A unique work featuring extraordinary autograph materials, the DVD of the musical, and a narrative of the flashes and disillusionments of the twentieth century, set within the movable feast of Paris.
“Razmataz is an old dream, born of my capital vices—music and painting—and of my persistent desire to immerse myself in the taste and spirit of the beloved 1920s.”
“Razmataz is, in the form of a story, a celebration of the encounter between old Europe and young Black music. And this encounter takes place in the city best suited to mediate and bear witness to it: Paris.” Monsieur Rideau is a theatre director. While waiting for a troupe of African American musicians and dancers, he falls asleep. One of the dancers, however, disappears. A policeman then begins searching for her in a setting populated by “figures more or less emblematic of 1920s Europe: the wealthy bourgeoisie, the expressionist artist from Berlin, the Italian bon vivant, the great Parisian fashion designer, the English sportsman, the writer of mystery novels.”
Razmataz is an interplay of atmospheres, suspended like a dream that takes the form of music and film. It is the great musical comedy written by Paolo Conte, first staged and recorded in 2000. This edition includes the texts of the original screenplay—essentially the novel of Razmataz—along with extraordinary autograph materials: the text with handwritten annotations, illustrated plates, and hand-annotated scores. It also features a conversation between Paolo Conte and Manuela Furnari on their shared obsessions with music and painting.
A book destined to become a cult classic.
