Adriano Celentano - 82: How, for the sake of an affair with a "fairyland", the artist overcame one of the most powerful phobias

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

January 6 marks 82 years of the famous Italian singer, actor, TV presenter, composer Adriano Celentano. After the release of the films "Bluff", "The Taming of the Shrew", "Madly in Love", "Bingo-Bongo" in the USSR, he enjoyed even more popularity than in his homeland. In the 1980s. he began an affair with Soviet audiences, and primarily with female spectators, which has not ended to this day. What connected Celentano with our country, and why, with all his love for her, he was here so rarely - further in the review.

Soviet audiences were not spoiled with foreign films, the only exception was Indian, West German, French and Italian film production. From the very first moments of Adriano Celentano's appearance on the screens, especially in a duet with Ornella Muti in the films The Taming of the Shrew and Madly in Love, he charmed millions of Soviet female spectators and became a real movie idol and a standard of male attractiveness. The phenomenon of his success with the female sex is still controversial - with a very specific appearance, far from Hollywood beauty standards, and a rather harsh and unsociable character, he knew how to kill all women on the spot and does this even after 80 years.

When in 1987 it became known that Adriano Celentano would pay an official visit to the USSR, it became a real sensation. He was expected like no one else. Meanwhile, the purpose of the trip was rather banal and pragmatic: his new film "Joan Louis" in Italy failed at the box office, and the actor, who also acted as a director in this work, decided to bring it to the USSR, where his popularity did not fade since the days of " The Taming of the Shrew. In the Oktyabr cinema this film attracted a maximum of viewers - we were ready to forgive the Italian for any failures, especially when Celentano himself decided to present his new work in Moscow.

About the excitement that happened in connection with his visit to the USSR, the magazine "Crocodile" then published an epigram:

Celentano arrived at the invitation of the Union of Cinematographers and personally the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev. At the Sheremetyevo airport, he was met by journalists and actor Rolan Bykov, at that time the secretary of the Union of Cinematographers, who was entrusted with interviewing an Italian actor and director for Soviet television. At an impromptu press conference right at the airport, Celentano said: "". It is unlikely that these words were false or an attempt to flirt with the audience - at that time, the Italian actor absolutely sincerely believed that the USSR was assigned a special mission, and that the people living here are completely special. Soviet viewers responded to him in return - probably, they did not meet any of the foreign stars with such fervor and enthusiasm.

Photographer Nikolai Malyshev, who was then among other journalists covering the arrival of the Italian artist in the USSR, recalled: "".

In addition to showing the new film, Celentano gave 2 concerts at the Olimpiyskiy Sports Complex. These were his first live concerts after an eight-year hiatus. One of the spectators Matvey Vorobyov said: "".

However, the uniqueness of this visit was not even that these were the first performances after a long pause in touring. The fact is that Celentano always suffered from aerophobia and never flew anywhere on airplanes. True, he himself did not consider it a phobia: "".

But this time the artist was accompanied by his faithful companion - his wife Claudia Mori, so he endured the four-hour flight well. The USSR became the only country where the singer and actor flew by plane to give a concert. He explained his decision as follows: "".

At a banquet organized in the workshop of Zurab Tsereteli, the singer and actor met the famous ophthalmologist Svyatoslav Fedorov. He confessed to him that his wife's aunt Juliana suffered from severe hyperopia, and Fedorov offered to bring her to a consultation. After 2 months, she really flew to the USSR with a film crew, which captured not only her arrival, but even the operation performed. Everything went very well, the problem was fixed. A year later, when Fedorov was in Italy, the artist invited him to live on his TV program "Fantastico". Celentano passed on his love for this country to his 3 children. The son of Giacomo and his wife have been here more than once, and the artist's daughter Rosalind even seriously thought about moving to St. Petersburg for permanent residence, but due to urgent work in Italy, this plan did not come true.

In the 1980s. Soviet fans sent him bags of letters, but they wrote in Russian, and the artist admitted that he could not read them. He is still amazed that he enjoyed such incredible success in the USSR: "".

After that, Celentano received invitations to come to Russia again. In 2010, there were even rumors that for 1 million euros, the artist performed at a private party with the Russian oligarch. As it turned out, in fact, instead of the singer, one of his doubles performed, with the permission of Celentano himself. The singer's official double, Maurizio Schweitzer, has come to Russia more than once. The popularity of the artist in our country has not diminished over the years, so even the tribute shows of his counterparts are sold out. The Russians still remain the most devoted fans of the Italian singer and actor, although he has not given concerts for a long time, even in his homeland, and even more so he does not fly to other countries.

This film remains one of the most beloved among our viewers to this day: Behind the scenes "The Taming of the Shrew".