Pavone at Sao Paulo's Casa di Dante on 21st August 2017

A cold winter Monday night at Casa di Dante in Sao Paulo, Brazil, listening to Rita Pavone's greatest hits being explained away by Professor Mauro Finazzi. 

Millene Fernandes had got mail from ICIB - Instituto Cultural Italo-Brasileiro about a series of lectures called 'Piccola Biblioteca della Canzone Italiana' (Part II) to start on Monday night, 21st August 2017. 

The first lecture - 'Il massimo di Rita' (Pavone) - was given by Prof. Mauro Finazzi in a very dinamic and descriptive way. Using a power-point system Mr. Finazzi presented the lyrics of 11 hand-picked songs made popular by Rita Pavone between 1962 and 1966 that were included in the album 'Il massimo di Rita' released by RCA Victor in 1969.

Finazzi actually 'edited' the original album cutting 6 tracks from it ('Scrivi', 'Sul cucuzzolo', 'San Francesco', 'Alla mia età', 'Qui ritornerà' and 'Bianco Natale') but adding 2 tracks ('Solo tu' and 'Viva la pappa col pomodoro') which ultimately made it more representative of the whole of the Pavone's oeuvre.

Mauro Finazzi's 'Il massimo di Rita':

1. Fortissimo (video-clip from 'Studio Uno 1966')
2. Non è facile avere 18 anni (a video-collage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIMc0f8VF3o)
3. Che m'importa del mondo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMb6KhndQss
4. La partita di pallone (straight from 'Alta Pressione' original 1962 broadcast)
5. Datemi un martello (clip with La Cricca:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGIXrziSLCQ )
6. Cuore (from Partitissima / Canzonissima 1967)

1. Come te non c'è nessuno (from 'Studio Uno 1963')
2. Il geghegè (from the 'Studio Uno 1966' op-art extravaganza)
3. Il ballo del mattone (from 'Studio Uno 1963')
4. Solo tu (excerpt from 1965 Wertmüller musicarello 'Rita la figlia americana')
5. Viva la pappa col pomodoro (from a 1965 RAI programme)

bonus tracks:

6. 'If I had a hammer' with Peter, Paul & Mary
7. 'Da cosa nasce cosa' - psychedelic clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq2BFUc91gA
8. 'Come te non c'è nessuno' TV clip by Nutella: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKxhSfRQknI
9. Medley done with Mina at 1965's 'Stasera Rita': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBUiu3qXYoI

The very dynamic lecture was given in Italian since Instituto Cultural Italo-Brasileiro is mainly an Italian-language-school installed in a large two-story house on Rua Frei Caneca in what used to be a posh neighbourhood.

Mr Finazzi gave an idea of Rita Pavone's meteoric career that started in late 1962, and all but ended in 1968, when she became a 'maggiorenne' and married Mr Ferruccio Ricordi aka Teddy Reno her manager and Svengali. He said Italians did not forgive Rita for marrying an older man who had a son from a previous marriage in a very Catholic country with no divorce laws. Italians turned against them and ostracized the pair who moved out of Italy to live in Switzerland.

Mina had also been 'reprimanded' by the Italian public when she had a baby-boy out of wedlock in 1963, but was eventually 'pardoned' when she returned and did 'Studio Uno 64-65' which turned out to be the best of her career and I would say the peak of all post-Italian exuberance.

Finazzi paid tribute to the great talents of Italian culture like Bruno Canfora who wrote 'Fortissimo' and 'Il ballo del mattone' especially for Pavone; to Argentine orchestra conductor Luis Enriquez Bacalov who wrote 'Non è facile avere 18 anni', 'Che m'importa del mondo' and 'Solo tu'; to 'Mr. Estate' himself Edoardo Vianello, who wrote 'La partita di pallone', 'I Watussi', 'Guarda come dondolo'; Ennio Morricone who wrote 'Pel di carota' and 'T'ho conosciuto' (under the alias of Dan Savio or Dansavio); Nino Rota who wrote the whole 'Gian Burrasca' sound-track; Lina Wertmüller who wrote words for 'Fortissimo', directed 3 of Pavone's musicarelli plus 'Stasera Rita' and 'Studio Uno 1966'; to Antonello Falqui who directed 'Studio Uno 63'; Alberto Moravia who wrote 'La noia' that became a film starred by Catherine Spaak, Horst Buchholz and Bette Davis (having 'Che m'importa del mondo' in its sound-track).

Finazzi played 'il professore' emphasizing some grammar points like 'perchè ormai lo so...' (Non è facile avere 18 anni); 'una volta no ci porti pure me...' (La partita di pallone); '... a quella smorfiosa' (Datemi un martello) that someone in the audience shouted it is 'nojenta' in Portuguese; 'cosa mai posso fare per te?' (Cuore) in which the word 'mai' may be inferred as 'something' but never as 'più' ('mais' in Portuguese) - there was a little commotion among the students about this particular nasty false cognate.

Mauro Finazzi & Carlus Maximus at Casa di Dante on 21st August 2017.

Beto Abrantes, Carlus Maximus, Everson Corazza & Ricky Santos on the steps of Casa di Dante on Rua Frei Caneca, 1071.

una serata al Instituto Cultural Italo-Brasileiro...

a cold dark Monday night... in August.

'Il massimo di Rita' released by Brazilian RCA Victor in 1969.

1. Fortissimo                                   1. Come te non c'è nessuno
2. Non è facile avere 18 anni          2. Sul cucuzzolo
3. Che m'importa del mondo           3. San Francesco (San Francisco de Assis)
4. Scrivi (Lady Love)                     4. Alla mia età
5. La partita di pallone                     5. Il geghegè
6. Datemi un martello                      6. Qui ritornerà (Here it comes again)
7. Cuore (Heart)                              7. Bianco Natale (White Christmas)