Franco Battiato has died at 76 years of age and today more than ever we remember the night in which he moved his permanent center of gravity to the Jardín Botánico Alfonso XIII. And it is that in that summer season of 2017 the Madrid public contemplated from very close the life and work of a composer who has been responsible for inhabiting, in a very intense way, in the heart of several generations. A work that, in the same way, has been influencing and persisting notably in the career of numerous national artists.
Several of the names that make up the concert series of this fifth anniversary have found in Battiato's music a source of inspiration for the development of their artistic creations. Without going any further, Jota from Los Planetas, who is visiting Noches del Botánico this year with the band Fuerza Nueva, was in charge of adapting the album Apriti Sesamo into Spanish together with Manu Terrón in the project Grupo de Expertos Solynieve.
Another example of how the songs of the Sicilian filmmaker and author have clearly permeated Spanish culture is the tribute paid to him by Xoel López on Cadena SER's Hoy por Hoy programme. The Galician, who is part of the line-up for this new edition, performed the well-known L'Animale in an intimate, acoustic format.
His passing comes just a few weeks before the long-awaited return of Noches del Botánico. The voice of the padrone will continue to haunt every corner of this venue where the true essence of music rests.