Lady Lazarus band

Lady Lazarus is our musical-authorial project. We are a band active since 2007, founded on a stable creative core composed of Marcello Stefanelli and Gabriele Santucci, who form its permanent operational and artistic nucleus.

This core has been enriched over time by collaborations with other musicians and artists, depending on the needs of each individual project. This openness is an integral part of our artistic research, which is based on the exchange and cross-fertilization of different artistic sensibilities.

English translation:

The poetics of Marcello Stefanelli, from Savona—and of Lady Lazarus, the nickname of the micro-group that works meticulously with him—are essentially allegorical, but it is a nuclear, atomic allegory. The core of the metaphors and words always refers, through puns and similes, to its treacherous and obscure double. The words of “security” (the affective, advertising, poetic, political, religious, and ethical jargon) immediately deviate and become threatening and ambiguous; this is not a static, theatrical allegory, but a cinematic one, in perpetual flight from itself.

If the symbol, according to the ancient definition, “rests upon itself,” then for this mad allegory (much like the mayonnaise that might instantly evoke it) the only path to rest and refuge lies in a hall of mirrors, in the immediate creation of a malicious or unreliable double, like a sibyl. This is the only reassurance—at least fifty percent—of the possibility of survival for Schrödinger’s cat, or for its double, and therefore for us.

And the landscape of security is transformed, in just a few “blasphemous” strokes (or pornographic, if one prefers), into that of anguish. Paradoxically, this anguish—within its lines and drones, its paranoid pronouncements—seems to guarantee, at least for the duration of a song or a reading, both the ever-shifting rules of a peremptory code and the equally rigorous mockery that exposes it: the cage, at once, and the illusory freedom as much as the cage itself. Like in those optical games in which one sees the little bird entering and leaving the cage, yet everything depends on the focus of the observer’s gaze. (link)

Marcello Stefanelli, vocals and rhythm guitar, is the author of the lyrics and music; Gabriele Santucci is lead guitarist and contributes substantially to the musical composition, arrangements and artistic production, as well as working as a sound engineer and sound designer.

Lady Lazarus’ artistic approach is highly experimental, but always rooted in tradition: their work aims to bring classical languages and contemporary technologies into dialogue. Their music, which they define as “art song”, integrates acoustic and classical instruments with electric and electronic instrumentation, sampling and digital devices, in a hybridization designed to open up new spaces of meaning.

Over the years, Lady Lazarus have developed a recognized path in the field of art song and musical research, receiving important critical recognition. For example, in 2019 they received the Targa Tenco for Best Collective Project for the artistic production of the song “È tutto qui”, included in the collection of unreleased works by Gianni Siviero.

Collaborations

Over the years, Lady Lazarus have developed a recognized path in the field of art song and musical research, obtaining important critical feedback. For example, in 2019, they received the Targa Tenco as Best Collective Project for the artistic production of the song “E’ tutto qui”, contained in the collection of unreleased songs by Gianni Siviero.

In 2022, however, they reached the final of the Tenco Prize as Best Overall Work, ranking immediately behind Marracash, with the work “The Cry of the Fairy” by Max Manfredi, for which they took care of the artistic production, arrangements, instrumental performance, sound design, musical composition and booklet. Leading musicians of Italian song took part in the work, including Fabrizio Ugas (artistic co-producer), Bob Callero, historic bassist of Lucio Battisti and Loredana Bertè, among many other protagonists of Italian songwriting. The album can boast as its cover a photo by Maestro Renzo Chiesa, one of the greatest exponents of Italian musical photography, together with his friend Guido Harari.

Lady Lazarus, in this period, are following the artistic production and, in part, the co-composition of some songs by the young industrial rock and new grunge artist Kralo Ozaki, for what will be his solo work. At the same time, Ozaki has become part, as a voice, of the next alternative rock musical project by the great drummer Paolo Uzo Valli, son of the famous arranger and producer Celso Valli, known for his contribution to the careers of major names in Italian music such as Vasco Rossi (among them “Sally”).

Lady Lazarus also took care of the artistic production and arrangements of the “Domani” section of “La prison dei puppets” by Gabriele Priolo. A collaboration is also developing with the Veronese singer-songwriter Marco Ongaro, winner of the Targa Tenco in 1987 for Best First Work, and of the prestigious Carta Canta literary prize.

They currently collaborate with the Umberto Eco Foundation and are active in various projects that intertwine music, literature and technologies (especially art video games), in collaboration with national and international entities such as the Mus-e Association of Cyprus, the MENUHIN Association of Brussels, the Collodi Foundation, Treccani, as well as other cultural institutions and universities. Finally, noteworthy are the recent invitation and collaboration with the children’s literature festival Zerodiciannove, and the numerous articles and poems written for the historic literary magazine Il Foglio del Tiglieto.

Performance

During their activity, Lady Lazarus have performed in numerous theaters and cultural spaces throughout Italy, including the Teatro della Tosse, Il Savini in Milan, the Teatro Sacco, and La Claque, also creating experimental performances that integrate augmented reality, robotics and projections (Lady Lazarus are also software houses under the name Vibrisse Studio). With the philosopher and writer Lorenza Saettone, they presented the project “Detector of Fate” at the 2023 Science Festival, and with this they were selected from more than a thousand proposals to stage it at the Teatro della Tosse in the Luzzati Hall, on the occasion of the grand finale of the event. Among the other theatrical works we recall Max Manfredi’s rereading of Marlowe’s Faustus, with original music written by Lady Lazarus themselves.

During the years of the pandemic, Lady Lazarus conceived, curated and conducted, together with Dr. Lorenza Saettone, Max Manfredi and Federico Sirianni, the Quarantena Tour (which, among others, featured De Scalzi and Castelnuovo as guests): a series of streaming concerts that raised around 60,000 euros in donations, donated to the Blue Cross of Moneglia, combining cultural dissemination and concrete support for the local community.