There are just a few days left for the 2020 high school exams and, like every year, the notes of a song that has become the hymn of maturity will begin to ring again. This is ” Night before the exams “, the famous single by Antonello Venditti released in March 1984. The song symbolizing maturity
The song tells the emotions that Venditti himself felt in a Roman summer in the late sixties in which he too was he was preparing to take the Maturita exam at the Giulio Cesare classical high school in Corso Trieste, in Rome. The song has had great success since its release. It has reached tens of generations, thanks also to the success of the film “Night before the exams” with Nicolas Vaporidis and Giorgio Faletti.Who are the four guys with the guitar I remember, four guys with the guitar And a piano on the shoulder
In his autobiography, Venditi revealed who the four guys with the guitar are, The singer refers to “I Giovani del Folkstudio” , namely Giorgio Lo Cascio, Francesco De Gregori, Ernesto Bassignano and Venditti himself, who at the time were taking their first steps in the world of music. Of the four, the one with the piano on his shoulder is Venditti himself, who unlike the other three loves to accompany his songs with this instrument. The four probably have just finished playing and are preparing to go home. Like the pines of Rome Like the pines of Rome, life does not break them . This night is still ours
But how do secretaries with glasses get married by lawyers Six o’clock bombs don’t hurt, And only the day she dies, and only the day she dies The exams are close And you’re too far from my room
Venditti then refers to the pines of Rome in Respighi’s work, which “don’t break”, to describe the dreams of the four young artists. They talk to each other about the world around them, marveling at “how secretaries with glasses do to get married by lawyers
”. Love for Claudia Your father looks like Dante and your brother Ariosto Tonight in the usual place, the moon seems strange Sara, I haven’t seen you for a week …Your sin is as original as your American trousers Please don’t stop my hands On your outstretched thighs closed like the churches When you want to confess Night before exams, police night Sure someone took it away Mom and dad’s night with bottle in hand Grandfather’s night at the window But this night is still ours
After the first stanzas, Venditti describes an appointment with his beloved Claudia, whom he meets just the night before the exams. The two have not seen each other for a week, probably due to the days spent studying. In the song Venditti tells how in those anxious hours’ Your father looks like Dante and your brother Ariosto ”. In the following verses the author tells of their meeting full of love and passion, while the nightlife of Rome continues to flow between sirens, ambulances and police. Nights of tears and prayers Night of young actors, cold pizzas and trousers Night of dreams, cups and samples Night of tears and prayers Mathematics will never be my job And planes fly high between New York and MoscowBut tonight and still ours Claudia do not tremble I cannot hurt you If love is love
But in the passage there is also the concern for the imminent exam and the fear of not making it: “Night of tears and prayers”. Meanwhile, the planes fly “between New York and Moscow”, crossing the Iron Curtain that still divided Europe during the Cold War. As he prepares to pass the last hours before the exam, in the last verses, there is a
