Vinicio Capossela
Bestiario d'amore

It's a twenty-minute EP, yet I still feel like saying that handling a new Capossela record in less than a year is still a great satisfaction.

What made me laugh is reading what hasty scribblers claim about this record, which is that it is the epilogue of the "Capossela's Journey through the Middle Ages," referring to the excellent Ballate per uomini e bestie from 2019 - let's remember - winner of the Targa Tenco for the best album overall; when instead the Middle Ages evoked by the author of the record was only a metaphor to make a social denunciation of today's global landscape, precisely considering modern times as a sort of New Middle Ages. It should also be noted that some literary transpositions of that record were inspired by the 19th-century poetry of Keats and Wilde and their respective Le Belle Dame Sans Merci and The Ballad of Reading Gaol, thus covering a period later than the Middle Ages, which, as we know, ends after 1400.

With the exception of Perfetta Letizia, indeed inspired by the 13th-century Fioretti Francescani, but when considering a musical colossus like Ballate per uomini e bestie and its seventy-plus minutes duration, to talk about a "Journey through the Middle Ages" by nailing the phrase thanks only to a piece of scarcely six minutes becomes truly too hasty and reductive.

The true "Medieval/Caposseliana" exhumation is found here, in Bestiario d'amore; musical inspiration from the text of Richard de Fournival, a zoological fresco with a sentimental background, and poetic derivative of medieval bestiaries, translated into music by a symphonic ballad for piano and orchestra where ten minutes of variations on the main harmonic theme unfold while an expressive interpretation by Vinicio evokes a good part of the fifty-seven beasts - real and imaginary - that serve as allegory for the narrator of the song, and the conquering frenzy that serves as a pretext in seducing the beloved woman.

The EP concludes with two musical transpositions of troubadour poetry. It begins with La Lodoletta, aka Can vei la lauzeta mover by Bernart de Ventadorn; perhaps the piece most affected by "Brandaurdite acuta" in the strictly conceptual sense of the term, since it exhibits the same attitude to revisiting ancient Music works; although Angelo has always focused greatly on Renaissance compositions, while Vinicio chose the French Middle Ages.

La Lodoletta, however, is the quintessential troubadour piece because it is Medieval both in text and arrangement - supported by the lute arpeggios, and the fairy-tale incursions of the vielle. In Canto all'alba instead - as in the title track -, the piano returns, thus blending adapted troubadour lyricism, with a musical foundation that could fit perfectly in any discographic work, relevant to the singer-songwriter genre.

Bestiario d'amore should be listened to because its content does not hide weaknesses, but it is anything but convenient in price (the vinyl format travels at about 30 euros), even though it comes in a dazzling red box, and a presentation book made more pompously compared to Christian bestiaries, but inspired by them in an overly tangible way, thanks to drawings with graphics very similar to those surrounding medieval texts; then whether you like it or not, it's a problem concerning the tastes of the audience. An online listen (perhaps to support the artist) might be the most convenient choice for your doubts.