“Rafa in the Sky” is a tribute to the Italian television icon

On June 18, 2023, Raffaella Cara would have turned 80 years old. Only this year, the Donizetti Theater Foundation in Bergamo commissioned a work dedicated to itself: “Rava in the Sky”, which Rai Cultura shows on Friday 29 September at 9.15pm on Rai 5. The project was created in collaboration with the Radio Museum and Rai Production Center Television In Turin. The composer is Lamberto Curtone, who worked from a libretto by Renata Ciaravino and Alberto Mattioli, from an idea by Francesco Micheli, who directed the show on stage at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo, a city that this year – along with Brescia – is the most famous city in the world. Italian Capital of Culture.
“Rapha in Heaven” is an opera, a real opera, based on the iconic character Raffaella Carra, the great heroine of Italian television, but also a global figure. It is not a biography of music, but the story of an artistic career that has accompanied, and sometimes catalyzed, the transformations of Italian society over the past half-century. Through Cara’s exceptional experience, the work also aims to reflect on the role of the artist in society, on the value and use of art, the role of television and other media, without forgetting the songs performed by Rafaela, in a story that travels. A way of surrealism and irony to speak to us all.
The very young actress Chiara dello Iacovo, graduate of the Scuola del Teatro Stabile in Turin and a singer who participated in Musicultura 2015 and the Sanremo Festival (Nuove Proposte 2016), has been called upon to play the role of Raffaella Carrà in this new production from Bergamo. Alongside her are a host of great opera singers, such as Carmela Remigio, Gaia Petrone, Dave Monaco, Harris Andreanos and Roberto Lorenzi, directed by Carlo Boccadoro – a diligent interpreter of contemporary works – on an orchestral platform composed of the Sentieri ensemble. Selvaggi and Donizetti’s Opera Orchestra. Also on stage are the I Piccoli Musici choir conducted by Mario Mora and the dancers from Fattoria Vittadini. The creative team, alongside director Francesco Micheli, consists of Edoardo Sanchi (scenes), Alessio Rosati (costumes), Mattia Agatello (choreographer) and Alessandro Andreoli (lighting designer).
“I am sure that Raffaella will be fascinated, entertained and excited – says the choreographer and TV director Sergio Gabino, who for years has been at Cara’s side and with whom the authors co-created this work – in knowing that what she has done in her life has found listening and a home even in a world that seems far away. As much about his world as the world of opera. A world she loved, as evidenced by the Gran Concerto of which she was the composer for Rai 3, in which the National Rai Symphony Orchestra presented pieces of classical and operatic music to a large audience of children. In the end, her story is the story of a woman and an artist who has always courageously tried to explore worlds Different and combining them: dance, film, television and singing. And different cultural contexts: from South America to Russia, from the studios of Letterman and Hollywood to the glamorous TV studios of Cinecitta. And different people, above all: the women, men and children who found inspiration, fun, familiarity and salvation in them. “For her, it was not important where you did something, but how: with how much love, self-denial, passion. And with how much you wanted to meet other people: their world, their stories. At home, as well as all over the world.” The television direction was signed by Fabrizio Guttuso Alaimo.