Saviano, controversy over Alberto Angela's program: the beauties of Naples are not sparkling

Roberto Saviano disliked the narration of Naples offered by Alberto Angela in his program Stanotte a Napoli (Tonight in Naples), the program that recounted the wonders of the Campania capital on December 25. The problem, according to Saviano, is that Alberto Angela’s program would have conveyed to Rai1 viewers an overly glitzy image of the city: in fact, the program focused only on the beauties of Naples, without giving space to its well-known problems. However, it is not Alberto Angela who is the direct object of Roberto Saviano’s controversy: if anything, the author of Gomorra points the finger at those who, on social media, have exploited Alberto Angela’s account to contrast a gilded Naples with that of crime, since, according to Saviano, these are not two worlds to be read in total opposition. There is no Naples of wonders, according to the writer: or rather, there is a Naples of wonders that is, however, incessantly threatened and undermined by its many cracks.

An issue evidently clear to the program’s authors: In fact, Alberto Angela began in the first minutes of the program, even before the introductory theme song, by stating that Naples is an “organism built over the centuries, a delicate organism to be taken care of,” as well as “a very ancient city, which has crossed the centuries enriching itself with masterpieces, wonders, stories and traditions that are each time different and that make it unique. It is therefore natural,” the host continued, "that it constitutes an important stage of Stanotte a: of course like all great cities it has its lights and its shadows, and often the chronicles tend to focus on its shadows, covering, in this way, its lights. We at Stanotte a, while not ignoring its shadows, want to show these its lights, just as we have done with other Italian cities in the past. The result, as you will see, is a city that is much brighter and more alive than you think.“ A position he later took up on social media as well, imagining the debate that would arise following the airing of the program: ”Naples is above all light,“ the popular TV host wrote on his Facebook page. ”And it is precisely this light that we want to shine tonight, just as we have done for other cities."

Justification, however, was not enough for Roberto Saviano, who spoke about Tonight in Naples in his very harsh editorial in Corriere della Sera, titled “Using the beauty of Naples to delegitimize its evil is giving the city to the oppressor.” Opening his italic with a photo of Giuseppe Sammartino’s Veiled Christ, and recalling the brutal murder of Don Peppe Diana and especially the circumstances under which the media reported the news, Saviano wrote that “there are those who can forget reality because, after all, they never really attend it and those who, on the other hand, are immersed in it up to their necks, so much so that they do not have the possibility of analyzing it. The grotesque thing is that the former are convinced that everyone else can, like them, become self-congratulatory and self-absorbed thanks to the beauties of Naples.” This is not a direct attack on Alberto Angela as much as it is on those who have commented on the program with words “dripping with blind classism and contempt for the conditions in which the city finds itself.”

“The Naples told by Alberto Angela exists,” Saviano continued, “but not to our credit. It is there and endures in a South that is trudging along, perpetually struggling. Of course, that wonderful Naples can be balm: but for whom, I wonder? For those who can look out on the terraces of the upper floors, because those below enjoy no view and live in a wonderful city that, however, has little to offer, even in terms of rights, if we agree to consider work and education rights. Then - for goodness sake - we can also decide that they are not and simply consider them concessions. I feel a sincere pain when I read comments about the glittering beauties of Naples contrasted with the darkness of Gomorrah, because those who have eyes to see know very well that the beauties of Naples are not glittering, but full of cracks and scars, and that the city is constantly outraged by ambushes that occur among its inhabitants, constantly putting their safety at risk.”

The public is actually divided, between those who praise Alberto Angela and at the same time criticize Roberto Saviano, guilty in the opinion of many of slinging mud at the city with his Gomorrah, and those who instead take back Stanotte a Napoli for being willfully silent about the city’s problems. It is too early to say that Alberto Angela’s storytelling is beginning to crack, but is it perhaps a sign of a small change in audience orientations?

Saviano, controversy over Alberto Angela's program: the beauties of Naples are not sparkling

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