On March 12th there was a beautiful press conference in Pompeii “POMPEII IS ART”, held by the MIC (Ministry of Culture) in which the concerts that will be held this year in Pompeii were presented.

I want to point out to you that in this conference there was really “consideration” and also very nice words towards Il Volo.

As people took their seats, there was Makari music playing in the background (it wasn’t added to the video, it was played in the conference) and at the end of the conference Capolavoro will be played!

The conference is very long and I will not translate every speech for you but only the direct and quick one made by Il Volo and I will summarize the other speeches.

It was a very interesting press conference with important guests.

The speaker at the beginning invites you to begin and introduces the guests:

The Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano

The undersecretary of culture Gianmarco Mazzi

The director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park Gabriel Zuchtriegel

The mayor of the municipality of Pompeii, Carmine Lo Sapio

The artists of Il Volo: Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble.

Undersecretary Mazzi begins by presenting a video of Ludovico Einaudi (pianist composer who will give one of the concerts) who in the video reiterates that he is happy to play in a site like Pompeii.

Mazzi thanks everyone present and says he is a supporter of coexistence between artists and places of culture, he finds it a natural alliance because in his opinion artists bring life to monuments and these archaeological sites. Artists are ambassadors of beauty and culture, they talk about art, they communicate emotions.

He also appreciates a less elitist and more pragmatic approach to culture.

“Artists, especially singers, are very important because they very often represent a crucial first step in the education of people, let’s say young people.”

“We know that our task comes from the law, it is the protection of monuments, but also their valorisation and in this, in my opinion, artists can help us a lot.”

Furthermore, Mazzi says that today people are always in contact with the internet world and all the artists who will give these concerts have a lot of presence in this sense, so there will be a lot of diffusion via the web and therefore it will benefit the world of culture, museums, art.

Speaking of Il Volo he says that they have more than 5 million followers and their song Grande Amore has more than 250 million views, so these sites need the contribution of these artists like “bread and butter”. So he thanks Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca who are also ambassadors of Italy in the world, they are known all over the world and carry messages of Italianness everywhere. So Mazzi believes this partnership is essential to also stimulate tourism and all those who love the “Italian style” in the world and that artists such as Il Volo and Bocelli and others certainly contribute to this.

A video of Pooh is shown, then the word is passed to the director of the Pompeii Archaeological Park Gabriel Zuchtriegel.

He says it’s a great honor to be there in that conference with those guests. He talks about the Pompeii site and the archaeological excavations, thanks Minister Sangiuliano for his support in the budget law. The excavations of Pompeii are enormous, they continue to find treasures, but at the same time they must guarantee access to people, to museums, all infrastructures that must be supported and therefore these musical festivals are an opportunity to bring young people closer to the ancient, archeology and also the many travelers and therefore these events that attract people to visit archaeological sites, such as Pompeii, a UNESCO heritage site, must be encouraged.

Russel Crowe’s video follows and then the mayor of Pompeii, Carmine Lo Sapio, speaks.

Lo Sapio says that the city of Pompeii is experiencing a new season. Pompeii is history and thanks to the agreement with the minister of culture and the director of the park they are pushing culture which in Italy is also the engine of the economy and this favors tourism and this influx of tourists to Pompeii has exceeded all expectations and therefore, on behalf of the city, he thanks him for this contribution and will guarantee the support of the infrastructure.

The word goes to Il Volo.  

PIERO= Good morning.

IGNAZIO= Good morning everyone

GIANLUCA= Good morning

PIERO= For us it is a great honor to be present here today and in some way try to share our thoughts with you. This year is a very important year for our group because we are celebrating 15 years of career and we could only celebrate them in music, we will start with this two-year tour and as we have always done from day one we try to be promoters of our music and if December was a very important date because we all know that the art of “Bel Canto” has become a heritage of humanity, we do it with infinite passion. I want to conclude, I promised myself not to be verbose, it is often said that Il Volo takes Italian music around the world, but we have always thought that it is this musical and cultural heritage that we have inherited that makes us travel the world and therefore we must to all be very proud of what we have inherited.

GIANLUCA= Yes, it is a great pleasure to be here and thank you for making us part of this wonderful project that promotes beauty, that promotes culture, because culture, like art, is beauty. Beauty strikes us immediately, but behind any kind of beauty, be it works of art like Pompeii or great music like opera, there is a lot of work behind bel canto and beauty can only be appreciated through time, sacrifice and also culture. We try to bring with great passion, this music which is immortal and certainly to combine this great music through the beauties of Italy, starting precisely from Pompeii, it is also one of the objectives, to associate our name also with Pompeii, so it will be a new start, for us too, so thank you very much for everything.

IGNAZIO= Well, there’s little left for me to say, obviously, they said everything, but we can’t be anything but happy to return to Pompeii, the first time was in 2016, if I’m not mistaken, but in another area different from the one where we will perform in July. We are really happy about this opportunity, thank you so much for sending us today. See you in Pompeii, you’re all invited, Piero pays!

And at the end the words were given to the Minister of Culture Sangiuliano who said beautiful words for Il Volo. He begins by thanking everyone present but then focuses on Il Volo.

“…thanks to the artists of Il Volo because meeting them was truly a great pleasure because I am an admirer of theirs, once a colleague from TG1 gave me one of their CDs for my birthday and I then listened to it several times, I didn’t tell them this before, so I’m glad they’re here.”

He continues explaining the notion of beauty, saying that it is a philosophical term, which can be traced back to the extraordinary nature of Italian historical places and asks which of the three boys is from Agrigento, the world of Magna Graecia, while Pompeii is that of Roman times, then there are immaterial beauties, recognized by UNESCO, such as bel canto, therefore the minister compares our singers to artists like those who have handed down concrete beauties to us such as sculptors or painters and therefore by harmonizing everything together, we can celebrate the union between the heritage artistic cultural (archaeological sites) and the Italian excellence of bel canto, therefore two elements that come together and by doing this, article 9 of our constitution which speaks of the protection of artistic heritage but also valorisation through dissemination to the world.

Then he speaks with pride about the latest findings in the Pompeian excavations, and adds that the quality of life today is not only given by comfort but also by culture and today’s tourism is aimed a lot at the study of ancient beauties, it informs itself, it wants to know the history traditions, so what better way to spread all this with bel canto, furthermore these concerts will also bring an interest not only for tourism but also for the citizens of Pompeii and surrounding areas who will be able to participate in these events.

He ends by saying that after you have participated in a good concert and visited a beautiful ancient site, from a cultural point of view you have enriched yourself and that is why they believe a lot in this project, all in the rigorous protection of the sites.

Conference finished, Masterpiece is heard in the background, the usual photos are taken.

Here is a list of artists and the dates they perform in Pompeii:

Carmen Consoli (8 June);

John Legend (11 June);

Russell Crowe (9 July);

Ludovico Einaudi (12 July);

Il Volo (17 July);

Biagio Antonacci (18,19,20 July);

I Pooh (22 July) and

Francesco De Gregori (26 July).

Naturally the news was reported on the news, I propose this one which has English subtitles to be activated.

Here the subtitles are only in Italian, but at the end things are repeated.

What a wonderful initiative, it will be a magnificent event, a series of concerts in an amazing site. and what a pride to hear the words of the Minister of Culture Sangiuliano towards Il Volo, he publicly admitted to being a fan of theirs.

I await your comments, I imagine you would like to be present in Pompeii during the Il Volo concert!!!! I’m keeping my fingers crossed…..who knows!!!

See you soon:

Daniela 🤗

 

Credit to owners of all photos and videos.