Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

The special created in the Liberty Building “Dario Fo and Franca Rame”

Milan, February 11 2021 – Despite the health emergency, Milan does not give up its historic Carnival and offers a special streaming event in five episodes entitled “Carnival of Colors with Tones of Colors”, accessible to all from the website www.yesmilano.it .

In fact, from Tuesday 16th to Saturday 20th February, every day at 17pm a new episode of the “Carnival of Colors with Tones of Colors” project will be available on the Yesmilano website, which is made up of five container episodes recorded without an audience inside of the Liberty Building “Dario Fo and Franca Rame”, transformed for the occasion into a welcoming and colorful circus.

Promoted by the Municipality of Milan - Culture, the initiative will bring fun and light-heartedness directly into homes, presenting a different episode every day in which, thanks to the iconographic figure of the Clown Toni - a close relative of the Zanni of the Commedia dell'Arte as well as the more famous Harlequin - the Ambrosian Carnival will be celebrated in an alternative way with shows, stories, songs, live music and international contributions from the most important artists who have worked in Milan in the past, and also a small historical and curiosity section.

The project is signed by Maurizio Accatto, an expert in the field of live events thanks to the historic management of the Milano Clown Festival, which traditionally takes place during the Carnival period but this year will be postponed to later. Maurizio Accattoto in the guise of Moriss, the funny clown at the head of the PIC of the Clown Emergency Service, will accompany the public on this journey into the world of colours.

The protagonist of all the episodes is the clown Toni, who with a little play on words also becomes a colour, one for every day. It begins on Tuesday 16 February with the episode "Toni Bianchi", which will have as guests the famous Italian duo of the Caproni Brothers with the show "The little man of bread and the little man of the apple", to which will be added, again on Toni del white, a clownish Master Chef. Wednesday will be the turn of the "Toni Rossi", with the funniest clowns. On stage the energy of Circo Roma, the Extra Toni and the Toni Sociali. Thursday we move on to the "Yellow Tones": guest of the Italian-French company Omphaloz, who with aerial acrobatics on trapeze will make us fly on the wings of the lightest and most poetic clowns. I Pumi will also be on stage with the comic acrobatics show. The Friday episode will instead be dedicated to "Blue Tones", with the fascinating and magical atmospheres of the Magicians of Glam, the wonderful luminescent soap bubbles of Vitaminaeci. And for the grand finale on Shrove Saturday 20 February, "Tutti i Toni" is scheduled, with the joy of all the colors that made up the Carnival. High, or rather very high, tones, with contributions from international artists.

In each episode, live music will be the guest and protagonist thanks to the Milan Wind Orchestra which will play a special repertoire inspired by songs associated with the world of circus and clowning in cinema and theatre. Special guests are the very young musicians of the duo To Feel, engaged in the more light-hearted repertoire of songs by Dario Fo, Enzo Jannacci and Giorgio Gaber. They will entertain the audience with their playful interpretations, just as is in the spirit of all shows.

Given the impossibility of inviting companies from other regions and abroad, within the episodes there will be several video postcards sent by international artists who have performed in Milan in the past. Among them Michael Trautman from America, Mario Pirovano, the Spanish Lapso Company and many others who will offer an excerpt of their shows created specifically for the Carnival of Colors. Among the important contributions we could not miss that of Enrico Bonavera, the Harlequin of the Piccolo Teatro, who with his light-hearted air will wish the entire audience a different kind of Carnival than usual. A more "official" but still playful space - the style will be that of the 'Toni', where the clown will be the master - will be dedicated to Dario Fo and Franca Rame, in the place which has become famous thanks to them and which, precisely for this was named after them.

GALLERY backstage 

www.yesmilano.it