Stasera at 9.40pm on Rai 1 a new cycle of episodes starts again Ulysses – The pleasure of discovery 2026, Alberto Angela’s program dedicated to history, art and culture. In today’s episode, May 4th, Alberto takes viewers to New York for a special journey to discover the artists and musical bands who lived, played and immortalized the Big Apple.
Ulysses by Alberto Angela on Rai 1 and RaiPlay: tonight 4 May the episode dedicated to New York and its music
After the great success last year with On the notes of Londonthis evening Alberto Angela will cross the Atlantic to talk about another city that has a deep connection with music, the Big Apple, with To the tune of New York. A musical journey for the city, where each set will be paired with a song or artist American.
The episode will open suspended between sky and steel, on the top floor of its symbolic skyscraper: the Empire State Building. From up there the gaze embraces the skyline of that vertical jungle made of dreams and ambition. The same one Jay-Z and Alicia Keys have turned into an immortal anthem with Empire State of Mind.
Leave the heights of the Empire State Building, we will descend along its steel veins to the asphalt of New York. On board a traditional yellow taxi, you will cross the city, passing by Grand Central Station until Times Squaresurrounded by the illuminated theaters of Broadway. The same path, real and symbolic, followed by many artists in search of a dream. Especially from a girl named Madonna who, at the end of the Seventies, arrived in New York with a few dollars in his pocket and became a legend.
Alberto Angela in the special of “Ulysses” entitled “On the notes of New York”. (Rai Press Office)
From Manhattan to Brooklyn together with the Bee Gees and Michael Jackson
It will also be a journey made up of timeless cinematographic soundtrackslike among the elegant shop windows of Fifth Avenue, where the notes of Moon River, the song of Breakfast at Tiffany’s with Audrey Hepburn. From there, Alberto Angela will move to the meadows with the shaded avenues of Central Parkwhere music has often found a home, transforming the greenery of Manhattan into an immense concert hall. As for Simon & Garfunkel’s legendary free concert of 1981.
After Manhattan, first stop in Brooklyn under the Manhattan Bridgewhose profile was immortalized by the film Once upon a time in America by Sergio Leone set to music by Ennio Morricone. You will then arrive at 86th Street in the Bensonhurst neighborhoodin the heart of what was Brooklyn’s “Little Italy” in the late seventies.
Right along those sidewalks an unforgettable film starring John Travolta began that will change the history of music forever: Saturday night fever which, thanks to the Bee Gees soundtrack, will mark the beginning of the disco music era. You will then get off on the New York subwaywhere the director Martin Scorsese shot one of the most famous music videos of all time: Bad by Michael Jackson.
TO Ulysses – The pleasure of discovery also stops in the Bronx and Coney Island
Note after note, Alberto Angela will take viewers in some of the neighborhoods that have marked musical history of the city. It starts from Greenwich Villagewhere some of the most famous rock singers of all time took their first steps such as Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Bruce Springsteen.
Then the Bronx, where hip hop culture and rap music were born, then the East Village and the Lower East Side, cradle of New York punk rock and home to famous clubs such as CBGB where groups such as Blondie, Talking Heads and the Ramones became famous. Accompanied by the voice of Lana Del Rey we will also visit Coney Islandthe “New Yorkers’ beach”, with its unmistakable amusement park.
Angela will then stop in a true temple of music: the Lincoln Center which hosts prestigious institutions such as the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Ballet. We will finally enter the Blue Note, one of the most famous jazz venues in the worldwhere artists such as Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson performed. To finally get lost among the alleys of Harlem, to the tune of jazz and gospel.