After having hosted him in numerous editions of the “Poesia del ‘900 (20th century poetry)” review, curated by Giovanni Raboni, the Piccolo Teatro once again welcomes Maurizio Cucchi at the Chiostro Nina Vinchi for a special evening, organised in his honour by Lucrezia Lerro for his seventieth birthday.
Taking part in the evening, entitled L'armonia del suono, and meaningfully subtitled “Passiamo questa soglia una volta di più (let’s cross this threshold one more time)” will be the poets Milo De Angelis, Vivian Lamarque, Giancarlo Majorino, Giampiero Neri, Antonio Riccardi, Davide Rondoni, Tiziano Rossi, Mario Santagostini, and Patrizia Valduga; the musicians Marco Casiraghi and Angelo Leadbelly Rossi; the actresses Angelica Cacciapaglia and Laura Piazza, and the singer Simona Severini. The evening will be presented by Lucrezia Lerro and Corrado Beldi.


The idea for this initiative – as Lucrezia Lerro explains – was born from conversations with poet friends on how to celebrate the birthday of Maurizio Cucchi, one of our most important living poets, as well as an intellectual, a critic, and a dedicated promoter of important poetry awards and cultural events. It is an important birthday for a writer who has dedicated his entire life to literature and in particular to poetry. Thus the idea of involving the city, through the Department of Culture, to offer Maurizio an evening/show in a location which is of cultural importance and much loved by him.
The programme came together almost naturally, beginning with the words of Cucchi himself, who – in an interview – spoke of the “harmony of sound”, and thus the title was found. The phrase which forms the subtitle comes from a poem by Vittorio Sereni (Altro compleanno – another birthday), much loved by Cucchi.
The poets involved are tied to Maurizio for various reasons and have all been followed by him during their poetic careers either in his role as critic or publisher, as well as having become friends. They will be charged with the reading of excerpts from Maurizio Cucchi's books.
A fundamental part of the evening is the music much loved by the poet in its lighter forms of expression, such as song, thus the participation of a musician (Marco Casiraghi), a singer (Simona Silvestrini) and a jazz musician (Angelo Leadbelly Rossi).
The programme finishes with Angelica Cacciapaglia reciting a piece written by Cucchi for the theatre on the figure of Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc e il suo doppio), and Laura Piazza reciting a selection of pages from the novel il male è nelle cose.
The images shown are taken from the film produced for “Gente di Milano (people of Milan)” with the patronage of the province: M. Cucchi. Un po’ nell'ombra un po’ nella memoria.