A leading artist on the national music scene, but unfortunately passed away prematurely in 1988 at only 44 years of age, Herbert Pagani He has gone down in history for several important reasons. Listening to him in the 1970s with his ironic and cultured programs on Radio Montecarlo was a real delight. But on the radio you could also hear him singing his own songs, catchy but never banal, like Cheers with glasses and Ahi, Hawaii, written together with Edoardo Bennato.
Also known as the author of many songs brought to success by others, such as Hotel by the Hours by Gino Paoli, Mamy Blue for Dalida, or Teorema by Marco FerradiniHe was also a translator of famous songs from French, a poet, a collaborator of Giorgio Gaber, Salvatore Adamo, and Françoise Hardy, but also a television actor and playwright with the show Mégalopolis.
The younger sister Caroline Pagani he recently remembered him with the double album “Pagans for Pagans”, winner in 2025 Tenco award for best project album. A highly regarded stage actress herself, she masterfully performed a refined concert show and the albums she recorded as a singer in memory of her brother.
More than a singer, Caroline Pagani is a 360-degree artist, is that correct?
I am an actress, author of theatrical texts (playwright) and essays, in particular on William Shakespeare, on which I wrote two degree theses (one in Venice) and notes of the texts I write, often. But they are also set designer and costume designer of my shows and singer – interpreter: what I love to do mostI was about to end up as a bookworm at university, luckily I saved myself in time.
What did it mean to be Herbert Pagani's younger sister?
It meant having a light in the family, a single flame to follow, a lighthouse, a Master He explained everything to me about the history of art and painting, and above all, he supported and encouraged my inclinations, vocations, and choices. For me, it meant that what I felt I wanted to do and be was right, beautiful, and possible.
Herbert, too, was characterized by his multifaceted genius; what remains today of his artistic legacy?
I don't think everything is left, and not enough, at least in Italy. Herbert Pagani He was a great pioneer and innovator of modern radio., it was he who invented, before Alto Gradimento, on Radio Montecarlo, Fumorama. He imported the French song from across the Alps to Italy and made it known through beautiful translations and adaptations. He fused the French school of chansonniers (translating authors like Jacques Brel and Léo Ferré) with Italian sensibility.
He was one of the first to make art with recycling. In Italy, two posthumous exhibitions were held at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara and in Milan at the Brera International Centre. megalopolis, a sci-fi rock opera, a concept album inspired by Roberto Vacca's Medioevo prossimo venturo, deals with pandemics, wars, pollution, and hypertechnology. In Italy, he is best remembered for his work on the radio, for his light-hearted songs, which were necessary compromises of youth, even for the cultured and refined ones that were censored, which is why he returned to France.
How did the idea for a tribute album to your brother who passed away prematurely come about?
The idea had been incubating since Herbert disappeared.Like many artists, I created it during the pandemic, while simultaneously writing the text and staging the concert show. I was and am very keen to give my contribution to his memory., to his poetry, to his art, because I knew them intimately. It's not enough to appreciate or love an artist to do something about him; you have to truly and deeply know him, you have to know his story and his soul.
Which Herbert Pagani song are you most attached to and why?
A song that I am very attached to is “My generation", because it's autobiographical and speaks of our family history. It's about unloved and mistreated children, used as blackmail tools and pawns in their parents' wars, sent like parcels from one boarding school to another, who manage to survive the lack of love by building a new love, thus exorcising the curse of their parents' sins, so that they don't fall on their children.
How did you manage to involve so many well-known names in the project?
I happened to meet them, in various contexts, some of them I had known for a long time, others I searched for them and wanted themI would have liked to Vinicio Capossela, who really appreciated the project, but it was logistically difficult and the album had to come out, as I would have liked Mario Biondi. Danilo Rea I would always and forever want it.
Is it true that you're also thinking about a "volume two" of the album?
Yes, it was not possible to include all of Herbert's Italian and French recordings. Some of his French songs are the most beautiful ever, as are the Ballads of Marco Visconti, a Rai drama with Pamela Villoresi and Gabriele Lavia, where Herbert was an actor, a minstrel, and wrote and composed all the ballads. He then worked as a lyricist and wrote very beautiful lyrics for many other artists, including Dalida, Françoise Hardy, Christophe, Ennio Morricone, Edoardo Bennato, Riz Ortolani.
What is your relationship with Venice, to which Herbert dedicated a documentary and an album?
I deeply love VeniceI love her with a carnal, physical, passionate, and even contemplative love. When I wander through the fields at night, even in winter, in the fog, I feel part of this city and I feel that she is part of me, Venice is one of those places that contaminates you, shapes you. The intellectual bond, of elective affinities, and of artistic enjoyment is also very strong with Venice, as is the bond of creativity. I wrote most of my texts and essays there and staged most of my shows.
Even though I was born in Genoa, grew up a bit in Tigullio, a bit abroad, between Luxembourg, Paris and London, a bit in Milan, and even though I now live mainly in Rome, Venice is the city where I feel most at homeEvery time I arrive there I feel welcomed by the lagoon. When I was in New York studying on a scholarship at the Stella Adler Academy of ActingAs much as I enjoyed school, I couldn't wait to return to Venice, to a more human dimension, centered by silence and lulled by the soundscape of the water, the seagulls, and the bells.
Finally, what is Caroline Pagani working on besides music?
Promoting the album first and foremost, to make it known and to tour, in Italy and abroad, in French-speaking countries. To tour my theatrical and musical works in Italy and abroad. I have some texts in progress, one on the relationship between Eleonora Duse and Sarah Bernhardt, one on the “bad” ones in Shakespeare “Maleficent”, one on Othello from Desdemona's point of view: “Desdemona: Love and Death in Venice", one on Callas, I have one almost finished on Joan of Arc, and the book In Bed with Shakespeare, A Tragicomedy. Finally, another single with a video clip, which will precede Volume II, and I would really like to make at least one documentary.
