Interviews by Dario Fonti

Vittorio: Music was my second wife; when the first one died, only music was left. I have always loved it and followed it. I conducted several times at the Teatro Lirico [in Milan] and at the RAI [Italian Radio and Television network]. I'm 99 years old; I don't know whether I look it...

Interviewer: No, I would say that you don't.

V: In any case, I'm here. I was the conductor of the Wanda Osiris company for 11 years; I wrote all the music for the dance skits - you can imagine how much work there was! And then, since I really felt a need for music, I composed various things. There wasn't round-the-clock radio and television as there is now. Either you went to the theater for music, or there wasn't any. There were fantastic productions, at the Lirico and at the Piccolo Teatro and the Teatro Nuovo.

I: In your opinion, has music changed - the ways of living it, of playing it?

V: The ways of living it: everything is taken lightly. We always did things seriously - it wasn't easy to write all those choreographic skits.

I: Did such expensive, elaborate productions pay for themselves through ticket sales?

V: No, there was a bit of everything: there was the impresario, who was in charge of the production, there were many music lovers and entertainment lovers who traveled along and gave contributions to the company's impresario.

I: People we would call sponsors, today?

V: Yes, that's right!

I: Yet there wasn't as much money as there is today.

V: And how! Now money is everything. Wanda was the one who would reduce her own fee in order to do the show. There are no artists like that today, because the first thing they think about is money. There's a different way of thinking, because back then they did it with real passion.

I: Maybe that's right. You know what the problem is? Today, we have too much of everything; maybe we see too much, too many women, too much television, and we hear too much music.

V: There you are! The truth is a bit hidden beneath this passion. We were afraid when we performed. “Will they judge us rationally or boo us?” I would look around, I would start off afraid: “Will there be boos?” Then I would finish and hear the applause. What a past I had!

Interviewer: Did you always know that you would become a musician?

Stefania: Yes, I would say so. Even when I was little I always had that passion, innate rhythm, and I always wanted to enter into the world of music - always, even when I was little and knew nothing about music, and I would listen to my sisters play the piano. Then there was a moment when a passion for painting also entered my life, so there were these two things that went arm in arm, but music won out. It was a moment for thinking things out, because painting is also something extraordinary - but music! Of course they're two different means of expression, and both are beautiful. Music takes your heart and soul, and painting takes your soul and heart - ha ha! Two arts that are different but the same.

I: Was making music very different in the past?

S: There were fewer distractions, so in some ways it was easier. Now there isn't much talent, because everything is directed at dancing and rock. Things have shifted a bit. In the field of opera, too, there are very fine singers, but with two or three exceptions the great ones aren't there, the great voices, someone who makes people stand in line outside the theater. Recordings, too, are all programmed: if the voice isn't there, the recording is repeated, it's faked. They fix everything - they increase the volume, draw out the tempo, speed it up, do whatever they want. But the stage, with the orchestra, live, is a whole other thing. You have to be good.

I: How has your life changed as compared with before you came here to Casa Verdi?

S: This is how it has changed: Before, I had a husband, I had many worries, and so on. On arriving here, I felt - ah, finally I can rest. No, really, finally I'm resting - I can underline this - because, believe me, here I live with a date-book - today there's this, tomorrow that, and so on, because there is so much here. Gymnastics, a day at La Scala, concerts - we put on concerts, because we still sing with the little bit that's left of our past - with that little bit we still do something. In fact, when the school children come here, one of us plays the violin, someone else the piano, etc. This is what keeps us alive, really alive. Here we think about the future, not the past. Here, we have a future. We have so much to do. One day I mentioned that I would like to paint, and the social worker, Miss Lucia - who is an angel, not a mere person - came to my room and looked at the paintings I'd done some time back; four or five months later I had the joy of having this room, and she said to me, “Try it”. I got to work immediately. Not only that: some of the Guests here at Casa Verdi come here to draw, to do things, to spend an hour.
Life here has to be divided into two parts: there's a group of people in wheelchairs or in the infirmary - people who are a little tired, have health problems, and so on. Then there's a group of people who are still active, and we work, we go to the theatre, we went to Perugia for a gathering of senior citizens, we go to La Scala - we watch dress rehearsals from the royal box. We really live well here, and I'm not saying it just because you're interviewing me, but because it's really true. Whatever we want, they bend over backwards to do it.

I: So they've really kept up the spirit in which this home was created?

S: Yes, they respect the Guests of Casa Verdi as if they were... I don't know, it's what I'd never had in my life: I always did everything on my own, I always had to fight. Here, all I have to do is ask and others do it for me.

I: Tell me something about the computer course.

S: It began just out of curiosity! That's why I'm telling you that we have a future. At this point, what's past is past. It's useless to say, “When we were”.” No! We have a computer and we've begun to learn to use it, for pleasure, for the pleasure of knowing one more thing. It's strange!

I: It's clear that you really feel at home here.

S: I brought all my furniture with me. They allowed me to bring my things, so I feel that I'm at home. I have a beautiful room that gives onto Piazza Buonarroti. When I pull up the blinds in the morning I see [the statue of] Giuseppe Verdi, I say a little prayer to him and then I begin another wonderful day.

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