The pianist and composer Giovanni Allevi has resumed his concerts in Italian theaters since last February. A long-awaited return, after having been forced to step away from the piano due to illness, which lasted almost two years. With a certain resurgence which recently led it to postpone certain dates, such as that of Taranto on March 15. However, he has not lost the smile and optimism which have always characterized him and which moved the public during the last edition of the Sanremo Festival. With a smile, he returned to speak in front of six thousand Lombard students, gathered on Tuesday at the Assago Forum for the show “Happiness on tour. Lives – Stories of happiness”, promoted by the Felicità Foundation. He told them about the experience that began with the diagnosis of multiple myeloma and culminated one morning. When “a young doctor enters vehemently without knocking, he stays at the door, he has no suit, no shoes, no mask. He waves some papers and says to me: “Master, you have thirteen white blood cells”!. I, who have a sense of humor, replied: “Doctor, aren’t they a little small?” But he smiles and walks away. What happened?”.
The good news
What happened, he continues, “the cells were producing new bone marrow. In reality, the white blood cell count was 13 per cubic millimeter. The scales that were tipping toward my death have started to tilt toward life again. In that moment, I was struck by pure happiness. A truck fell on me, a skyscraper of happiness. Why was I happy? For any professional results? Why had I sold records? Why have subscribers increased? No, because I was simply alive.” That day was, he says, “immensely happy.”
The “little trip to hell”
Guest of honor at the Assago event, Allevi was the last to speak. Saying he was “very excited”. Before beginning his speech, he said to Mail, a video showing him at the height of his success was released. Which the pianist commented as follows: “That was my life two years ago. Then came a terrible illness that took everything away. So much so that today I wonder, maybe she came on purpose?” It is with these words that he presents to the children what he calls his “little trip to hell”. This which, however, never pushed him to give up: “Resilience is a word that I have never liked, it makes me think of the passive acceptance of a negative condition. On the other hand, I have a fighting spirit. ” Even illness, he explains, hides valuable lessons. He says he learned “to assume the most important commandment, domination over myself, over my fears, over my anxieties. I had to keep my gaze straight on the flowers while I was going through hell, I had to bring a smile to the people who were close to me even when the physical pain was unbearable.
“A very delicate person”
“In ancient Rome – he continues – people destined for command had to have three qualities: authorities, dignities And Grace. What really surprised me was the grace. It was necessary to have grace in speech, in gestures, in movements, in intentions. During these two years of illness, I made these three words my own.” He then tempers with a joke: “Certainly not because he is a person destined for command, for the love of God. I am a very delicate, I don't like telling others what to do or think. In fact, when I was a middle school teacher, I was a disaster.” Despite the smile, he does not spare the most painful details. Like, after a year, the news of having to repeat 10 injections in the stomach to stimulate the bone marrow to produce stem cells. Which is, however, “very difficult with hand tremors”.
Return to the room
Allevi doesn’t even gloss over the return to the room: “A large room full of beds, a sheet to separate them. I don't see her, but there was a little girl next to me, she must have been 7 years old and she was crying and crying. And the parents and nurses and doctors tried to distract her, to calm her down. My God, why do you allow these things? I gave, okay. But a 7 year old girl? This is also a huge problem on a theological level. » Words difficult to pronounce, in emotion. But he continues his story: “The diseased bone marrow eats away at the bones from the inside and we cannot understand the pain. And in fact I'm full of very powerful opioids, a hundred times more powerful than heroin and in fact I'm going through withdrawal, which is a frightening experience.”
Chemo
It didn't stop there, because then came the chemo, which made him lose his characteristic thick, curly hair: “One day I felt a big burning sensation on my head and my hair fell out all over. together in a few hours, I took it off like it was a wig.” At that point, he was now “bald, full of psychotropic drugs and opioids that for months and months made me feel like I was “I had a fever of 39 degrees. Very weak, no appetite, I lost weight, I thought 63 kilos. There, I thought that I just had to decide to let myself go and that I would stop.” But he did not do it.
Culture
Two things kept him alive: love for his family and his culture. In fact, in the darkest period, Allevi says he indulged in lectures, history, philosophy and classical literature. “I discovered that human frailty was not just my problem. It is a constant in the history of humanity. I felt less alone. » When, after a few weeks, the “thirteen blood cells” finally arrived, the composer said he felt “a deep feeling of gratitude, for being alive, for the talent of the doctors, for the affection of the nurses, for the red color” of “dawn which is different from the red of sunset”. “Inevitably – he concludes – in human nature I returned to normality. And in fact the Greeks, who understood everything, had identified two divinities to manage time. The god of the moment, Kairòs, then Kronos, the god of daily life. But after that peak, a compact strip of gratitude began and it's still there. » Her touching speech ends with a wish for the boys. To cherish what he has just given them: “My life, my suffering, my happiness”.
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