An opera devoted to late Italian pop great Raffaella Carrà is set to debut at Bergamo’s Donizetti theatre in September, producers said on Tuesday.
“I’m sure that Raffaella would be curious, flattered and excited,” said Sergio Japino, a director and choreographer who worked with Carrà for many years and was involved in the creation of the show.
The opera, entitled ‘Raffa in the Sky’, was composed by Lamberto Curtoni with the libretto by Renata Ciaravino and Alberto Mattioli.
The production is part of the initiatives staged for Brescia and Bergamo’s stint as Italy’s culture capital.
Carrà, who passed away in July 2021 at the age of 78, starred with Frank Sinatra in Von Ryan’s Express in 1965 and found cult TV success in Spain, Argentina and other countries, becoming a gay icon.
She is also credited with boosting the sexual revolution in Catholic Italy with cheeky songs celebrating touching (Tuca tuca, 1971) and getting women to take the initiative in lovemaking (A fare l’amore comincia tu, 1976), and was slammed by the Vatican for showing her belly button on live TV in 1970.
