HOPERAPERTA

Theater is magic 

text and photos by Martina Barberis Casagrande

Theater is a magical world. I remember the first time I met Valentina Cortese, Giorgio Strehler's leading actress, one of the most important thespians in Italian theater, who contributed, among others, to make Audrey Hepburn the diva we know today. After directing her in Day For Night, Truffaut, French director and symbol of the Nouvelle Vague, commented that it is easy to win an Oscar when you are dealing with Valentina Cortese.

Years ago I was at the dentist and in the waiting room there was a beautiful lady: as I read somewhere, you can be beautiful at a any age. Iabsolutely agree. And I would add that age and experience helps by increasing one's charisma, elegance and wisdom. Valentina Cortese seemed an eccentric yet very approciable woman. She was talking to the person who was accompanying her about a prize that she was supposed to collect. She saw me, I was just a child, and  began a long and friendly chat with me. What star would behave like that today? Maybe a theater actress, a curious woman, a person from another time. Or maybe it could happen today.

Speaking of approachability and theatre, I have a nice Roman memory about a lady who once worked at Cinecittà with Monicelli. She told me he was a "very simple" man (if we can call him that). He used to go to eat in old restaurants (trattorie) and he practiced "theater" outside the movie sets, in the city.

Another meeting I remember was with Luciano Damiani, a set designer who worked for La Scala, with Strehler, for Piccolo Teatro, and in many other European theaters. With a small gesture he proved to be a master: he managed to drive out my shyness, while still respecting it. When we went to visit him, I saw a person scribbling on sheets of paper: he intrigued me and, at the same time, intimidated me. He showed us his Roman theater - I was very shy but amazed by that beautiful space, a wonder for any child - he understood and let me roam freely through the theater. After a while the shyness was gone, he looked at me and smiled ("I won" he must have been thinking).

Franco Jesorum, an extraordinary Italian Harlequin, was another person whose memory I keep. He was very simple and, at the same time, eccentric.

But when did eccentricity become a flaw for Italians? These figures taught me that originality doesn't necessarily have to clash with simplicity, and I'm happy to have touched that period which now seems so different from ours.

Regardless of the pandemic and the emergency in progress, I think that theater is a fundamental and essential art for us Italians. Why do we always want to put arts and the theater in the background? Why are they valued in the UK, where children practice them at school, while for us they are a stain? We are born artists. My paternal grandfather left me a small object, “So you will take it to La Scala,” he told me. This was his wish. Last year I thought about following his advice and I started to frequent the thater assiduously. It became a drug for me, who knows, maybe he really was right.

The best thing about going to concerts is staying in the gallery. You hear the most hilarious comments. People shouting "good!", applauding, whistling, getting excited. The theater is part of the beating heart of a city and its history. It is a place where people feel safe.

I started going to the theater in small steps, thanks in part to my passion for cinema, which I have always loved. Seeing Bolero from the gallery is a powerful experience: the entire audience is focused on the small figures that slowly move, faster and faster, with sweet music that becomes stronger and stronger, the public glued to their seats anticipating the ending. In this case, I have strong memories of Claude Lelouch (Bolero was one of his most beautiful films). I met him at the Marais in Paris one evening, we sat at the same restaurant while he was eating next to my table. When did cinema and theater stop talking to ordinary people? We remember that we are also made up of social rituals, of presences, that we aren't just a digital screen. Like everyone else, young people have a variety of passions and interests. I always see La Scala full of young people, and when I went to Paolo Conte's concert, I was happily surprised to notice how many of my peers were there to listen to this legendary musician.