Sting, cult songs, and nostalgic notes: the Englishman seduces Rome. His son, Joe Sumner, also takes the stage...

Those who, in the late 1970s, witnessed the birth - and explosion - of the Police phenomenon with Roxanne. And those who, in the 1980s, knew him as a solo artist, with If You Love Somebody Set Them Free and Nothing Like the Sun. Those who "discovered" him in the 1990s with his reinterpretation of Demolition Man, or in the 21st century with Desert Rose. And the many - perhaps the majority - who don't remember when or how they first heard his music, but today know and sing all the songs by heart, as if they were their own. It was an audience of diverse ages, backgrounds, and even tastes that welcomed, perhaps it would be better to say celebrated, Sting yesterday in the capital, with the live performance of "My Songs" in the Auditorium Parco della Musica - he last played here five years ago - as part of the Roma Summer Fest.

Track by track, almost in a resounding "dot to dot" game, Sting, accompanied by his band, selected some of the hits that have marked his career and - judging by the lyrics shouted out loud by those in attendance - the lives of many others. Indeed, his songs, underscored as such already in the titles, through sentiment, memories, and the desire to renew and transform them, have proven to be a collective heritage, pieces of a shared sonic - and emotional - memory, capable of reawakening or igniting powerful emotions. Here, then, are the nostalgics moved from the first notes of "Message in a Bottle." And the purists ready to turn up their noses a little, hearing slight variations in some musical passages, as if the reinterpretation, even by the author, were a betrayal. Then there are the lovers of good music, thrilled by the sounds of "Englishman in New York," the aficionados, animated by the debate over "Mad About You," recalling the Italian version, "Muoio per te" - here he sings "Amore" with Giordana Angi - and "Fields of Gold," of which Sting also recorded a version with Muvrini, a Corsican-language band. Even the curious, eager to hear him live, and the "I was there" crowd, never short of major events, ready, phone in hand, to post a story on social media with "Every Breath You Take" as the soundtrack.

More or less grown up, but always enthusiastic, his audience was there. And Sting, that self-created Englishman - even his family calls him that, "forgetting" his real name, Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner - revealed himself as the boy he always was: a delicate voice, sounds that skim the skin and touch the soul, the slightly sly smile of someone who has overcome the challenge of passing time and, above all, of overwhelming trends. He knows this well, and with his Peter Pan air - same magic but less naivety - he loves to play, so much so that he reiterated his desire to continue making music like Mick Jagger, who is only a few years older, does at his age.

It doesn't matter that the concert opens with his son, Joe Sumner, born in 1976 - the leader of Fiction Plane, who first came to music, captivated by Nirvana's Nevermind, and now performing in his footsteps - the "youngest" of the evening is still Sting, with his punk roots, rock spirit, melancholy that becomes pop ballads, and a few "dizzying" jazz flourishes. The rest is a show, literally. Dynamic, effervescent, rebellious, and seductive, capable of bringing everyone to their feet with "So Lonely" or inflaming hearts and memories with the tango-like sensuality of "Roxanne." And of bringing a tear to the eye, thinking of the conflict in Ukraine and wars of all time, with his performance of "Fragile." It's not just a matter of lyrics, judging by the audience's reactions. What thrills and shakes is a score of emotions from yesterday and the moment, the romantic-rock soundtrack of a starry night, in a multi-voiced courtship, where Sting is an irresistible Cyrano. Therefore, when he sings "If it's love" - "If it's love, you have to give in," the lyrics say - the audience surrenders, defeated, erasing every "if."

(c) Il Messaggero