Donizetti Theatre Foundation
The Theater Season 2025-2026
Other Pathways

The ghost songwriter
by and with Ivan Talarico
Thursday, Dec. 18 at the Social Theater

 

Begun with Natale in casa Cupiello, a classic by Eduardo De Filippo re-proposed in an original way by Luca Saccoia, the Donizetti Theater Foundation’s Altri Percorsi review, dedicated to Benvenuto Cuminetti, continues Thursday, Dec. 18 at the Teatro Sociale (8:30 p.m.) with The Phantom Singer, a theater-song performance written and performed by Ivan Talarico. Duration 1 hour and 5 minutes without intermission. Ticket prices: 20 euros, reduced 16 euros.

The Ghost Songwriter is a journey into the world of Italian songwriting but also a reflection on authorship in art. At a time in history such as the present, when the use of artificial intelligence has opened a wide discussion on the role of authorship and creativity, the show is a pataphysical investigation of authorship through the biography of singer-songwriter A. F.. The show’s presentation notes state that A.F. was a singer-songwriter from Veneto, born in 1923 and disappeared from the scene in 1969. Her artistic journey was unfortunate: all the songwriters she met liked her songs and many plagiarized them. From those plagiarisms were born great masterpieces of Italian music and beyond; from Domenico Modugno to Lucio Battisti, from Luigi Tenco to Patti Smith, everything was written by A. F., but no one knows and she remained a ghost.

This amazing and incredible story starts from a rare book found by chance: a long interview with an unknown singer-songwriter who is the real author of hugely successful songs. Through the interview, Talarico traces her history, her movements between Rome, Genoa and Milan, her relationship with many famous songwriters, her retirement from the stage and the disappearance of this giant but forgotten figure. How was his disappearance possible? And more: how do creative mechanisms work, what is an idea, who can truly call themselves the author of something?

Ivan Talarico is a singer-songwriter, author and thespian. In 1999 he founded the theater company DoppioSenso Unico together with Luca Ruocco, with whom he writes and performs shows between the absurd and black comedy (among others La variante E.K., gU.F.O., Operamolla and Il successo non è successo).
Since 2003 he has been writing and producing stage music for shows and soundtracks for short films.
In 2009 he resumed writing songs and performing in concert. From 2013 he began a collaboration with writer Claudio Morici; over the years they will stage a series of readings with songs.With Gorilla Sapiens Editions he publishes two books of poems, Ogni giorno di felicità è una poesia che muore (2014) and Non spiegatemi le poesie che devono rimanere piegate (2016).He is among the eight winners and prize for Best Lyrics at Musicultura 2015 and is called as a guest, at the Ariston Theater, of the 2016 Tenco Prize. He is among the founders of the variety show Sgombro, since 2016 among the most followed in the Roman underground, in which he plays the role of presenter.
Since 2017 he has been leading creative and comic writing workshops collaborating with schools, academies and cultural spaces. In 2019 his first record, Un elefante nella stanza (An elephant in the room), is released.In 2020 he participates in the Teatro di Roma variety show Metamorfosi Cabaret directed by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti. In May 2021 his first book of short stories, Dictionary of Impossible Loves, is released. In 2020 he leads a writing workshop in the Frosinone prison, for the project “Fiorire nel pensiero.” From the writings of prisoners, the book Escape Literature is published in 2022.
From November 2021 he is the author and host of the program The Repetitions, broadcast on Rai Radio 3. Between 2023 and 2024 he is a guest several times on Fiorello’s program Viva Rai2.
In August 2023 he debuts the musical narrative The Phantom Songwriter at the Modern Times festival in Porcari (LU). In October 2023 she is a guest on Stefano Bollani and Valentina Cenni’s show Via dei Matti n.0. In May 2024 the trilogy of short stories of comic despair Nothing New Under the Ground is released. In September 2024 he debuts Vaniloqui, a monologue with songs.