Elvia Figliuolo, aka Misselvia, was one of the very first lyricists of Italian music and it is up to her, a girl of the 40s, to open the last appointment with “Le Ragazze”, broadcast on Saturday 4 May at 9.45pm on Rai 3. Born in Potenza in 1924, Elvia moved with her family to Milan during the 1930s. After her master’s studies she became secretary to Giuseppe Gallazzi, owner of Edizioni Musicali Francis Day, and began to adapt the lyrics of foreign songs into Italian, including whose timeless songs such as “Singing under the rain” and “Guancia e guace” registered as an author with the SIAE and chose the pseudonym Misselvia, formed from the English word Miss, combined with her name, Elvia Zanicchi, Bobby Solo. Dalida, Nada, Michele, Natalino Otto, Caterina Valente, Mina, Celentano are just some of the names who sang his lyrics.
Following are two girls from the 60s. Leontine Snell was a dancer who made her debut, at just 15 years old, at the Lido in Paris as the first woman in the legendary Bluebell dance troupe. Born in Holland in 1943, she has only one memory of her father: his last wave before boarding a flight that crashed. Leontine, who started attending dance school at four years old, finished the Academy and thanks to a scholarship was called to the Lido in Paris for an audition. She is cast, she with Bluebell, she stops in Italy to take part in the filming of Studio 1. She decides to stay in the beautiful country and begins to work with Antonello Falqui, Mina and Don Lurio. Two important love stories will change her life: hers with Mario Caldonazzo, a rich building contractor, a violent man who will push her to attempt suicide and the director Dino Risi to whom she will remain tied for almost forty years, despite he was married.
Intertwined with hers is the story of Venere Scaranna, one of the first female traffic policemen in Italy. Born into a family of humble origins, she spent her childhood playing in the rubble left by the Allied bombings. Despite her precarious economic conditions, Venus engages in a real family battle because she wants to continue studying. For her, education represents emancipation and allows her to join UDI, the Union of Italian Women, the organization that promotes female emancipation. At just 22 years old she married Giorgio, a mechanic from Alfonsine, who supported her in all her battles. In the early ’70s, feminism took on harsher and more maximalist tones: Venus didn’t agree and left the UDI. The municipality of Ravenna, the first in Italy, announces a competition for police officers open to women. Venus decides to try: she gets the highest score and wears the uniform to the amazement of the people.
The sequence ends with two girls from the 2000s. The singer Veronica Lucchesi was born in Pisa in 1987 but grew up in Viareggio and since she was little she loved wearing many masks, just as per local tradition. Veronica grows up with the American myth, hip hop culture and the dream of living in New York: the attack on the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001 shocks her and opens a period of fears and doubts in her life. At university she chooses law but she is not happy: the meeting with an old friend from high school becomes decisive and will direct her towards the theatre. Between one acting course and another she met Dario Mangiaracina, with whom she began playing and composing music and in 2011 together they created the musical group “La Representative di Lista”. They will arrive on the Sanremo stage with hugely successful songs such as “Amare” and “Ciao Ciao”.
His story is intertwined with that of Marina Cuollo, 42 years old, Neapolitan writer, speaker and activist. Since birth she has been affected by a rare syndrome, Melnick Needles, which causes a serious degenerative disability condition. Since she was a teenager, Marina has had to face obstacles and prejudices. She faces complex surgical interventions, she gives up on art high school because she is far from home, but when choosing university she is immovable. She graduated in Biological Sciences and began working as a researcher, but in the end her vocation for writing prevailed. Her first book “A Disabilandia si tromba” was released in 2017, a humorous but also denunciatory essay in which she talks about her life experiences, including sexual ones, and disability. From that moment, writing and communicating about her become her only path, in 2021 she hosts the “Diversity Media Awards” with Diego Passoni, and in 2022 she publishes her first novel “Viola”, dedicated to her late mother.
In this episode Francesca Fialdini meets the journalist and writer Gianni Riotta.
Following are two girls from the 60s. Leontine Snell was a dancer who made her debut, at just 15 years old, at the Lido in Paris as the first woman in the legendary Bluebell dance troupe. Born in Holland in 1943, she has only one memory of her father: his last wave before boarding a flight that crashed. Leontine, who started attending dance school at four years old, finished the Academy and thanks to a scholarship was called to the Lido in Paris for an audition. She is cast, she with Bluebell, she stops in Italy to take part in the filming of Studio 1. She decides to stay in the beautiful country and begins to work with Antonello Falqui, Mina and Don Lurio. Two important love stories will change her life: hers with Mario Caldonazzo, a rich building contractor, a violent man who will push her to attempt suicide and the director Dino Risi to whom she will remain tied for almost forty years, despite he was married.
Intertwined with hers is the story of Venere Scaranna, one of the first female traffic policemen in Italy. Born into a family of humble origins, she spent her childhood playing in the rubble left by the Allied bombings. Despite her precarious economic conditions, Venus engages in a real family battle because she wants to continue studying. For her, education represents emancipation and allows her to join UDI, the Union of Italian Women, the organization that promotes female emancipation. At just 22 years old she married Giorgio, a mechanic from Alfonsine, who supported her in all her battles. In the early ’70s, feminism took on harsher and more maximalist tones: Venus didn’t agree and left the UDI. The municipality of Ravenna, the first in Italy, announces a competition for police officers open to women. Venus decides to try: she gets the highest score and wears the uniform to the amazement of the people.
The sequence ends with two girls from the 2000s. The singer Veronica Lucchesi was born in Pisa in 1987 but grew up in Viareggio and since she was little she loved wearing many masks, just as per local tradition. Veronica grows up with the American myth, hip hop culture and the dream of living in New York: the attack on the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001 shocks her and opens a period of fears and doubts in her life. At university she chooses law but she is not happy: the meeting with an old friend from high school becomes decisive and will direct her towards the theatre. Between one acting course and another she met Dario Mangiaracina, with whom she began playing and composing music and in 2011 together they created the musical group “La Representative di Lista”. They will arrive on the Sanremo stage with hugely successful songs such as “Amare” and “Ciao Ciao”.
His story is intertwined with that of Marina Cuollo, 42 years old, Neapolitan writer, speaker and activist. Since birth she has been affected by a rare syndrome, Melnick Needles, which causes a serious degenerative disability condition. Since she was a teenager, Marina has had to face obstacles and prejudices. She faces complex surgical interventions, she gives up on art high school because she is far from home, but when choosing university she is immovable. She graduated in Biological Sciences and began working as a researcher, but in the end her vocation for writing prevailed. Her first book “A Disabilandia si tromba” was released in 2017, a humorous but also denunciatory essay in which she talks about her life experiences, including sexual ones, and disability. From that moment, writing and communicating about her become her only path, in 2021 she hosts the “Diversity Media Awards” with Diego Passoni, and in 2022 she publishes her first novel “Viola”, dedicated to her late mother.
In this episode Francesca Fialdini meets the journalist and writer Gianni Riotta.
“Le Ragazze” is a program by Cristiana Mastropietro, Riccardo Mastropietro and Giulio Testa written by Cristiana Mastropietro and produced by Pesci Combattenti for Rai Cultura. Director: Riccardo Mastropietro and Antonio Miorin. The executive producer of Pesci Battente is Marianna Capelli. Rai Delegate: Giulia Lanza.
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