He sold more than one hundred million albums, was one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century and, according to Rolling Stone magazine, the greatest rock star of all time; David Bowie, with his rock opera Lazarus, comes to the Piccolo. Staged for the first time in New York on 7 December 2015, in what remains the last public appearance of David Bowie before his death, it represents the creative testament of the musician.
Newton, the unhappy interstellar migrant forced to remain on Earth, immortal and ageless – the protagonist of the novel by Walter Tevis The man who fell to Earth and the film of the same name in which Bowie gave his best acting performance –, is at the centre of this labyrinthine sequel. Still imprisoned on our planet, ever more isolated, enclosed in his apartment and plagued by depression, hallucinations and addiction, Newton received signals from the past via the TV, captures visions of the future generated by his mind, and blends reality and daydreams while various characters – ghosts? mental projections? – move through the claustrophobic space of his apartment.
Valter Malosti is behind the directing and the writing of this Italian version of the work, which sees Manuel Agnelli – the recent winner of a David di Donatello and Nastro d’Argento award – in the lead role of this rock opera, full of many historical songs by Bowie and others written especially for the occasion.