{:en}The extraordinary versatility of Giancarlo Giannini, the great interpretative skills of Michele Placido, the enthralling energy of Subsonica, the sympathy of Gene Gnocchi and Gigi and Andrea. They are some of the protagonists of the 2019 edition of the Dreams Festival, the review of major events promoted by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the City of Loano and curated by Dimensione Eventi with the artistic direction of Ivan Fabio Perna and that throughout the summer will enliven the arena of the Prince's Garden of Loano.
“As has been the case for the past three years now,” explains Loano Mayor Luigi Pignocca, "the list of artists who will tread the stage of the Prince's Garden consists of some top names from the world of music, theater and cabaret in our country and beyond. Artists of the highest caliber who have chosen our summer arena as the ideal setting for their performances. What is about to begin will be another summer of great entertainment and fun for all our fellow citizens and guests.".
Councillor for Tourism, Culture and Sports Remo Zaccaria adds, “In terms of variety and quality of shows, once again this year our summer arena presents itself as one of the most important cultural venues in the province of Savona and the whole of Liguria. From music to theater, from cabaret to dance, even in its third edition the Dreams Festival has a playbill that no other location in our territory can boast.”.
“Having now reached the third edition,” they add from Dimensione Eventi, "we can claim to be one of the benchmark summer festivals in Liguria: in a single review we bring together leading figures from the world of music and national comedy, without neglecting dance, shows for children, cinema and the active involvement of the realities of the territory.
After the huge success of the two previous editions in 2017 and 2018, this year's “Festival of Dreams” will once again offer a series of unmissable cabaret, music, theater, dance and family shows and will bring to the stage of the Prince's Garden the best-known names of the domestic and international art scene.
Once again, as usual, great music will take center stage in this edition.
Luca Barbarossa will take the stage at the Prince's Garden on August 9. His beginnings were those of a street musician in the mid-1970s, but already the victory at the “Festival delle Voci Nuove” in Castrocaro in 1980 led Luca Barbarossa to participate in the 1981 Sanremo Festival with “Roma spogliata” leaving a mark in the history of the festival and inaugurating a new path of life. Every time he wields a microphone Luca Barbarossa brings a whole world with him: his gifts as an ironic, empathetic and attentive entertainer are the cornerstone around which he has built so many conductions (the Primo Maggio concerts in Taranto and Rome and “Il mondo a 45 giri” on Rai3, for example), first among them “Radio2 Social Club,” a program on air since 2010 on the Rai broadcaster of which he is host and co-author and in which (accompanied live by the trusty “Social Band”) he duets with studio guests.
On August 10, the Dreams Festival will move to Piazza Italia, where the stage will be set for the highly anticipated Subsonica concert. The band is back from an exciting tour that made the audience dance and excite in the most important Italian arenas: Samuel, Max Casacci, Boosta, Ninja and Vicio were accompanied by a set design never seen before in Italy, consisting of five moving platforms symbolizing the souls of a real band. This summer they will be at Loano with their “8 Tour” accompanying the release of their latest album.
Subsonic Loano
Red Canzian is coming to Loano on August 14. The historic singer and bassist of Pooh is now engaged in an independent musical project: in “Witness of Time,” his third solo album, one can recognize traces of his artistic origins and all the music that has spanned his life. He is currently on tour with a concert-narrative and a repertoire that traces the world's finest music from the 1950s to the present supported by images, including many Pooh songs reinterpreted and reinterpreted by his artistic personality. ’I want to present to the public a project that is the sum of the music that has characterized my life, focusing on the quality of the storytelling and the songs,“ Red Canzian declares. ‘I chose DM Produzioni because they showed enthusiasm for the show and for the project ’Witness of Time,” for us who do this work with love it is important to find someone who is enthusiastic about our enthusiasm.
But this summer at the Prince's Garden there will also be room for laughter. Opening the “dances” will be, on July 13, Gene Gnocchi: hilarious and with a biting irony capable of engaging and making a diverse audience laugh, shrewd and irreverent, his satire never goes unnoticed. Testifying to this are the countless covers with which he has long opened the program “DiMartedì.” His passion for soccer and the humor that distinguishes him also led to the birth of the very famous “Rompipallone,” a regular appointment of “La Gazzetta dello Sport” in which Gene Gnocchi dispenses jokes, jibes and much more about the world of soccer. A unique event with one of the most popular TV personalities of the last 20 years.
On July 18 it will be the turn of Franco Neri. A Turin native of Calabrian origin, born in 1963, a lifelong comedian and cabaret actor, Franco Neri began by attending acting and theater school at the turn of the 1970s/80s at the Teatro Sperimentale in Grugliasco directed by Marco Obby. In 1982 his first cabaret show ’Professione Meridionale’ is everywhere. In 2003 “Franco, oh Franco!” or how to live happily in the north eating bread and eggplant was born; an integrated Calabrese in the north: life, vicissitudes and folklore. The presence on “Zelig Circus” in 2003 and 2004 strengthens his popularity by bringing him even closer to the people. In the summer he continues to tour his show, and the film “Sono tornato al nord” is released in Italian theaters, and later he becomes co-host of “Striscia la notizia,” alongside Ezio Greggio. His participations in sitcoms and TV shows are numerous.
August 3 will feature Gigi and Andrea: Gigi Sammarchi and Andrea Roncato return to tell their stories in the theater, amid fun and laughter. The show is a show that includes the best skits from the history of Gigi and Andrea. Andrea Roncato has 55 films and 400 episodes of dramas to his credit (including “Carabinieri,” “La voce del cuore,” “L'ispettore Coliandro,” “Il restauratore,” “Don Matteo” and many others) plus 13 other films with Gigi and the “Don Tonino” series. Together they also hosted 16 TV shows such as “Premiatissima,” “Risatissima,” “Festival,” “Grand Hotel,” “Bellezze al bagno,” “Sabato al circo,” “Luna di miele,” “Il Ficcanaso,” “Il Tg delle vacanze,” and others. Andrea hosted “Domenica In” with Mara Venier.
On Aug. 7 it will be the turn of Giovanni Cacioppo and his show “I Cast the First Stone.” The play is intended to be an analysis of customs and social habits inherent in our time, naturally treated in an ironic key. An amusing insight into today's man, paradoxical situations of daily life and media addiction, with special reference to the excessive use of social networks. Cacioppo, famous comedian of “Zelig” and “Colorado” and actor of successful films with Aldo, Giovanni e Giacomo, Claudio Bisio and Vincenzo Salemme, will tread the stage for an hour and a half of overwhelming humor.
This summer the Prince's Garden will also host major theatrical performances.
On July 29, a personalissa poetic reinterpretation of the enduring characters of “Don Camillo and Peppone,” two sides of the same coin, two Italians with hearts of gold who behind the apparent hostility cannot do without each other, is scheduled. Giovannino Guareschi's two characters are the interpreters of two opposing cultures, two different lifestyles, with traditional Catholic and Christian Democrat Italy on one side and the revolutionary Communist model on the other, capable of transforming political confrontation into a way to reflect, good-naturedly and ironically, bordering on sarcasm on the differences that make Don Camillo and Peppone two “friends” who understand and esteem each other, divided on local matters but who find themselves united against external adversity.
On August 2, a special evening with mentalist Francesco Tesei. In his show the audience is not just a spectator, but becomes the real protagonist by playing together with Francesco with the five senses, thought, perception, imagination and communication. As a true “mind juggler” (hence the title of the show, i.e., “Mind Juggler”) Francesco Tesei performs “evolutions and acrobatics” with what we commonly consider one of the most intimate and personal things, our thoughts, and then confuses senses and perceptions, provocatively touching on eternal themes common to every man. “What do I know about myself? How free am I? What binds me to others? What is reality?”
The theater review will close with two authentic legends of Italian and international cinema.
On Aug. 4, Michele Placido will star in “Evening of Honor,” a recital intended to be a narrative, a dialogue between artist and audience. He will interpret poems and monologues by great figures such as Dante, Neruda, Montale, and D'Annunzio, and there will be no shortage of verses by the most important Neapolitan poets and writers such as Salvatore Di Giacomo, Raffaele Viviani, and Eduardo De Filippo.
On Aug. 8, Giancarlo Giannini will take the stage at the Prince's Garden. His recital is a unique encounter of literature and music. The actor, who is particularly skilled in word analysis, recites a series of excerpts and poems to the general public from Pablo Neruda, Garcia Lorca, Marquez, to the more classical ones such as Shakespeare, Angiolieri, Salinas. Various authors and a single theme: love, woman, passion, life. Giannini will be accompanied by a series of unreleased songs composed by Neapolitan saxophonist Marco Zurzolo and performed to his quartet. The actor will lead the audience into mystical, melancholic, loving, and ironic “Atmospheres” on a journey from the 1200s to the present day.
Dance will take center stage on August 5 with an evening entirely dedicated to “Tango Fatal.” Guillermo Alan Berzins (dubbed by many experts as Argentina's Roberto Bolle) and seven other dancers from the TangoCompany along with the Corazon de Tango orchestra will take the audience on a journey through the history and universe of tango, evoking the spirit of the milongas of Buenos Aires, where music and dance come together in a magical atmosphere.
But it will not only be music and theater reviews that will enliven the summer of events at Prince's Garden.
Every Tuesday in July and August, the Prince's Garden Redoubt will host the eighth edition of “Culture Tuesdays,” the summer festival dedicated to books, poetry and music organized by the Tourism, Culture and Sports Department of the City of Loano in collaboration with Dimensione Eventi and the Mondadori Bookstore of Loano. Conducting the meetings with authors will be Graziella Frasca Gallo, accompanied by musical notes performed by maestro Roberto Sinito.
On Tuesday, June 4, the summer arena will stage the Valerga schools“ end-of-year recital, while on Thursday, June 6, it will be the turn of the Rossello schools” recital. On July 3, on the other hand, the essay of the students of the civic school "Attimo Danza" directed by Lorella Brondo is scheduled.
July 4 will see the staging of “Suddenly You...,” a variety show organized by the Modern Jazz Dance Academy of Loano with the contribution of the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the City of Loano. The evening will include moments dedicated to the performance of the students of the singing and hip-hop dance course of Loano's Modern Jazz Dance.
As every year, Loano hosts the first stop of the Ligurian band “Buio Pesto”'s summer tour. For this 2019, the date is for July 6 at the Prince's Garden.
From July 22 to 26, popular music and the sounds of tradition will be featured in the “City of Loano National Award for Italian Traditional Music” with meetings with musicians and journalists and concerts.
On July 27, the stage at the Prince's Garden will host the final concert of the 28th City of Loano “E. Garassini” Band Meeting organized by the Santa Maria Immacolata Music Association. Alongside the Loano band will be some prestigious Italian band ensembles.
On August 12, the usual appointment with “A parade of ... laughter,” the evening of fashion, cabaret and variety organized by the Association Down Savona Onlus under the patronage of the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sports of the City of Loano, will return. As every year, the absolute stars of the show will be the young people of the Adso association, who will parade wearing the latest winter fashion trends presented by the city's stores and will perform funny skits and original choreographed dances. Proceeds from the evening will be used to fund Adso Association projects.
August 20 will see the return of “Loano and the Voice of the Sea,” an evening of variety with the students of the Attimo Danza Loano School and the Modern Jazz Dance Academy, which aims to raise funds for the Sea Museum and raise awareness of the history of Loano's seafaring industry.
The fourth edition of “Miss Riviera delle Palme,” the beauty contest organized by the Old Loano Association, will be held on Aug. 24 at the Prince's Garden.
In the Prince's Garden summer, ample space will be given to programming for children and families, with eight completely free evenings for the little ones. Tales and fairy tales will take center stage, inviting children to never stop dreaming.
In addition, on July 11 and Aug. 19, the Prince's Garden will host two special evenings with “Niemen's Puppets,” which will feature performances suitable for “children” ages 3 to 90. Eliseo Niemen represents Piedmont's oldest family of puppeteers, who for more than 150 years have been bringing around an almost unchanged repertoire for the purpose of showing young people what was “the fun of Gianduja,” the only entertainment of their grandparents when they were their own age. In his shows Eliseo Niemen uses the same puppets and backdrops from the late 1800s. Today he is considered one of the best puppeteers and art masters in Europe.
Among the initiatives dedicated to the whole family are the evening show with the award ceremonies of the “Budding Architects” competition (July 10) and, in August, the three evenings of open-air cinema with films from the premiere screenings of the just-completed film season.
Sales and presale tickets for music, cabaret, dance, and theater performances on the Ticket One circuit (online at ticketone.it and all affiliated outlets) and at Loano at the Mondadori Bookstore on Garibaldi Street.{:}
