Biography of Alessandro Baricco

In the circus of life and entertainment

January 25, 1958 Writer of the most known and loved by readers of fiction in Italy, Alessandro Baricco was born in Turin on 25 January 1958. Is formed in his hometown under the guidance of Gianni Vattimo, majoring in Philosophy with a thesis on aesthetics and studied simultaneously at the Conservatory where he graduated in piano. The love for music and literature inspired since the beginning his work as a brilliant essayist and Narrator. Music critic shrewd and very open, manifests initially with a book dedicated to an author apparently not in his ropes: Rossini (Baricco, judging in retrospect, it would seem more appropriate and geared to contemporary authors or at least "trends"); the title of the book is attractive ("Il genio in fuga. On the musical theater of Rossini "), and finds an enthusiastic editor at Einaudi, although was later reprinted by Melangolo. Despite the fine essay though, the rampant popularity that will touch the brilliant conductor of the telecast of "Pickwick" is, at that time, still yet to come. In 1991 takes shape the first example of his narrative vein, "Castles of anger", the novel promptly published by Bompiani causing inter alia some divisions in critics and readers: "fate" that seems to mark all the activity by this author in all fields in which it has competed. Loved or hated, accused of fatuity or defended the cudgels as one of the few examples of eclectic intellectual and consistent (despite her fame, she steadfastly refused television appearances of various order and "grade"), his character and his work never leave you indifferent. He has worked in radio and debuted on TV in 1993 as host of "love is an arrow", a successful transmission of Rai Tre dedicated to Opera, which was trying to build a bridge between a fascinating but often impenetrable to most people, and the television audience. He later designed and conducted the aforementioned "Pickwick, of reading and writing" program dedicated to literature, flanked by journalist Joan Zucconi. As for his work as an observer of the world, beautiful the rubric prepared in "La Stampa" and "La Repubblica", in which Baricco, with narrative style, extended articles and thoughts about many different events, from piano concerto, from tennis match performance of Pop stars to theatrical performances. The attempt was to portray facts related to everyday life or to take the reader through an optical media that Prabhakaran to unveil what they often lurks in second place behind the big circus that reality represents. The result of these pilgrimages in the circle of life and entertainment will give body to the two volumes of "Barnum" (bearing the subtitle, not surprisingly, "Cronache dal Grande Show"), self-titled in the same column. After the huge success of "Ocean sea", the latest work of the writer Italian is represented by short "City" for whose promotion the writer chose only the way data transmission. The only space where Baricco talks about City's specially created website: www.abcity.it. "It didn't seem honest," says the writer, "public speaking of what I wrote. All I had to say about City I wrote here and now I'm silent. " In 1998, he starred in another television adventure, sprung told from theatrical practice. This is the "totems", during which, taking a cue from some pages of literary texts, and narrates the most salient steps of short stories and novels, doing all kinds of references and against the kind of musical kind. As for his relationship with the computer and the network, said in a recent interview: "the philosophy of link fascinates me, I love per se, as the philosophy of the trip and the scrap. The writer, however, travels between the limits of his head, and for reading the fascinating thing is still always follow the journey of one. I believe that, in fact, then Conrad did this: opening Windows, aswell, moved. Flaubert was doing this. But it is himself that you called the trip and you follow. The freedom to see a text and you want to travel there as it seems to me a freedom that I find so fascinating. I find most fascinating follow a man whom I've never met on the journey he undertook noting aspects that he himself may have noticed or not. Retracing his steps, this I think the fascinating thing about reading. " Baricco has also given rise to Turin to writing school "Holden", devoted to narrative techniques. "Lecture 21" is his first film of 2008, he wrote and directed. The film revolves around the character of professor Mondrian Kilroy-already present in his novel City (1999)-and its lesson--the number 21-about the birth of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.