Birth and death are the two uniquely real moments. The rest is dream, interrupted by some insignificant flashes of vigil.
Philosophical production
Sgalambro did not have titles or degrees for business cards: how he became a writer of philosophy – whose books are translated into French, German and Spanish – is a mystery that he was not able to explain.
Beginning In 1945 he worked jointly with the review Prisma (directed by Leonardo Grassi): the first writing is Paralipomeni all'irrazionalismo.
I did not matriculate into Philosophy because I studied it by myself. I liked penal law and so I chose the faculty of Jurisprudence.
From 1959 on along with Sebastiano Addamo, he wrote for the magazine Incidenze (founded by Antonio Corsano). His first article for the journal was Crepuscolo e notte (that has been printed again in 2011). In the intervening period of time, he wrote for the journal Tempo presente (directed by Nicola Chiaromonte and Ignazio Silone).
In 1963, at the age of 39, he got married. The incomes coming from the citruses (heredited from his father) was not enough anymore, so he chose to integrate it by do a thesis for a degree and teaching at school.
In the late 1970s he to organize his thoughts in systematic work. Then at the age of 55, he sent his first book, La morte del sole, to the editor Adelphi:
And it rested there for two years. But since I am done in this way, I did not ask anything. Then my wife received a call. They asked me to go to Milan, to forge contact with the editor.
In the following years, with the same editor, he published: Trattato dell'empietà, Anatol, Del pensare breve, Dialogo teologico, Dell'indifferenza in materia di società, La consolazione, Trattato dell'età, De mundo pessimo and La conoscenza del peggio e Del delitto.
In the meanwhile, in the early 1990s, with some friends he established a small editorial activity in Catania: De Martinis. On the inside, Sgalambro managed pamphlets, publishing a pair of works (Dialogo sul comunismo and Contro la musica) and printed some operas by Giulio Cesare Vanini and Julien Benda.
Collaboration with Battiato
In 1993 he encountered Franco Battiato, accidentally, during the presentation of a common friend's poetry book. After few days, Battiato asked him to a meeting to propose to him the libretto for the opus Il cavaliere dell'intelletto about Frederik II of Hohenstaufen:
A year ago I didn't know him. Since then we have been worked together. He says to be just a philosopher, but according to me he is a talent that stimulates and enriches me. It seems impossible to me, today, returning to write the lyrics for my things.
From 1994 until his death he collaborated on almost everyone of Franco Battiato's projects. For him he wrote:
the libretti of the opera Il cavaliere dell'intelletto, Socrate impazzito, Gli Schopenhauer and Campi magnetici;
the screenplays of the movies Lost Love, Musikanten (about the last years of Beethoven's life) and Niente è come sembra, of the television transmission Bitte keine réclame and of the documentary Auguri don Gesualdo (about Gesualdo Bufalino).
In 2000 he published the single La mer, containing the cover of the famous song by Charles Trenet.
In 2001 he published the album Fun club, produced by Franco Battiato and Saro Cosentino, containing evergreen songs like La vie en rose (by Édith Piaf) and Moon river (by Henry Mancini), but even the ironic Me gustas tú (by Manu Chao).
In 2007 hen lent his voice to the DC-9 airliner of the Italian airline Itavia in Pippo Pollina's opera Ultimo volo about the infamous Ustica disaster.
In 2009 he published the single La canzone della galassia, containing the cover of The galaxy song (taken from Monty Python's The meaning of life), sung with the Sardinian-English group Mab.
Album
Fun club (Sony music entertainment Italy, 2001 – EAN 5099750496824).
Singoli
La mer (Sony music entertainment Italy, 2000).
Me gustas tú (Sony music entertainment Italy, 2001).
La canzone della galassia (Sony music entertainment Italy, 2009).
Franco Battiato, Campi magnetici (Sony music entertainment Italy & L'ottava, 2000 – EAN 5099708928025).
Franco Battiato, Ferro battuto (Sony music entertainment Italy & L'ottava, 2001 – EAN 5099750229590), translated even in Spain as Hierro forjado (Sony music entertainment Italy & L'ottava, 2001 – EAN 5099750345320).
AA.VV., Invasioni (New scientist, 2001).
Franco Battiato, Fleurs 3 (Sony music entertainment Italy & L'ottava, 2002 – EAN 5099750888421).
Franco Battiato, Colonna sonora di Perduto amor (Sony music entertainment Italy & L'ottava, 2003 – EAN 5099751123521).
Alice, Viaggio in Italia (NuN entertainment, 2003 – EAN 4029758504321).
Franco Battiato, Last summer dance (Sony music entertainment Italy & L'ottava, 2003 – EAN 5099751370628).
Franco Battiato, Dieci stratagemmi: attraversare il mare per ingannare il cielo (Sony music entertainment Italy & L'ottava, 2004 – EAN 5099751856528).
Franco Battiato, Un soffio al cuore di natura elettrica (Sony music entertainment Italy & L'ottava, 2005 – EAN 0828767416496).
Franco Battiato, Il vuoto (Universal music Italy & L'ottava, 2007 – EAN 0602517229723).
Pippo Pollina, Ultimo volo: orazione civile per Ustica (Storie di note, 2007 – EAN 8032484730601).
Lilies on Mars, Lilies on Mars (Lilies on Mars, 2008).
Fiorella Mannoia, Il movimento del dare (Sony music entertainment Italy, 2008 – EAN 886974055525).
Franco Battiato, Niente è come sembra (Bompiani & L'ottava, 2007 – ISBN 978-88-452-5978-4).
Documentaries
Daniele Consoli, La verità sul caso del signor Ciprì e Maresco (Zelig, 2004).
Guido Cionini, Manlio Sgalambro: il consolatore (Nexmedia, 2006).
Franco Battiato, Auguri don Gesualdo (Bompiani & Kasba comunicazioni, 2010 – ISBN 978-88-452-6586-0).
Videos
Franco Battiato, L'ombrello e la macchina da cucire (1995).
Franco Battiato, Di passaggio (1996).
Franco Battiato, Strani giorni (1996).
Franco Battiato, Shock in my town (1998).
Franco Battiato, Running against the grain (2001).
Franco Battiato, Bist du bei mir (2001).
Franco Battiato, Ermeneutica (2004).
Franco Battiato, La porta dello spavento supremo (2004).
Franco Battiato, Il vuoto (2007).
Franco Battiato, Inneres Auge (2009).
Theater
Manlio Sgalambro & Franco Battiato, Il cavaliere dell'intelletto: opera in due atti per l'ottocentenario della nascita di Federico II di Svevia (1994).
Franco Battiato, Campi magnetici: i numeri non si possono amare (2000).
Pippo Pollina, Ultimo volo: orazione civile per ustica (2007).
Manlio Sgalambro, Carlo Guarrera & Rosalba Bentivoglio, Frammenti per versi e voce (2009).
Television
Franco Battiato, Bitte keine réclame (2004).
Music
In Di passaggio (from L'imboscata) he declaims in ancient Greek:
Ταυτο τενι ζων και τεθνηκος και εγρηγορος και καθευδον και νεον και γηραιον ταδε γαρ μεταπεσοντα εκεινα εστι κακεινα παλιν ταυτα.
In Invito al viaggio (from Fleurs) he declaims (in Italian):
I invite you to the voyage in the land that is like you. The misty sunlights of those cloudy skies have for my spirit the charm of your treacherous eyes, shining brightly. There all is order and beauty, luxury, peace, and pleasure; the world falls asleep in a warm glow of light; see on the canals those vessels sleeping: their mood is adventurous to satisfy your slightest desires.
In Corpi in movimento (from Campi magnetici) he declaims (in Italian):
If, in speaking of my points, I think of some system of things, e.g., the system: love, law, chimney-sweep… and then assume all my axioms as relations between these things, then my propositions, e.g., Pythagoras' theorem, are also valid for these things.
Since 1996 he participates in almost every Franco Battiato's tours:
In '97 he declaims in Latin on Battiato's song Areknames (from Pollution), renamed for the occasion Canzone chimica:
In 2002 he sings a new version – with lyrics adapted philosophically – of Accetta il consiglio (taken from The big Kahuna), published the next year in live album Last summer dance.
Cinema
In Perduto amor he acts Martino Alliata, philosophy teacher of the leading character (Corrado Fortuna).
In Musikanten he acts a noble man from Siena.
Theater
In L'histoire du soldat and in Campi magnetici he is the narrator.
