ROME — Milva, whose charisma, heat voice and flaming pink hair made her one of Italy’s most recognizable divas from the 1960s via the ’80s, died on April 23 at a hospital in Milan. She was 81.
Her daughter, Martina Corgnati, mentioned the trigger was a neurovascular illness.
In an eclectic profession that spanned greater than 50 years, Milva sang at pop festivals and carried out in high-culture homes just like the Paris Opera and Milan’s prestigious Piccolo Theater. She turned common throughout Europe, particularly in Germany. She crooned conventional songs and had modern hits. She wore glamorous attire whereas singing leftist anthems.
President Sergio Mattarella, in an announcement, known as her “a protagonist of Italian music, a cultivated, sensitive and versatile interpreter.” Her physique lay in state final month at the Piccolo, the place followers lined as much as pay their final respects.
“She used to say, ‘First I’ll finish the show, then I can die,’” Ms. Corgnati mentioned. “The show came before everything.”
Milva was born Maria Ilva Biolcati in Goro, a small northeastern city, on July 17, 1939. Her father, Pescariello Biolcati, was a fishmonger. Her mom, Noemi Farinelli, labored as a tailor and had a present for singing. Maria Ilva, though she was shy, typically sang as effectively, in out of doors dance halls and with native orchestras. When she was a young person, her father’s fish truck broke down and his enterprise collapsed, and he or she started contributing to the household’s earnings.
Audiences knew her as Sabrina, for her resemblance to Audrey Hepburn’s character within the 1954 Billy Wilder movie of the identical identify. But her household known as her Milva, a fusion of her two first names, and it caught professionally.
Her deep, highly effective voice garnered consideration. But her brief brown hair and slight construct had been removed from the thick manes and full hourglass figures then in demand.
To compensate, she padded her bras and thickened her legs with three pairs of stockings. An agent beneficial that she dye her hair pink, a colour that turned her trademark and earned her the nickname La Rossa, or the Redhead.
Her profession took off in 1959 when she gained a contest for brand spanking new voices held by Italy’s nationwide broadcaster, RAI. She was given her personal tv particular, directed by Maurizio Corgnati, an antifascist mental, whom she married in 1961.
“Then he created the Milva character,” Ms. Corgnati mentioned.
Mr. Corgnati took over the shaping of Milva’s profession, engaged on her stage presentation and her repertoire. He accompanied her on excursions to Japan and the United States and, Ms. Corgnati mentioned, turned a “clumsy provincial girl” right into a charismatic diva.
The couple separated in 1969.
Milva was outspoken about her leftist views and her votes for Communist politicians. She sang in regards to the killing of manufacturing facility staff by the Italian police, carried out conventional antifascist songs of the Italian Resistance, and sang musical variations of the work of anarchist poets. She turned — additionally thanks partially to her blazing pink hair — recognized with the political left.
In 1968, when she sang the Resistance music “Bella Ciao” at the RAI Auditorium in Naples, she instructed the presenter, “I have a weakness for freedom songs.”
The famend Italian director Giorgio Strehler, who oversaw the Piccolo, solid her in Brecht roles, most notably Jenny in “The Threepenny Opera.” She carried his theatrical affect into her live shows, which included 15 appearances at the Sanremo Music Festival in Italy.
She demonstrated “tireless perfectionism” in getting ready her performances, mentioned the director Filippo Crivelli, who labored along with her for a number of years.
She characteristically sang along with her hand on her hip, usually wearing Gianfranco Ferrè’s luxurious attire and carrying a Guerlain fragrance detectable from the primary few rows.
Magazines put her on the quilt, paparazzi chased her, and he or she was the topic of tabloid headlines, particularly after one of her former boyfriends was discovered fatally shot in his automobile in mysterious circumstances and one other killed himself.
She had no scarcity of admirers. The Oscar-winning composer Ennio Morricone devoted an album to her. Astor Piazzolla requested her to sing his tangos. Italians knew her finest for “Alexander Platz,” successful music tailored for her by the singer-songwriter Franco Battiato, an enormous of Italian pop music, and “La Rossa,” a music written for her by one other main artist, Enzo Jannacci.
She toured Asia and Europe, singing in at least seven completely different languages.
All that work took its toll. When her vocal cords grew infected, she gave herself cortisone photographs to maintain singing. Doctors mentioned the therapies contributed to her neurovascular illness, in line with Ms. Corgnati. She retired in 2012.
In addition to her daughter, she is survived by a sister, Luciana, and a brother, Antonio.
Vicky Schatzinger, a pianist who labored with Milva for 15 years, mentioned she had repeatedly promised to chop her pink hair as soon as she left the stage, however she by no means did.
“She felt that her hair made her a character,” Ms. Schatzinger mentioned. “But in reality, she was her character herself.”
