Fort Alamo Association
3 and 4 March, 9 pm
CURSED FRENCH
chansonnier lives and rebellious songs
After cabaret performances, comic-musical essays and theatrical projects, Giangilberto Monti summarizes the French repertoire he has always loved. His translations of Vian, Ferré, Gainsbourg and Renaud, have been published on musical albums, essays and historical books, such as his Maledetti Francesi (2011, NdA), cited by Gianni Mura in Repubblica as one of the books to remember about that year.
Here the Milanese chansonnier tells off the cuff the beginnings of the French songwriter, recalls anecdotes and fragments of history from beyond the Alps, talks about how the poetic song went through the twentieth century. And it does so by interpreting the most beautiful songs of the French maudits par excellence: from the versatility of Boris Vian to the desperate and barricaded texts of Leo Ferré, from the poetic provocations of Serge Gainsbourg to the heart-breaking stanzas of Jacques Brel, up to the jeers of Georges Brassens, one of the main inspirers of the Italian singer-songwriter, and to the ironic hardness of Renaud, the last of the classic French maudits.
The utopias and rebelliousness of all time can be found in the words of these artists, between folk and author ballads, which Monti interprets accompanied by his musicians. A musical narration from a passionate and curious conductor, showing the public that contamination between poetry, music and comedy that has always been the heritage of our French-speaking cousins.
From the press
"Monti chansonnier, bravo and cursed, in the name of Vian" - The Republic
"Monti's performance flows away with unusual vivacity, amidst libertarian noises, celebrations of women, love, and linguistic and moral transgression" - The newspaper
"Notes cursed in freedom by Giangilberto Monti" - The poster
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GIANGILBERTO MONTI
Writer and chansonnier , Giangilberto Monti wrote his first songs in the mid-seventies. He attended the world of independent labels of that period, met the producer Nanni Ricordi and the songwriters Ricky Gianco and Ivan Cattaneo and graduated in Engineering in Milan, signing immediately afterwards for CBS, now Sony Music. In his first albums ( The order is public?, 1978; Il giro del giorno , 1979; And tomorrow?, 1981) he alternates poetic texts of civil commitment with sarcastic passages on the society of the time.
He undertakes a parallel theatrical activity : he studies singing with Cathy Berberian, acts with Dario Fo and Franca Rame , graduates from the Civic School of Dramatic Art in Milan and writes with Flavio Premoli, keyboardist of the PFM, the rock-opera Guardie e Ladri (1982 ), an album that features among others Alberto Camerini, Francesco Di Giacomo del Banco, Anna Oxa and vocalist Bernardo Lanzetti. Always with Premoli he writes songs for Fiordaliso and Anna Oxa, signing with the violinist Mauro Pagani My Race (1990), for Mia Martini.
During the eighties he frequented the environment of the Zelig in Milan, collaborating as an author with the comedians Aldo Baglio and Giovanni Storti - of the future trio Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo - the stand-up comedian Marco Della Noce and the duo of the Fichi d'India. He writes and acts with the actress Lella Costa , realizes theater-song shows with the jazz player Gaetano Liguori and the composer Sergio Conforti, the Rocco Tanica of Elio & Le Storie Tese, signs scripts for the Italian Swiss Radio.
After having staged the musical repertoire of Dario Fo (1999-2000) with the jazz player Laura Fedele, he developed a writer and essayist activity with Garzanti, who published the Dictionary of Cantautori (2003-2005), signed with Veronica Di Pietro, and the Dictionary of Comedians and Cabaret (2008). In the same years he recalls the 1968 period with the show A little after the lead and the album of unreleased songs Ce n'est qu'un début , to be followed by the Comicanti CD - both published with Carosello Records - in which he duets with a fifteen comic artists, interpreting the best pieces of Italian musical comedy, from Ettore Petrolini to Dario Fo. His theatrical version, directed by Vito Molinari, sees him on stage with Flavio Oreglio and Stefano Nosei (2010-2011).
Since 1994 he has developed his passion for French music : he undertakes a long research on the work of Boris Vian, curating with Giulia Colace the volume Boris Vian-The songs (Marcos y Marcos), he publishes a choice of songs by the French artist. , which he adapted into Italian (Manifesto) and stages La Banda Bonnot - the story of the anarchist bandit Jules Bonnot , based on unreleased songs by Vian - which in 2004 won the Prix Suisse as a musical radio play and was released on CD for the FolkClub Ethnosuoni. Two years later it will be the turn of Maledette Canzoni - a discographic tribute to Vian, Léo Ferré and Serge Gainsbourg, of which Monti is the first in Italy to translate the songs - followed in 2011 by the Belle Équipe project, a musical show with comedian Alberto Patrucco and singer-songwriter Andrea Mirò, preceded by Maledetti Francesi (NdA, 2010), a book in which lives of the chansonniers, the same ones who have marked the history of our songwriting.