Milva
Maria Ilva Biolcati, known as Milva, was an Italian singer, stage and film actress, and television personality. She was also known as La Rossa, due to the characteristic colour of her hair, and additionally as La Pantera di Goro, which stemmed from the Italian press having nicknamed the three most popular Italian female singers of the 1960s, combining the names of animals and the singers' birthplaces. The colour also characterised her leftist political beliefs, claimed in numerous statements. Popular in Italy and abroad, she performed on musical and theatrical stages the world over, and received popular acclaim in her native Italy, and particularly in Germany and Japan, where she often participated in musical events and televised musical programmes. She released numerous albums in France, Japan, Korea, Greece, Spain, and South America.
She collaborated with European composers and musicians including Ennio Morricone in 1965, Francis Lai in 1973, Mikis Theodorakis in 1978, Enzo Jannacci in 1980, Vangelis in 1981 and 1986, and Franco Battiato in 1982, 1986 and 2010.
Her stage productions of Bertolt Brecht's recitals and Luciano Berio's operas toured the world's theatres. She performed at La Scala in Milan, at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, at the Paris Opera, in the Royal Albert Hall in London and at the Edinburgh Festival, amongst others.
Having had success both in Italy and internationally, she remained one of the most popular Italian personalities in the fields of music and theatre. Her artistic stature was officially recognised by the Italian, German and French Republics, each of which bestowed her with the highest honours. She was the only Italian artist in contemporary times who was simultaneously: Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honour of the French Republic, Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, Officer of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Life and career
Early life and career beginnings
Maria Ilva Biolcati was born in Goro, Province of Ferrara, Italy, on 17 July 1939. In 1959, when she was twenty, she won a contest for new voices, and was named the overall winner from more than seven thousand six hundred participants. In 1960 she recorded her first 7" single with Cetra Records: Édith Piaf's song "Milord", included on her first LP release, 14 Successi di Milva. Her live debut was on the stage of the Sanremo Music Festival in 1961, where she took third place.1960s
In 1962 Milva was the first singer to sing Édith Piaf's repertoire at the prestigious Olympia theatre in Paris. In 1983 she performed the repertoire at the venue again, receiving an ovation from the audience and the French press, very surprised how a non-French artist could interpret the songs of Piaf with such feeling and energy. Music critics named her singer of the year.Shortly afterwards, Milva released her second LP record, Milva canta per voi, a studio album that compiled several songs previously published as singles, in addition to covers of Édith Piaf songs, such as Non, je ne regrette rien, translated to Italian as Nulla rimpiangerò, and Et maintenant, written by composer Gilbert Bécaud and lyricist Pierre Delanoë.
In 1962, Milva co-starred in the Italian film La bellezza di Ippolita alongside Gina Lollobrigida and Enrico Maria Salerno, a comedy film directed by Giancarlo Zagni, playing the role of Adriana. The film was entered into the 12th Berlin International Film Festival. In the same year, she also appeared in the film Canzoni a tempo di twist, an Italian film directed by.
In February, Milva participated in the Sanremo Musical Festival of 1962, competing with Tango italiano, a jazz-infused song written by Bruno Pallesi and Walter Malgoni. Her performance earned her second place in the competition and the single that followed reached number one on the Italian charts.
From 30 April to 4 May 1963, Milva was a television presenter on the Italian variety show Il Cantatutto.
Shortly after, Milva released her third LP record Da Il Cantatutto con Milva e Villa, in which she performed studio versions of the songs she had sung on Il Cantatutto. In the album, she performed Quattro Vestiti, composed by Ennio Morricone, a song which would be released on an EP by the same name. Milva also recorded an EP for the Spanish market: Milva canta en español.
Later in the year, she released her fourth studio album Le Canzoni del Tabarin – Canzoni da Cortile, an Italian-language album that covered Italian songs from the 1920s and 1930s, featuring new musical arrangements, released on the Fonit Cetra label.
In January 1965, Milva released the multilingual studio album Canti della libertà, an album in which she sang revolutionary songs and songs of freedom, including the national anthem of France, La Marseilleise, written by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, and La Carmagnole, a French song created and made popular during the French Revolution. Amongst the other songs that composed the album were Italian-language versions of the marching song John Brown's Song, the Spanish Los cuatro generales, and Fischia il vento, an Italian popular song based on the music of the Russian popular song Katyusha.
In 1965, a meeting led to a definitive change in her career: Italian director Giorgio Strehler helped to develop her skills in staging and singing in Italian theatres. In the following years she starred in Giorgio Strehler's production of Brecht's The Threepenny Opera which was performed in several cities of Western Europe. Milva's albums were certificated gold and platinum in West Germany.
In 1968, Milva released her fifth studio album, Tango, an album that consisted of tango standards sung in Italian. The album was released in Italy, Germany, Spain and Brazil and featured an orchestra conducted by Iller Pattacini.
In 1969, she released her sixth studio album Tango Inspirationen, an album released in Germany and composed of tango standards performed in German and Italian. Amongst the songs performed on the album were La Cumparsita, A Media Luz and Adios, Pampa Mía. In 1975, the album was reissued as Milva singt Tangos deutsch und italienisch.
In late 1969, Milva co-starred in the Italian musical comedy Angeli in bandiera, alongside Gino Bramieri. The musical was written by Italian playwrights Pietro Garinei and Sandro Giovannini and featured music by Bruno Canfora and premiered on 20 October, at the Teatro Sistina, in Rome, Italy. An original cast recording of the musical featuring I cantori moderni di Alessandroni was released in Italy and Canada in the same year.
During the same year, Milva appeared in the Italian film Appuntamento in Riviera, a musical comedy directed by Mario Mattoli.
1970s
1970 saw the release of the studio album Ritratto di Milva, an Italian-language featuring orchestrations composed and conducted by Detto Mariano, infused with pop and chanson elements.In September 1970, Milva performed concerts at Sankei Hall, in Tokyo, Japan, accompanied by Nobuo Hara and his big band, the Sharps & Flats. Excerpts of the recordings of the concerts were compiled and published on the live album Milva on Stage , released shortly thereafter on the Ricordi label.
In 1971, Milva released Milva canta Brecht, an album of music written by Bertolt Brecht and music composed by Hanns Eisler and Kurt Weill, directed by Giorgio Strehler.
In 1972, Milva appeared in the Italian film D'amore si muore, directed by Carlo Carunchio, starring in the role of Leyla. She also covered the title song of the movie, titled "D'amore si muore", a song composed and conducted by Italian composer, conductor and orchestrator Ennio Morricone with lyrics written by Carlo Carunchio and Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, which was included in her album Dedicato a Milva da Ennio Morricone, released in the same year. Following Milva's appearance in D'amore si muore, Ennio Morricone dedicated a series of songs from his film scores to Milva for her to sing lyrics to. The collaboration between the two musicians produced the studio album Dedicato a Milva da Ennio Morricone, an album that featured music entirely written, composed, orchestrated and conducted by Morricone in which Milva covered twelve of his works, such as "Chi mai", "La Califfa", and the bossa nova infused "Metti, una sera a cena".
During the same year, Milva released a Japanese-language album, Love Feeling in Japan, containing twelve songs sung entirely in Japanese, released on the Ricordi label. She then released the live album Milva in Seoul in South Korea, accompanied by the Korean Broadcasting System Symphony Orchestra. It includes her singing "Barley Road" in Korean.
1972 additionally saw the release of her compilation album La filanda e altre storie.
In 1973, Milva collaborated with French composer Francis Lai, the output of their work resulting in the studio album Milva & Francis Lai – Sognavo Amore Mio, which was directed and orchestrated by Lai. Amongst the ten Lai compositions covered by Milva in the album were A Man and a Woman and Love Story. Milva also duetted with Lai on the song Oltre le colline.
In 1974, she released the studio album Sono matta da legare. The song Monica delle bambole was its lead single, released in 7" format in Italy and Yugoslavia.
In 1975, Milva released Libertà, a studio album composed of military hymns, marches and folk songs whose central themes revolve around freedom and liberty. Among the songs featured on the album was Bertolt Brecht's Kälbermarsch, a parody of the song Horst Wessel Lied. The album was released on the Ricordi label in Italy, Germany and Japan.
In 1977, Milva released the eponymously titled studio album Milva,
in which she performed Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from the musical Evita, in Italian, titled Non pianger più Argentina, which was the album's lead single. Milva was released in Italy, Spain, Belgium, Austria and Japan. In Germany, the album was released as Non pianger più Argentina.
In 1977, Milva released the studio album Auf den Flügeln bunter Träume, an album composed of popular German film and cabaret standards, including a version of "Lili Marleen" and "Tango notturno". The album was released in America, Canada and Germany and in 1998 was reissued in Japan.
In 1978, she released the live album Canzoni tra le due guerre, an album flavoured with chanson and jazz elements that was recorded live at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano in October 1977, in a musical show produced by Filippo Crivelli. The album was released in Germany as Lieder Zwischen den Kriegen.
In 1978, Milva began collaborating with Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, resulting in the release of the studio album Von Tag zu Tag in Germany and Austria, which became a best-selling album in Germany. In 1979, the album La Mia Età, the Italian-language counterpart of Von Tag zu Tag was released. The album was released in Italy, Germany, Austria, Brazil, Japan, Greece, Spain, and Venezuela.
In 1979, Milva released the studio album Wenn wir uns Wiederseh'n, a German-language album that consisted of songs written by Austrian songwriter, composer and conductor Robert Stolz. The album was also released under the alternate title Schön war's heute Abend .
From 1973 to 1980, Milva was on tour with the band "I Milvi" with Neno Vinciguerra on piano, Franco Paganelli on guitar, Claudio Barontini on bass, Giovanni Martelli on drums and Marco Gasperetti on flute.