The role of the Artistic Director
Giuliano Peparini talks about his vision, his way of creating that involves a great team of professionals. A creative space that becomes a factory of emotions.
“IN HIS FIELD OF WORK I THINK HE IS THE BEST, HE GIVES IT EVERYTHING AND EVERY TIME HE AMAZES US AND AMAZES ME”
Maria De Filippi
“Amici di Maria De Filippi”, known simply as “Amici”, is an Italian talent show, conceived and presented by Maria De Filippi. For more than twenty years the programme has been the stage for aspiring singers and dancers who, seeking to make their dreams a reality, put themselves to the test in choreographic and singing performances.
Giuliano Peparini was artistic director and choreographer of the programme for seven years, in which he offered all his talent and skills, creating choreography and sewn paintings on the dancers, highlighting their talents and characteristics, and offering the public shows filled with emotion and beauty.
If one day I were given the chance, I would love to write a whole book on “my creation”. The creation that could be expressed in the theater, in a musical, a show-concert, or a ballet.
MaI think there would be enough to write a whole book about “my creation” for the show Amici.
First, because as far as I remember, television was “my first chance, my first scene” as any young dancer, bringing me back to the crazy 90’s. The young teenager that I was back then started working on TV, in the Italian foyers, at the age of 14 or 15 years… And then one day, totally unexpected, Mediaset called me 20 years later. I would never have dared to dream of such an adventure!
These 7 extraordinary years have somehow changed my personal and professional life.
That’s why, before going any further, allow me to say a big “THANK YOU!” to Maria De Filippi, to Sabina Gregoretti, to the management of the channel and to every member of the Fascino team, as well as to the technicians, who have trusted me. While remaining at the service of the show, they gave me the means to express myself artistically in PRIME TIME on the first Italian channel and to reach millions of viewers every week.
It was thanks to Maria De Filippi that I was awarded the beautiful chance to live such a journey. Her vivid intelligence and deep sensitivity have given a unique identity to this program.
Because we had to take risks and to question ourselves each week, on each new show, we called together the imagination and the invention of all. Just like a long working process where theater, dance, circus arts, singing impose their laws and their disciplines on time, time imposed its own on us. That is why for each and every one of our artistic team it has been one of the greatest feats of strength.
These 7 years of “creation” for Amici have been a bit like living a passionate story: intensive, hard, beautiful, uncompromising, extraordinary, and full of twists and turns! A story where the minds, voices, and bodies of the students – as well as those of the professional dancers as much as mine – were put to the test, so much the rhythm was frantic.
Just like the candidates of the show Amici, I sometimes felt like a student among others. Because this experience taught me a lot about how we can push our creative limits in a very short time.
Imagine: every week 20 paintings had to be made for PRIME in 4 or 5 days with at least 10 different trades (including carpenters, painters, production), that is to say in total not less than 2000 paintings created over 7 years! Plus, all those that were created and those that you never got to see
One day, a friend who travels a lot told me “the paintings that you make for Amici bring an extra soul that enters the door of houses and apartments. Whether one is 7 or 77 years old, being able to feel poetry and emotion through TV in an all-public program at prime time is almost non-existent in our time”. This kind of recognition is one of the most beautiful compliments I have received.
When I think about it, I say to myself that if these creations have held the attention of the viewers so much, it is because some of them proposed to the public a dialogue of truth. With themes and stories linked to a social context of a time: the fight against gender violence, homophobia, anti-Semitism, school violence, and so on. Very humbly, it has been an honor for me to have been able to participate in shedding light on human society and on everything that makes it up. And it has taken courage for Fascino team, whom I can never thank enough.
In an interview, I remember answering a journalist who asked me the question “how do you do it?” I answered that the pace of Amici reminded me of a marathon. The feeling of being on a treadmill 24/7 and being on the lookout for a newspaper article, a painting of a great master, a movie, a historical character, anyone or anything that could be likely to inspire me
Amici has been for me a magnificent collective adventure. In the synergies as well as in the differences of point of view, the creation intertwines among different disciplines: scenography, direction, technique, light, costumes etc.
During these years at Amici, I had a feeling that was reinforced. The feeling that we are nothing without others. And that creation is not a miracle process that would cancel all difficulties. On the contrary, it constantly brings them together, each time a student or a guest enters; and each time, everything must be revised and reinvented. When I was asked to select some of Amici’s paintings to put on this page, I confess that I was a bit bewildered. First because out of nearly 2000 paintings I don’t remember all of them. But the extracts that I propose to you below are some of my favorites. Others will follow. Would you like to participate and suggest to me the ones you would like to see or see again?
For the students and the professional artists who performed them, some of them were adventures without a net, requiring long periods of rehearsals that were sometimes risky.
But all of them remain for me beautiful and unexpected encounters of life.
In conclusion, I just want to say to you and to them: thank you!
Giuliano
The role of the Artistic Director
Giuliano Peparini talks about his vision, his way of creating that involves a great team of professionals. A creative space that becomes a factory of emotions.
Interview with Silvia Toffanin
In a 'Verissimo' special dedicated to 'Amici', Silvia Toffanin meets Giuliano who talks about his working relationship with Maria De Filippi.