted for the Italian. Always speaking in Spanish, he used poetry to present Ci Sarà. (1984, with Romina) “to water the root of joy”, which culminated with a burst of voice that he exhibited on several occasions, proof that youth not only resides in his music, but in the careful throat of he.
He recalled his youth in Nostalgia, “I left home when I was 17, and I understood that I did not have to earn nostalgia,” also the drama of immigration, “The Mediterranean is a cemetery of souls that are seeking freedom,” he denounced before to play the sad Amanda and Libera. And she claimed it with I Cigni di Balaka, with the rhythm that Michael Jackson made famous by plagiarizing it in Will you be here? from Dangerous.
There was also a memory for Lucio Dalla with a sober and powerful Caruso that got the audience on its feet. Adriano Celentano played with Azzurro, who together with the Neapolitan Funiculi starred in the most festive aspect of a night in which Al Bano was applauded in every possible way, until the singer was brought to his knees, who, unlike other veterans of his craft, did not He gave up the spotlight nor did he rely on the band (beyond an unexpected drum solo by Maurizio de Lazaretti in the middle of 13 Storia d’oggi). Yes, there were two breaks, in which he gave the stage to his children, first to Yari Carrisi, who with his guitar performed 4 songs, including Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen and Harvest Moon by Neil Young. The second interruption, later in the night, gave way to Jasmine, her 22-year-old daughter who opted for vocodized pop. A respite in which Al Bano, in addition to being a father, served as godfather.
From Semper semper, with the aroma of a summer song and which he sang in Spanish, he moved on to the operatic Va pensiero with the help of pre-recorded samples, and Bach’s Ave María that he played years ago with Montserrat Caballé, honored with the family in the audience of the evening. It was in the second part of the concert, where with the hot voice Al Bano gave the best of himself regardless of the fact that he got lost with the lyrics in Mattino. The die was already cast, and all that was left was to complete the performance with a medley that was the most lovey-dovey and festive of the years with Romina (Prima notte d’amore, Magic oh Magic, Che angelo sei, Bussa ancora) before Shazaran and Felicità will conclude the return to the 20 years that Al Bano – who ended the night shaking all the hands that wanted to approach him – refuses to abandon, and as long as he maintains that voice, who knows.