Venditti & De Gregori, two ‘philosophers and carpenters’ in concert in Rome

“Two of them left and they were enough …”. The beginning of the concert by Venditti & De Gregori at the Olympic stadium in Rome, the first stop of their tour, captures the exceptionality and at the same time the naturalness of seeing Francesco De Gregori on the stage for the first time together. and Antonello Venditti, two “philosophers and carpenters”, as they define themselves. “Two survivors? Maybe yes, too; but survived well …”, they are keen to underline – with a large display of realism and irony, ingredients often present both in the lyrics of their songs – before going on stage for the start of the tour, with a single band made up of musicians who have been collaborating separately with the two artists for years, which will take them around the boot, from the next stop in Ferrara to Taormina, before returning to the capital, this time at the Auditorium, and then close on 5 October with the second date (added last minute, after an interminable series of ‘sold out’) at the Arena di Verona. To applaud them, from the stands of the Olimpico, also many well-known faces among the 45,000 spectators who scored the ‘sold-out’: the director Paolo Sorrentino, the actors Checco Zalone, Edoardo Leo, Marco Giallini, Sergio Rubini, the actress Virginia Raffaele, the writer Gianrico Carofiglio and in the Giallorossi sports field the former president Rossella Sensi and the former coach C laudio Ranieri, as well as several institutional guests. “What could be more new than the two of us, who after fifty years sing and play together?”, observe the two artists. In the stadium of ‘their’ Rome – also understood in a footballing sense – Venditti & De Gregori (in the order chosen for the concert poster) do not spare themselves, for a “magical” lineup of over thirty songs, which includes their successes but which inevitably leaves out as many hits of a career so long over time and so large of songs engraved in the hearts and memories of so many people, starting with the 45,000 spectators who fill in every order of place the narrow system between the Tiber and Monte Mario “A lineup born almost naturally, along the way, but nevertheless reasoned, certainly not drawn by lot, but following a sort of ideal script, even without initial intent”, they explain in unison. A concert that, they underline, “is as if it were a single, large, song, which develops piece by piece”, with the two artists taking turns, singing their songs and those of their colleague and friend ‘found’, who interpret them together, even playing one the piano and the other the guitar. And this unique event, De Gregori & Venditti together on stage, for “a wonderful and virtuous collusion of sounds” explains the ‘Prince’, could not that starting from Rome, their city, “beautiful regardless of its problems, clearly overcome by its beauty”, the cantor of ‘Roma Capoccia’ is keen to underline. The last dedication is for the public: “Already the dress rehearsals with the empty stands were beautiful, let alone the concert in front of the full stadium!”. (By Enzo Bonaiuto)