Deuteragonists: that is the qualification we might assign to the characters appearing in this seductive collection of non-fiction short stories, an appellation from ancient Greek theatre denoting the second actor in the drama. Even marginal episodes, but capable of provoking the genesis of a work or the realisation of a nodal biographical fact: nothing in this collection is therefore secondary, everything is complementary to the form and existential colour of the figure involved, always that of a well-known musician.

Whose face is not immediately revealed: with shrewd writing technique, Giannuzzi welcomes us in the sweetness of hesitation, and only reveals his cards in the epilogue of each piece, reversing the relationship of prestige between accessory and primary figure. And so at the end - thank also to the structure of the work: five tales for each of the four centuries visited, from the 17th to the 20th century - we realise that we have covered, enveloped in a beautiful melodic atmosphere, what no one had yet done: a 'short story of singular cases involving musicians'.