Milan, December 11 – The highly anticipated national premiere of Ahi Maria! Un teatro canzone per Rino Gaetano is set to debut tonight, December 11, 2025, at the Teatro Menotti in Milan. The show will run until December 31, featuring a special New Year’s Eve performance. This production is not merely a tribute but a vibrant reinterpretation of the iconic Italian singer-songwriter’s work.
An All-Female Cast Reimagines Gaetano’s World
The performance features an exclusively female cast of actresses, singers, and musicians who embody the female figures from Rino Gaetano’s songs, such as Berta, Aida, Gianna, Lucia, Maria, Daniela, and Rosita. The setting is an ’80s cabaret, an alternative space infused with Gaetano’s anarchic and visionary spirit. It serves as a stage for freedom, where themes of change, struggle, anger, love, and disillusionment are explored.
The title, Ahi Maria!, is borrowed from one of Rino Gaetano’s most renowned and theatrical songs-a grotesque, surreal, and poetic invocation. The show is neither a conventional concert nor a biography, but a ‘theatrical song’ experience: a passionate and irreverent journey through his music and world, blending words and melodies, societal critique and artistic vision.
Rino Gaetano: A Visionary Artist
Rino Gaetano, originally from Calabria and adopted by Rome, developed his artistic roots in the experimental ‘cantina theater’ scene of 1970s Rome. His work was characterized by experimentation, irony, and creative disobedience. Before becoming a musical icon, Gaetano was a man of the stage, influenced by figures like Petrolini, Ionesco, Beckett, and Karl Valentin-artists who observed the world from its fringes with a wry, grotesque smile.
Ahi Maria! Un teatro canzone per Rino Gaetano celebrates his unique ability to transform disillusionment into popular language, bringing songs into Italian homes that, while seemingly simple, were rich with meaning, mockery, utopian ideals, and contradictions. Tracks such as “Mio fratello è figlio unico,” “Nuntereggae più,” “Gianna,” “Escluso il cane,” and “Sfiorivano le viole” are more than just songs; they are theatrical acts, social commentaries, and musical paradoxes that vividly portray a confused yet vibrant Italy.
The production is conceived as a form of theatrical cabaret, utilizing monologues, songs, and dialogue fragments to narrate a time brimming with hopes, utopian dreams, and evolving identities. It also takes the audience on a journey through an Italy yearning for change, which Gaetano depicted with sharp irony and desperate tenderness.
A Lasting Legacy
Born in Crotone in 1950 and tragically passing away in Rome in 1981 at just 31 years old, Rino Gaetano left an indelible mark on Italian musical culture and society. He constantly navigated the fine line between success and rejection, mainstream and fringe, provocation and poetry.
“Ahi Maria!” aims to revive his theatrical voice-not through imitation, but by evocation. It seeks to resonate today in a stage setting where music meets theater, and theater transforms into invocation, grimace, ballad, and memory. It is a secular mass for a tragic and visionary clown, still wearing his tailcoat, hat, and that humorous, melancholic smirk that challenges authority.
Special New Year’s Eve Performance
On December 31, the Teatro Menotti will host a special 10:30 PM performance of Ahi Maria! Un teatro canzone per Rino Gaetano. This presents a unique opportunity to welcome the New Year with irony, poetry, and a touch of anarchy. A midnight toast and refreshments will be offered to all attendees. Tickets are priced at €60. Additionally, starting from 8:00 PM, the Meno Bistrot will provide a pre-show dinner option to enhance the overall experience. For more information, please visit the Teatro Menotti website.
