Franco Battiato, one of the masters of Italian music, died today, May 18, 2021. He was 76 years old. The chronicle of his disappearance is here; the memory that Mario Luzzatto Fegiz makes of him – music, illness, spirituality – it is here instead. We re-publish below the interview that the Corriere made him in 2015.
The broken femur? “The only bore is that at the airport they yell at me: how’s the leg? For the rest I’m fine ». Your seventy years old in March? “They wanted me to have a party: I have an audience that adores me and this I’m sorry because I have to correspond“. Commitments for the summer? «Holidays with my niece Cristina and her two children in Donnafugata». Plus the concerts, from Parma (tonight) to Vittoria (all dates on www.battiato.it ).
Franco Battiato is a witty and kind man. Musician, singer, director, writer, so far in life he has played many roles. The expression he feels most resonant with, however, is spirituality: «The rest doesn’t matter, really. I think I have read everything on the subject by now, I started in the 70s with the Indian mystics ».
With spirituality he tries to “make contacts” every day through meditation. «I wake up very early, today for example at half past three, don’t be frightened! I listen to classical music on Radio 3, for an hour or two. Then I go to my porch to meditate. I have in front of an incredible panorama, from Taormina to Syracuse, wonderful sky and sea and then a very rich vegetation with ancient pines, some so inclined that they almost touch the ground, Japanese trees that give small mandarins, grapefruits and lush oranges despite we are at 800 meters. Wild yellow, red or lilac roses have sprung up spontaneously around the palm trees. And there is the vegetable garden, with lettuces, tomatoes, potatoes, we also planted watermelons. I just look, though! There are four gardeners who take care of it, but I only pay for one: it is a close-knit family ».
–
The rites of the day
This little paradise is in Milo, on the eastern slopes of Etna. «Before buying the house from Sicilian nobles who came to spend the winter there, I took three nights to think about it, then I felt I could do it. It was the late eighties. I don’t live there alone, I wouldn’t feel like it: I have some servants who help me, a very discreet Moroccan family lives in the annex. And then I have the cook, who cooks in a divine way ». At 12.30, in fact, the phone call is interrupted for lunch. Half an hour later, very punctual, the teacher will tell of having eaten pasta with broccoli, “skimpy” asparagus from the garden together with the “bigger” ones he bought. Other than frugal and tasteless meals. “Look, everyone who comes here to me is pleasantly surprised. I’m vegan, but not tight. I eat Mediterranean style: I’m crazy about gazpacho, pasta with garlic, oil and chilli and Sicilian pasta with chopped tomatoes and aubergines ». Breakfast at 7: «Always after meditation. This morning I ate tea with a few cornflakes, a slice of toasted wholemeal bread with jam and, last but not least, the cookies that Anna, the maid makes me. ”
–
Little TV
In the evening he goes to sleep early, does a bit of zapping in bed (“Yes, I have a TV in my room, are you surprised?”), Stops on Sky Channel 138 if there is a good musician, and then falls asleep . “There is hardly anything left to watch on our networks now. As for talk shows with politicians, I don’t want to be bothered by certain characters who rant and offend that extraordinary Sicilian woman (the mayor of Lampedusa Giusi Nicolini, ed ) which alone is worth the whole League put together ». He slowly chooses the word when he speaks of «irritation» due to the reactions to the continuing emergency landings: «We have had 20 million Italians who have gone everywhere to seek their fortune, including my father Salvatore, Turi for everyone. Some made it, others didn’t: I had an uncle to whom I also dedicated a record, Joe Patti, who had become very rich in Florida with a company that fished and exported fish; and another who, even without begging, lived in New York with very little earnings ».
–
Distances from human feelings
Battiato wrote the soundtrack of our life. Yet, if we remind him of the success to which we are arbitrarily most linked, Nevsky Prospect, he is almost surprised to remember its genesis: «I had composed it for piano and voice without knowing where the text came from. I happen to write things because they are connected with something else ». It is the spirituality that returns, in that idea of being connected to each other and people with the universe: Franco Battiato believes in reincarnation. “If a person has a modicum of sensitivity, how can he say we come from monkeys? You idiot !, I say: monkeys are themselves human beings put there for a reason. When you behave in a terrible way, when you kill someone, then you are reborn as an insect, snake or another animal … That’s why I walk down the street, being careful not to step on even the ants ». It doesn’t harm mosquitoes either. «Today there are some interesting perfumed things to keep them away …». The spiritual journey also served him to distance himself from certain very human feelings. Try to explain it, praying not to be misunderstood, when we ask him how he lived the deaths of loved ones, his mother Grazia or the philosopher Manlio Sgalambro. «I have detached myself from certain mechanisms. I love people very much, my mother, Sgalambro, other colleagues who have worked with me: I have never had a problem with them and it is no small problem. But only through studying do you understand certain things. Perhaps in those situations we regret the loss of habits ». And Pope Francis? «I like him very much, I love him. But he has a little view of spiritual things. We cannot humanize God, but work like crazy to get closer to him ».
–
Chastity and women
Battiato the ascetic: practice chastity? “Maybe! Alas no, this was my problem. I have a need for freedom, I could never fight over a displaced toothpaste ». His relationship with women? «When I was very young and I played with my band, I was always surrounded by them: once there was one I had bet on and one evening he came to my house. At the time I had little money, so I went out and bought three yogurts, then went to take a shower: when I went back out, I found that he had eaten all three. But how, I told her, did you not leave me one? Well, let’s say that I didn’t have any soul mates … But friends worthy of the name, yes, and every now and then there is someone who comes to stay here with me for five or ten days. In completely separate rooms, however, of course! ».
—
May 18, 2021 (change May 18, 2021 | 09:25)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
–
