{:en}Beppe Grillo, Uto Ughi, Giovanni Allevi, Anna Oxa, Le Orme. These are some of the protagonists of the 2018 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 under the artistic direction of Ivan Fabio Perna, and which throughout the summer will enliven the Prince's Garden arena of Loano.
After the huge success in 2017, this year's “Festival of Dreams” will once again offer a series of unmissable cabaret, music, theater, dance and family shows and will bring the best-known names from the artistic and international scene to the stage of the Prince's Garden.
“Once again this year,” explains Loano Mayor Luigi Pignocca, "the Prince's Garden gives us a series of guests and events of the highest level. From music to theater, from cabaret to dance, our summer arena once again presents itself as one of the most important cultural containers of the entire province of Savona and the whole of Liguria. The evenings of the first edition of the Dreams Festival sold out: in 2018 there are all the prerequisites to repeat last year's success, for a season of events that no other location in our territory can boast.".
“With Dimensione Eventi,‘ adds Tourism, Culture and Sports Councillor Remo Zaccaria, ’we tried to come up with a festival that would be able to please all kinds of audiences, from young people to young couples to families. Judging by the names who will be visiting us this year, I would definitely say that we have succeeded. Once again, the Loano ”resort' can boast a unique entertainment offering.".
Leading the way will be, as usual, great music.
Opening will be, on July 15, the historic band Le Orme, which just last year celebrated its first 50 years of activity. To properly celebrate this important milestone, the band has prepared an anthology show all to hear and see, in which the Venetian band's historical pieces and the songs that accompanied the birth of the musical phenomenon that was Le Orme will alternate with footage shot in the 1960s and 1970s with some previously unseen footage, including footage taken by ’Le Orme’ during the famous 1970 Isle of Wight Festival.
On July 19, one of the world's greatest violinists, Uto Ughi, will take the stage in the Prince's Garden. The maestro will play on a 1744 Guarneri del Gesù violin, which possesses a warm sound with a dark timbre and is perhaps one of the finest “Guarneri” in existence, and on a 1701 Stradivarius named “Kreutzer” because it belonged to the violinist of the same name to whom Beethoven had dedicated the famous Sonata. Uto Ughi will be accompanied by the Filarmonici di Roma, a chamber orchestra with which he has collaborated for more than 40 years and whose awards include the Caelsia prize for art and culture.
On July 29, space will be given to women's music with “Sounds of Summer,” a show in which the sweet music of piano played by Roberta di Mario and Valentina Colonna will give way to a rockier melody made by Micol and her harp.
Giovanni Allevi is coming to Loano on August 4. After a forced stop due to some of his health problems last summer, Giovanni Allevi is back on stages all over Italy as early as this winter with a new big piano and strings tour: “Equilibrium Tour,” more than 20 concerts named after his latest record project “Equilibrium,” released on Oct. 20, 2017. This summer the artist will be on stage with his piano accompanied by 13 selected Strings of the Italian Symphony Orchestra.
On August 8, it will be the turn of one of the most representative singer-songwriters of the Italian auteur music scene: Amedeo Minghi. Two days later, that is, on August 10, at the Prince's Garden there will be Anna Oxa, who with her tour ’Voce Sorgente“ will be the protagonist of an unrepeatable show: the water show, the show of the voice that does not pass twice in the same song.
Closing the music festival will be, on August 23, Roberto Vecchioni: the professor returns to the stage on the occasion of the release of his new book with the “La vita che si ama” tour, focusing on his historical songs and exciting stories.
But this summer at the Prince's Garden there will also be room for laughter. Opening the “dances” will be, on July 22, Giobbe Covatta, who will read his personal version of the Divine Comedy totally dedicated to children's rights. The content and commentary are hilarious and entertaining, but as is always the case in the Neapolitan comedian's shows, the themes are serious and often dramatic. To know the rights of children recognized by the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and Adolescent, to know the most common ways in which these rights are trampled is to spread a culture of respect, peace and equality for all new generations.
It continues on Aug. 16 with Biagio Izzo, a cabaret comedian who alternates between television, film and theater without ever losing his verve as a brilliant actor. At the Dreams Festival he will return to his first love, theater, to get that “adrenaline rush that live audiences know how to give.”.
On Aug. 18, the summer arena will host Beppe Grillo and his show “Insomnia.” The insomnia that has plagued Grillo for 40 years, which leads him to ask himself uncomfortable questions, to question the obvious and find risky answers, to become the character we all know, is told in a creative “work in progress.” A journey through the life of the comedian who from the world of information hopes for a return to a more perceptive, primordial, instinctive system. Beppe tells his story in an intimate and authentic show, once again taking on the back foot all those who want to paint him as different from what he is. Inevitable reference to the most recent current events filtered through his biting irony.
Theater will also find ample space on the stage of the Prince's Garden, which this year can count on the collaboration and participation of the Lewis&Clark Company. It begins on July 4 with Neil Simon's “The Odd Couple”: isympathetic divorcees Oscar (Ivan Fabio Perna) and Felix (Marco Manzini) are ready to treat all spectators to an evening of total fun for what is perhaps the greatest and best-known American comedy of all time.
On July 12, Compagnia Masaniello will stage Eduardo Scarpetta's “Miseria e Nobiltà,” a hilarious comedy full of verve and intrigue that fully evokes the tradition of commedia dell'arte sketches, with people swapping, disguises and the typical Neapolitan art of making do.
On Wednesday, July 18, the Lewis&Clark Company will bring one of TV's best-loved and best-known detectives back to the stage with Richard Levison and William Link's “Lieutenant Columbo - Prescription Murder,” a record-breaking show that has scored five years of sold-out runs in England and unanimous plaudits from audiences and critics.
Reserved for “children” from zero to 99 years old is the show “The Miraculous Water” by the Niemen Puppets, scheduled for July 24: Gianduja and Testafina, who have run away from home to seek their fortune, are joined in a dream by the fairy Alcina, who tells them of a great adventure they will have at the king's castle.
Dance will take center stage on Tuesday, July 31: the Ballet of Siena will stage “The Great Pas de Deux,” the great pas de deux excerpts from “Don Quixote” and “Sleeping Beauty,” as well as from “The Nutcracker,” “The Corsair” and many other ballets from the classical repertoire. Pictures of pure ballet, indelible in the memory of theater audiences for centuries.
On August 3, tango will take center stage on the Prince's Garden stage: the extraordinary dancers and musicians of “Abrazos De Tango” will take spectators on a journey into the Porteñe atmosphere of Buenos Aires, opening the door to the mystery of tango, the embrace.
On August 11 it will be time for the big musical with the show, ’10toBroadway.“ Ten great performers on stage will offer the greatest repertoire of musicals ever seen on an Italian stage. At last, a way to tell the story of the musical with a well-structured and never boring concert.
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 seventh 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.
The “Rossello” schools' end-of-year recital will be staged on June 8 at the summer arena.
As every year, Loano hosts the first stop of the Ligurian band “Buio Pesto”'s summer tour. For this 2018, the date is for June 29 at the Prince's Garden.
VB Factor, the competition aimed at singers and dancers of all ages that sells out every year in terms of spectators and participants, will stop at the summer arena on June 30.
On July 5 the Prince's Garden will host the dance recital of the students of the civic school “Attimo Danza” directed by Lorella Brondo. The “Little ètoile ”and “Young ètoile” will perform a varied program that will combine the classical repertoire with original choreography by the teachers of the Loano dance school.
July 6 will see the staging of “Suddenly You...,” a variety show organized by the Modern Jazz Dance Sports Association of Loano with the contribution of the Tourism, Culture and Sports Department 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 Modern Jazz Dance of Loano.
On July 14, the Prince's Garden will host a benefit for the Loano committee of the Italian Red Cross. Elena Ballerini, Rai anchorwoman, singer and imitator, will be the “mattatrice” of an evening of variety show featuring an Italian comedian (about whom strict confidentiality is maintained for the moment). The evening is organized in cooperation with the Eccoci Eventi agency.
On July 21, the stage of the Prince's Garden will host the final concert of the 27th City of Loano “E. Garassini” Band Meeting organized by the Santa Maria Immacolata Music Association with the contribution of the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sports. Alongside the Loano band, several prestigious Italian band ensembles will be featured in this edition.
From July 25-27, the sounds of tradition will be featured in the “City of Loano National Award for Italian Traditional Music.” For three days, popular music will take center stage with meetings with musicians and journalists and concerts.
On August 9, 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 the traditional event “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 to raise awareness of the history of Loano's seafaring industry.
The third edition of “Miss Riviera of the Palms,” the beauty pageant organized by the Old Loano Association with the sponsorship of the Tourism, Culture and Sports Department of the City of Loano, will be held on August 26 at the Prince's Garden.
In the Prince's Garden summer, ample space will be given to programming for children and families, with nine evenings of theater for young children completely free of charge. Tales and fairy tales will take center stage, inviting children to never stop dreaming.
Among the initiatives dedicated to the whole family is the evening show with the award ceremonies of the “Budding Architects” competition (July 11) 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.{:}
