Venditti & De Gregori

The great concerts in Friuli Venezia Giulia continue in September.

Two authentic legends of Italian music, Antonello Venditti and Francesco De Gregori, will take the stage on 19 September (at 9 pm). They continue their successful tour together in Italy’s most prestigious venues. Tickets for the concert, organised by Zenit srl and Ente Regionale per il Patrimonio Culturale del FVG, in collaboration with Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia, PromoTurismo FVG and Città di Codroipo, will go on sale from 3.00 p.m. on Thursday 3 August on the Ticketone circuit. Info and authorised points on www.azalea.it .

“Our region – says the Vice-President and Councillor for Culture and Sport of the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Mario Anzil – has the privilege of hosting two great artists of Italian music next September, confirming how our territory knows how to be attractive and absolutely suitable for this kind of performances. The national reach and not only of Antonello Venditti and Francesco De Gregori,’ the Vice-President concludes, ‘will be an opportunity for our region to promote and enhance one of its most important cultural assets and one that I hold dear, namely Villa Manin. I wish everyone a good show!

After the 4 sold-out dates at the Terme di Caracalla in Rome, Venditti & De Gregpri’s tour continues throughout Italy. In these concerts, the two legends of Italian music give new life to their greatest hits: songs that have entered people’s hearts and stories, songs that are the soundtrack of entire generations. Venditti & De Gregori star together on the same stage, with a single band that creates an extraordinary sound by uniting the musicians who have been working separately with the two artists for years: Alessandro Canini (drums), Danilo Cherni (keyboards), Carlo Gaudiello (piano), Primiano Di Biase (hammond), Fabio Pignatelli (bass), Amedeo Bianchi (sax), Paolo Giovenchi (guitars), Alessandro Valle (pedal steel guitar and mandolin). Also on stage are Roberta Palmigiani on violin and choristers Laura Ugolini and Laura Marafioti. Musical coordination is by Guido Guglielmetti and Alessandro Canini.

A common and different story, that of Venditti and De Gregori, both of whom were able to make their mark on Italian songwriting and music. After their debut with the album ‘Theorius Campus’ (1972), their careers split, always remaining parallel.

The rest is history… until today, their tour that sees them starring together on the same stage with a single band in some of Italy’s most atmospheric venues. Two different personalities, but similar. Two artistic statures, each with their own poetics. Venditti and De Gregori began collaborating in their early twenties during a trip to Hungary and began writing their first songs together, leading to their joint recording debut with ‘Theorius Campus’, where Antonello recorded ‘Roma Capoccia’, an immediate success, and Francesco ‘Signora Aquilone’. A record that sanctioned for both the beginning of their artistic journey. Venditti & De Gregori recently recorded and reinterpreted two great classics of their repertoire and of the history of Italian music, ‘Peppino’ and ‘La Donna Cannone’, songs currently on the radio and available on digital. Released in 1983, ‘La Donna Cannone’ is one of the best known songs in De Gregori’s repertoire with an unmistakable melody, and recognisable from the first notes, it is also the song that Venditti has always said he loved and wanted to write. Similarly, ‘Peppino’, recorded by Antonello in 1986 after a trip to Eritrea, is one of the songs that most moved Francesco as he took the steps to interpret it during rehearsals for the tour.