‘Todi Festival’ opened with Veltroni and closes with a sold-out for Loredana Berté

With the sold-out concert of Loredana Berté in the Piazza del Popolo in Todi – surprise guest Clementino, his ‘colleague’ in the Rai program ‘The Voice Senior’ – the nine days of theater, music, dance, literature ended, art of the ‘Todi Festival’. The pop star brought her ‘Daughter of …’ tour to the Umbrian town, offering a practically exhaustive overview of her repertoire, from the old warhorses such as ‘Winter Sea’, ‘Dedicated’, ‘I’m not a lady’, ‘You are beautiful’, ‘And the moon knocked’, ‘On the high seas’, up to the most recent career successes such as ‘I don’t tell you no’, ‘What do you want from me’, ‘Luna Park’, opening and closing with ‘Daughter of … Loredana’. A festival, in the name of eclecticism, if at the closing with Loredana Berté the opening with the texts by Walter Veltroni on the Rampi and Peci cases, between crime news and political terrorism acted as a counterpoint. “Our ‘fil rouge’ is precisely that of not having a red thread – explains AdnKronos, using an apparent linguistic paradox, the director of the ‘Todi Festival’, Eugenio Guarducci – We do not like, for example, being caged by rhetoric that unfortunately I see often present in celebrations and anniversaries, of which frankly there is an overabundance. We want to avoid this type of setting and in the artistic choices we want to compose a sort of ‘Todi Salad’, a fresh end-of-season salad with ingredients which apparently may seem distant in taste from each other but which, if mixed well, in the end give a particular flavor, not banal and very curious. Hence also our curiosity to find spaces and moments for different audiences, measuring ourselves and attracting the attention both of the traditional theatrical audience, and of the younger ones attracted by particular performances “. Another ‘red thread’ to read in filigree is the The strong link with reality, albeit mixed with theater performances of the absurd and psychological thrillers: just think of the themes present in this edition of terrorism, immigration, violence against women: a casual or deliberate choice? “It is clear that there is a historical moment in Italy in which the theater feels the need to propose a topical path – confirms Guarducci – and the ‘Todi Festival’ gives space to current issues, because it believes that this type of artistic proposal is suitable to be consumed by an audience that wants both references to the past and references to the present, through contemporary acts “. Theater, dance, music, literature, art, virtual reality, with the exhibition poster and installations by Arnaldo Pomodoro to frame the paintings … “It was really a nice surprise to be able to boast the artistic presence of such an authoritative character who needs no introduction and who has lovingly decided to make such a beautiful gesture in favor of ‘Todi Festival ‘, in addition to the exhibition and installations in Piazza del Popolo of its four stelae: gestures that filled us with satisfaction and pride, helping to strengthen the image and the population larity and recognizability of this artistic and cultural event “, underlines the artistic director.” Todi is not only a beautiful historic center, as there are so many in Umbria, but in recent years it has been able to focus on important issues related to contemporary art and projects that give prestige and merit to this small strip of land, which has been both local and imported vocations by those who have chosen this village to continue and strengthen their artistic and cultural work and also be infected by an ideal cultural and landscape environment – observes Guarducci – Not only as the green heart of Italy but also as a beating heart: territorial competition is increasingly fierce and often the decision of a traveler in choosing one or the other tourist destination is not determined only by the static presence on the site such as churches or palaces, fountains or castles, but also from additional motivations, be they cultural or even food and wine, which in an ideal mix make a hospitable place “. An additional challenge this year was represented by the reaction to Covid. “Compared to last year, when we had to give up halfway through our season, taking the festival program from nine to four days, the public’s attitude has certainly changed – notes Guarducci – Last year, without vaccines and without green pass, a climate of suspicious distrust if not fear prevailed. Now, a greater awareness of security has certainly been acquired: I am not saying that we are back to normal but we have certainly come very close “. each case conditioned by the need to reduce the number of seats by half, due to the anti-Covid security measures adopted: if we had had more spaces and more seats, we would certainly have recorded even more important results “. to think about the next edition of ‘Todi Festival’ … “It is never too early, our work for the next edition often begins when it is not yet finished. edition in progress. In this sense, it was very important to guarantee a three-year agreement with the Municipality of Todi, which also allowed us to be able to access funding from the Fus, the single fund for the show, exiting the annual precariousness and thus guaranteeing structural security for Todi. Festival “. (By Enzo Bonaiuto)