Jan. 28 – “Penso che un sogno così non ritorni mai più, mi dipingevo le mani e la faccia di blu. Poi d’improvviso venivo dal vento rapito e incominciavo a volare nel cielo infinito…” are possibly the most well-known lyrics in Italian music history. Domenico Modugno first presented the song “Nel blu dipinto di blu” at the Sanremo Festival of 1958, which was immediately renamed by the public “Volare.” Today, the very first words of this songs give the title to a play starring Giuseppe Fiorello. After the huge success of the television drama Rai1 “Volare – The story of Domenico Modugno,” the actor brings the artist’s life on stage: a southern boy who moved to Rome to pursue his dreams and who will leave a mark on the Italian music scene and beyond. The show “I think that a dream like this…” is produced by Nuovo Teatro, directed by Marco Balsamo and Ibla Film, written by Giuseppe Fiorello and Vittorio Moroni, with music performed live by Daniel Bonaviri and Fabrizio Palma and directed by Giampiero Solar. In great demand abroad, for now only two stops in the United States in April are planned: Atlantic City and Foxwoods. Fiorello said of the show, “Modugno for me was not just a story to tell or a character to play, but the possibility of finding a long-lost past inside of me. In this show, I use Domenico Modugno’s songs to look back at my childhood, Sicily and Italy during those years. Faces, people, funny stories, painful and nostalgic memories, and others that may seem incredible… Through this journey, I invite the protagonists of my life to get out of the memories and accompany me on stage to participate in an adventurous game of mirrors.” “I think that a dream like this…” – a one-man show – left Civitavecchia on November 22 and will be on stage until April 6. Until February 16, Modugno – Fiorello will be in Rome at the Teatro Ambra Jovinelli: “The show – he adds – is part of a dream, intertwining the story of every family with that of Modugno, as it happened during that historical period. The common thread is Modugno’s music, but the real star of this show is my father, who I always associated with Modugno, given their astounding physical similarities.”
