Beyoncé, Elvis, Pavarotti, Michael Jackson, Snow White, Frozen and Batman are some of the 65 characters who will appear on the stage of the Victòria theater from May 24 to June 9.
But there are not 65 performers, nor a company with a dozen artists who double up sixfold for the show. On stage, a man alone, as the name of his show indicates: Solo, the legend of quick change, plays those 65 characters in 90 minutes. He is Arturo Branchetti, the king of quick change.
And it was Mago Pop himself who wanted to make the presentations at the Victòria, his theater: “When you have a theater it is for days like today, to present this wonderful show.” Branchetti thanked him for his praise and declared: “Normally magicians are jealous, but Magician Pop is not, he is very generous.”
Regarding his show, the Italian artist has given some details: “It is a show that I started doing seven years ago, therefore it is very well done, with more than 500 performances. It is a poetic show, very visual.” And for his performances at the Victòria, he reveals that he is “learning the text by heart in Spanish.”
“On the stage there is a little house like a doll and I enter that house with a camera and go through all the rooms. But in the show there are also Chinese shadows, drawings in the sand, battles with lasers,” he adds.
“I am 67 years old in the body, but 15 in the head. I am like Peter Pan and I can fly. My desire is to fly and at the end of the show I achieve it, and I act with my shadow.”
His secret is to be “a little rational and a little fantasy.” And he assures that “people recognize themselves in the show.” “The stage is a huge box where nothing ever ends, there is always something behind it, it is full of magic and there is a surprise every 20 seconds.”
But how does this unique artistic profile arise? Branchetti answers the question: “I started in a seminary. When I was 13, I was very shy, very thin, and suffered a little from bulimia. My classmates put me in the trash to make fun of me, although I wasn’t amused.” .
And magic saved him: “I found a Salesian father who did magic and had a lot of trick books, and that gave me the strength to work in front of the public, because we shy people need this recognition.”
She says that in 1979 she left Italy “with 6 dresses,” and today she has 450. And she takes the 65 characters from everywhere “except from literature because people don’t recognize them.”
“I was at the Tivoli 20 years ago and there was a number about film characters that I no longer do, because many people no longer recognize them. The difficult thing is to find recognizable characters in all countries,” he concludes.
