Caliber 35: the closing ceremony of the Olympics
Calibro 35 are a band that has always been in the heart of our magazine which, among other things, in the past also awarded them at the Rockol Awards as artists of the year. And, for eighteen years, the band has been… on a mission. Which?
“The recovery of a whole part of Italian music that is beautiful and appreciated all over the world, often relegated only to past territories, as if they had placed it in the display cases of a museum”.When they started, in fact, Calibro did so by answering a question: “Why not make a musical project that makes us proud of the place we come from and bring this music everywhere instead of always starting from what they did abroad?”. It was the beginning of a journey that continues, as Tommaso Colliva and Massimo Martellotta explain.
“For us it is a beautiful journey that starts from our first album, all made of other people’s music, but soon led us to make original music for our albums and for the images of documentaries, films and TV series that travel well beyond the borders of the country communicating to audiences near and far. In the last year alone there have been “Exploration” (Record Kicks) – an album considered for the Grammys, many concerts in Europe and the United States, a tribute to 50 years of Profondo Rosso with a disc of children’s music inspired by history, the soundtracks for two series such as “Blanca” and “Sandokan” which from Italy are distributed all over the world and one for a documentary in which James Ellroy tells us about his Los Angeles – directed by an Italian excellence like Francesco Zippel.
The Olympics
With the aim of bringing that unjustly neglected music back to life, reclaiming the sounds and methods with which it was made, and then using the tools available to create new music, Calibro 35 reached an appointment with history: participation in the closing ceremony of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. “It was another milestone in our journey: we started with four enormous soundtracks to continue with a revisitation of an all-Italian songbook, together with Margherita Vicario and Davide Shorty and conclude with one of our songs while the athletes paraded around us in one of the moments in which the whole world had its eyes on Italy. All to do a beautiful thing and reiterate that Italian music can be something else besides opera and dance music which in fact were very present in the other segments of the evening.”
How did we get there?
“One day, I would say six months ago, a message arrived from Vittorio Cosma – musical director for the protocol parts: “Hi, would you like to play at the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics?”. Vittorio is certainly a great joker but the joke would have been a bit far-fetched so the answer is: “Let’s talk about it, willingly. We will have to train well but if we can be useful why not”. The idea of the creative team – Stefania Opipari, director, Adriano Martella, creative director, and the aforementioned Vittorio first and foremost – was clear: to represent during the event all the nuances that make and have made Italian music unique and recognizable from opera to dance through iconic soundtracks and memorable songs that the whole world has sung.
Parade of flags – The soundtracks
“Soundtracks are an area in which with Calibro we have some experience, but making music by others is a challenge every time. For this occasion we needed an epic sound capable of filling a huge place in every sense like the Arena, but also dreamy and positive at the same time in order to underline the moment in which an Olympics ends. We therefore couldn’t just fall back on ours comfort zone – made mainly of crime and tensive sounds – and we had to go further by tackling three iconic soundtracks such as “Il Postino” (Luis Bacalov), “Anonimo Veneziano” (Stelvio Cipriani) and “Amarcord” (Nino Rota), bringing them into our world of a quartet format and having them preceded by a giant piece from our guiding spirit, Ennio Morricone: “A Fistful of Dollars”. Everything was right on paper, but until we found ourselves on stage, among hundreds of athletes waving the flags of their countries, we didn’t know if the effect would work. And instead it was great, with the right balance of muscles and musical sweetness to accompany a beautiful moment of happy celebration.”
Parade of the athletes – The songs
“Once the moment of the flags of the participating countries was over, the moment of the athletes’ parade arrived, for which the idea was to have a medley of Italian songs from the past, accessible to an international audience but which fully expressed their origins”. What was it like choosing the songs?
“Very difficult. You have to reduce the history of the songs of an entire country into 15 minutes and a handful of songs, representing all the nuances and periods… simply impossible. For this reason, with the creative team we decided to focus on a period that represented us in terms of sound, going from the end of the sixties to the beginning of the eighties. Having to take into account songs used in other parts of the ceremonies of these Olympics and have a good dynamic within the set… a big headache.
After a long brainstorm with the creative team, it was decided to start from “No one can judge” by Caterina Caselli to get to “Come away with me” by Paolo Conte, passing through thrilling songs such as “Se telephone” and “Se burned the city”. A dozen thrilling pieces to put together and make appear fluid and coherent one after the other.”
Who sings?
Calibro is an instrumental project, how did you decide who to sing?
“Here too, a knot that was not easy to resolve. The panorama of songs we wanted to do was really broad, not very technically simple and all requiring genuine and heartfelt artistic interpretations. The names of Margherita Vicario and Davide Shorty were quite immediate, thinking of someone very good but also with a recognizable artistic caliber. Two singers capable of adapting to the needs imposed by a fast set, which would change tone every 45 seconds but also of remaining solid through these changes, bringing a solid individual identity. They were wonderful, fully immersing themselves in the set and managing to surf between interpretations of Mina, Paolo Conte, Ranieri and Caterina Caselli but also of Ricchi e Poveri and Raffaella Carrà. A truly remarkable performance.
Arrangement
“We put together the arrangement of the songs in a very instinctive way, simply thinking about how we would play each of the songs in one of our concerts, remaining respectful of the source material but also comfortable performing it with our instruments. We found a solution for each piece, allowing ourselves greater departures on some of them – such as Conte’s “Via con me” or “Anonimo Veneziano” – and being more faithful on others – such as “Nessuno mi can judge” or “A far l’amore begins tu” – while for the final homage to Gino Paoli and Ornella Vanoni with “Senza Fine” we asked for help from the orchestra. The big unknown was the overall length of the segment which depended on the speed of the athletes in completing the parade, so we had to find a way to be flexible with the structures and adapt to what would happen during the event, playing with one eye on the instrument and one on the parade around us. Also for this reason we took out of the drawer one of our pieces composed for a soundtrack some time ago – “Cortina 1976″ – which could be extended or shortened according to needs. In the end the duration was perfect, but at least we had a parachute.”
On stage: performances and instruments
A closure of the Olympics is seen by many people: how did you manage to be accessible to a seventh of the globe?
“You have to try to communicate a well-sculpted concept with everything that the medium allows you, both video and audio. And to communicate our imagination at first glance, even the instruments have helped us a lot. Timeless Italian excellences. Starting with the Wandré guitars that are now talked about, but it is always a privilege to use a guitar like the Roby in an event seen by the whole world, and it is also an excellent way both to arouse curiosity (there is not once that someone ask what guitar it is after he has seen it) than to shout the most brilliant Italy in the world.
As well as the EKO Tiger organ, which has sculpted our sound and our stage since the first album. Or the Hollywood Meazzi drums, sexy like few things, which seduced us today and people like Max Roach in times gone by. The Basso Manta by EKO, bright red and super fast, and the Binson Echorec: chosen by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Shadows and made in Settimo Milanese, and then the amplifiers.
We were looking for a large and fully coordinated set, and we could only ask the glorious and still very active LOMBARDI, who provided us with towers that dressed everything up like wings, and for 20 minutes the glance was truly like stepping out of the 60s. The Alberto Lupo-style suits, super simple, black with a tie and tie clip – carefully chosen for us by Simone Furlan – did the rest.”
