© Zani-Casadio
Tribute to John Lennon (1940-1980)
I Have Killed the Beatles
one act for singer, actor, and string quartet by Stefano Valanzuolo
Sarah Jane Morris
Solis String Quartet
with Paolo Cresta
staging concept and direction Pierluigi Iorio
music by the Beatles transcribed and arranged by Antonio Di Francia
production International Music and Arts
The history of the Beatles retraced by the powerful but smooth voice of Sarah Jane Morris, from the unexpected point of view of John Lennon’s murderer—this is the idea underpinning Stefano Valanzuolo’s one-act: “Had Mark David Chapman been asked who the Beatles were, he would have gone on talking for hours, and perhaps he would have ended up comparing John to the protagonist of his cult novel, Holden Caulfield. When he was arrested on December 8, 1980, outside the Dakota building, in New York, Chapman was holding a copy of Salinger’s book. Lennon’s dead body was on the ground, just a few metres away. With five gunshots, the Honolulu weirdo had cut short John’s life, the dream of the Beatles and, with it, the dream of millions worldwide.”
