Art and life in perfect harmony in the career of Maria Rosaria Omaggio who passed away yesterday at the age of 67. Exactly 50 years ago she made her debut at a very young age at Canzonissima duetting with Pippo Baudo: «At 17, at the Rai auditions I lied about my age: I said I was 20» she told Stefano Lorenzetto in her last interview in the Corriere on June 8th. From her passion for martial arts but also for the therapeutic value of jewels and minerals, to which she had dedicated two books, together with that of great Italian figures such as Oriana Fallaci who she also represented in the theater, the career of Maria Rosaria Omaggio can hardly be summed up in these lines. Such was the lively curiosity of an artist who also loved to admire the art of her colleagues.
Her versatility led her to have three covers on Playboy in the late 70s and at the turn of the 80s when she wanted to share her aristocratic beauty also on other men’s magazines such as Playmen.
50 plays, 29 films, 18 TV dramas, Maria Rosaria Omaggio has crossed the world of entertainment with grace, determination and an unmistakable voice, leaving, as the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano underlined, «an important mark in the world of cinema, theatre and television».
But not only that, because she was also well remembered by Francesca Barbi Marinetti, granddaughter of Filippo Tommaso to whom Maria Rosaria Omaggio was linked for the futurist show Zang Tumb Tumb «a wonderful Christina of Sweden in 2015 alongside Alessandro Benvenuti as part of the Roman Carnival at Palazzo Corsini in a truly beautiful and interesting recital in which I had involved her».
Her film debut took place in 1976 with Squadra antiscippo by Bruno Corbucci and Roma a mano armata by Umberto Lenzi alongside Tomas Milian. In the same year she began working in Spain in La lozana andalusa by Vicente Escrivá with whom she would shoot two more films also acting in Valencian such as El virgo de Visanteta and Visanteta, estáte quieta.
In Italy she continued with popular films such as Culo e camicia by Pasquale Festa Campanile with Renato Pozzetto and Era una notte buia e tempestosa by and with Alessandro Benvenuti. Little exploited in the cinema in the 90s, she dedicated herself mainly to TV, not disdaining real soap operas such as the 69 episodes of Micaela (but also series such as Edera, Passioni, Donne di mafia, Don Matteo 5) and then reappeared in 2007 in Guido che sfidò le Brigate Rosse by Giuseppe Ferrara, Guardando le stelle by Stefano Calvagna and in two works not aligned, like her, by Domiziano Cristopharo (The Museum of Wonders and Bloody Sin). Until her consecration as an actor in Walesa – Man of Hope by Andrzej Wajda, a biting interpreter of Oriana Fallaci in the legendary interview with the leader of Solidarnosc in 1981. The film, presented out of competition in 2013 at the Venice International Film Festival, gave her the special Pasinetti Award: «Oriana Fallaci said the actress had spoken to him about me, she thought I looked like her. And Wajda made me play her. Poles know how to distinguish talent from gossip».
From this meeting was born the show in which Maria Rosaria Omaggio celebrates the figure of the great writer and journalist, Le parole di Oriana – Omaggio a Fallaci in concerto, through her own words taken from books and articles: «Oriana tells Fallaci, Penelope reveals Cassandra, two sides of a story».
same coin, to avoid the risk of supporting the widespread, yet mistaken, idea of a Fallaci before and a very different one after September 11, 2001″ Maria Rosaria Omaggio had the opportunity to write, with courage.
