A duet that was never recorded in time is finally being released — and both of its protagonists have since died. On the night of September 22 to 23, the unreleased track Quando ti rivedrò will appear, with lyrics by Gino Paoli and music by Adriano Pennino, who also produced it. The date is no coincidence: on September 22, Ornella Vanoni would have turned 92, with Paoli turning the same age the following day. Rolling Stone Italia ↗
The song tells of two people who meet again after a long separation, and Paoli knew from the start whom he wanted to sing it with. "One thing I was certain of from the beginning: I wanted Ornella to sing it with me. But she had the bad idea of leaving right before the recording: I was waiting for her at my home in Nervi, on Monday, and instead… Typical of her, after all," he wrote in the text accompanying the anthology. Vanoni died last November, three days before the date she was due to record her part.
Paoli did not give the empty space she left behind to anyone else. "No one could take her place. But filling that void with Paolo Fresu's trumpet, who besides being an extraordinary musician was also a great friend of Ornella's, seemed to me the best solution. I think even she wouldn't have grumbled this time," he explained. Fresu ultimately recorded the entire brass section of the track. Paoli himself did not live to see its release — he died on March 24 at the age of 91. ANSA ↗
Adriano Pennino, who spent twenty-five years touring with Paoli, described the song's creation using Paoli's own metaphor: "As Gino used to say, songs are coat hooks: everyone hangs their own hat on them. This piece could have been written for a father and son, for two friends, for two lovers." He reportedly played him the music during one of their nighttime journeys, and Paoli said he would start working on the lyrics — which, for him, meant he already had something in his head. Rolling Stone Italia ↗
The track will be part of the reissue of the 2019 collection Appunti di un lungo viaggio, which the Sugar label will release two days later, on September 25; the new edition includes the lyrics of all the songs for the first time. The single's cover is based on a painting by Paoli himself. For the pair, who had sung together since the sixties and who are behind both Il cielo in una stanza and Senza fine, this is their final joint recording — built around a voice that is missing from it.
Illustrative photo: Gino Paoli. Photo: Eros Macchi / Wikimedia Commons, public domain
The last duet by Gino Paoli and Ornella Vanoni will be released without her voice
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