Paolo Jannacci and Stefano Massini will be guests at the Sanremo Festival on Thursday 8 February with “L’uomo nel lampo”, an unreleased song of social denunciation.
Jannacci and Massini have long consolidated their artistic relationship thanks to the theatrical show “Storie” produced by Piccolo Teatro di Milano which has seen them protagonists in the major Italian theaters since 2020.
On the stage of the Ariston Massini and Jannacci will bring to life a song with a strong social and emotional impact, a topic that is always talked about only on the occasion of serious events that are never remedied: deaths at work. Often told with numbers and statistics, they remain lives that suddenly disappeared, forgotten the next day.
There were 1485 work-related deaths in 2023. Many times it is said that they died by chance and everything ends up forgotten.
Two more people have died in the last twenty-four hours.
It is certified that 80% of deaths at work would not occur if rights were protected.
The song is in the tradition of song theater.
This evening I’m actually performing a piece.I speak to music and Paolo sings the chorus.
“The man in the flash” is a dialogue in music.
This evening will be a very strong and dramatic piece about an episode that actually happened.
There is a father who died very young in an accident at work, one of those who plague our news, without making the news to the point that they no longer cause scandal because work has become a Wild West and rights are a luxury. The habituation to the so-called white deaths is now a fact, and with this piece of theater-song we attempt to lift the veil of narcosis.
The song is a small portrait of life, dramatic because it crystallizes an impossible dialogue: from that photograph hanging in the living room, the father never stops talking to his son, who in the meantime grows into the legend of that father who “died in a flash”.
It is a new chapter in the collaboration that has linked me to Paolo Jannacci for years, and which since 2020 has seen us in theaters throughout Italy with the replicas of “Storie” at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan. This collaboration makes me even more proud since it is part of a civil commitment, the one on the so-called “white” deaths, which I have denounced many times also for family reasons.
I hope this piece brings awareness.
Machines have become competitive with humans. The reason is that machines have no rights!
Paolo Jannacci adds:
Being able to protect and protect ourselves in the world of work frees us from the pettiness that often dominates us. “The man in the flash” is a small contribution in a poetic key, so as not to forget those who died at work and to always keep ourselves on guard, because our lives depend on it. Italy is a democratic republic founded on work, but we often forget this. I can’t say anything else because I’m just an acrobat… But we know: acrobats have always told bitter truths.”
“The man in the flash” will be published by ALA BIANCA on all digital platforms (audio/video) after the performance at the Ariston on Thursday 8 February.
Ala Bianca, which has always been ‘border line’ in the market for its attention to content, from popular songs (‘I Dischi del Sole’) to author songs (‘I Dischi del Club Tenco’), the twenty years of artistic collaboration with Enzo Jannacci continued with his son Paolo, the production of soundtracks for films by prestigious directors…, presents this unique work, also poetic but of social denunciation, thanks to the sensitivity and acuteness of the two artists-interpreters of the piece: Paolo Jannacci – singing and piano, Stefano Massini, acting, intense story.
