Giovanni Dell’Olivo is a Venetian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist musician. In 2005, he founded the Lagunaria Collective, an ethnopopular music group that has been one of the most authoritative expressions of popular and singer-songwriter music in the Veneto region and beyond for about 20 years. He is the author and protagonist of numerous song-theatre shows staged in theatres and theatre festivals all over Italy. These include Kociss (2011), Mude da mar (2013), Addio a Ulisse (2015), Cantare il Fronte (2018) Memorie di Atlantide (2019), Alburno (2022). He has collaborated with the Venetian singer and songwriter Alberto D’Amico, of whom he remains one of the very few living performers. Over the course of his career, together with the musicians of the Lagunaria Collective (whose current line-up includes Alvise Seggi on double bass, Stefano Ottogalli on guitar, Walter Lucherini on accordion, and Serena Catullo on vocals), he has reinterpreted the repertoire of the Canzoniere Popolare Veneto, bringing it up to date and rearranging it into versions that have become standards for musicians entering the world of Venetian folk music over the years. These include Pianze la Mare, E tiorte i remi e vuoga, Ti passi de giorno da porto Marghera, il primo furto da me compiuto. In 2013, together with journalist Roberto Bianchin he published the book/disc Kociss, passione e morte di un bandito veneziano, published by Le Milieu, Milan.
As a performer, Giovanni Dell’Olivo is an eclectic multi-instrumentalist specialised in chordophonic instruments. Besides the classical guitar, from which his main technical background comes, he plays many ethnic instruments such as the Greek bouzouki, the Cretan lute, the Turkish oud, the saz, the banjo, the Portuguese guitar, the charango, etc. His published recordings include: La Saga del Commenda (2005*) Lagunaria (2008), Kociss (2013) Addio a Ulisse (2016*), Memorie di Atlantide (2020*) ((*) Available on Spotify). In 2020 he won the Gianmaria Testa national music and literature award with the song La peste è ritornata, featured on the album Memorie di Atlantide.
For the closing evening of the 2023 edition of the Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival, he will perform accompanied by a flamenco guitar, in a trio with Alvise Seggi on cello and Serena Catullo on vocals.
