by Stefania Clerici
After “20 years of practice in the ephemeral live dimension of the festive celebration” (read, the ritual Fuori Orario concert that takes place every year during the Christmas holidays), Vinicio Capossela gives us yet another gift: bringing the Party, or rather his own Schützenfest, around Italy (and Europe, recent dates are in France and Germany), for a collective celebration of the most beautiful “Pagan Christmas” you could wish for.
Photo credits by Enrico de Luigi
Dressed for the holidays (whose tour started at the end of October), was born as part of a larger conceptually “natal” project: on the one hand, in fact, there is the release of the documentary film Christmas Out of Hours, presented at the Rome Film Festival last October, on the other hand the publication of a collection of Christmas classics revisited in the album Sciusten Feste n.1965a sui generis collection that draws on various sources and disparate Christmas traditions and which, on tour, takes the form of a Christmas concert, in that perfect mix of spectacularity, reflections and irony that only a visionary and histrionic mind like that of Vinicius could have created.
So that's it Christmas becomes a circus and never was a more appropriate location than the Christmas village set up in the Sesto San Giovanni crane area: under the marquee of the Chapiteau of Wondersjust last night, on the night of Santa Lucia and up to and including 16 December, Capossela's “Christmas Mirabilia” will be staged: but don't expect reindeer, Santa Claus and white snow, no. Capossela's Christmas begins with Il Dia de Los Muertos, in a mambo-mariachi in which, dressed as a skeleton, Vinicio plays And then mamboand then ferry us onto the swing of one White Christmas all colorful and finally, transforming into a monkey, it makes us children again to the tune of I want to be like you (from the Jungle Book).
Photo credits by Enrico de Luigi
The journey into Caposselian space then continues in the revelry of New York night and the village festivals of Angelina Zooma Zooma (cover by Louis Prima), to then rise to the more melancholy notes of the genius of Tom Waits and the poetic reinterpretation of Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis. Each new song sees Capossela change clothes, hats, jackets and lights, but on the Italianized cover of Santa Claus Is Coming to Townis that he gives his best: with a Christmas red miter on his head, a ferule in his hand and a cloak on him, Capossela becomes Saint Nicholas to sing his personal interpretation of Saint Nicholas has arrived in the citydedicated to all riders, our very modern “saints” of last minute and increasingly impervious deliveries.
The show is magical also thanks to the performers who animate the scene together with the singer-songwriter: here then in the interlude on the theme of I cerini di san Nicola il mago Christopher Wonder delights us with one of his most successful spells: holding a glass of beer in the balance without spilling the liquid, or the dance of the sugared almond fairy taken from the Nutcracker, and even the tightrope walker who walks balanced on bottles of sparkling wine from past Christmases or eat and get fire with spectacular savoir faire.
Among the Christmas covers of Comfort and joy (God Rest You Merry Gentlemen) and that of Bells (Jingle Bells) we dance to the tune of Maharaja and Agitaand then conclude the first part of the concert with the parties of Sciusten festa n.1965 and the thanks of Dankeshen.
The remise sees Capossela and the whole band back on stage for a presentation At the frischelletto of all the members of the band, and then invite the whole audience to celebrate in an invasion of the arena with a collective train on the notes of Tico Tico. The party continues as if it were New Year's Eve in collective dances with What is love And At the New Year's Eve, who see the stage transformed into a large “After Hours” where one could dance “until dawn livid with mist that dries us and consumes us”. The final warning of Al veglione which bids us farewell with a “drive with caution and goodnight” brings us back to reality on the official conclusion of the first evening at the Carroponte which ends with the waltz of the Gift time, where “everything was a gift” and this show certainly was.
As Capossela says: “You can leave the party beaten, and we want to play them all!” And so it was, we were really dressed up for the holidays, in fact!
For info on the next dates and consult the website https://www.viniciocapossela.it/eventi/
Discover the lineup of Vinicio Capossela's concert @Carroponte, Sesto San Giovanni – Milan
Bear with me
White Christmas
And then mambo
I want to be like you
New York night
Angelina
Christmas card (Tom waits cover)
Saint Nicholas has arrived in the city
The matches of Saint Nicholas (theme- magic Christopher wonder)
Comfort and Joy (God Rest You Merry Gentlemen)
The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
Maharajah
Shake
Bells
Sciusten festa n.1965
Dankeshen
….
The frischelletto
Tico tico
What is love
At the New Year's Eve
….
Gift time
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
