Peppino di Capri, how didactic and sketching this TV format portrait is
The biopic on his life shot by Cinzia Th Torrini, aired on Rai1 does not fully return the character
With all the love that one has for the songs of Peppino di Capri, but is a biography of a living singer really necessary? Cinzia Th Torrini had already packaged Gianna Nannini’s life for Netflix, with not exactly exciting results. Now try again with a singer more suitable for the Rai1 audience: « Champagne – Peppino di Capri », in fact.
Two premises. The first: an artist expresses himself Through his work and, in the specific case, Peppino’s songs are much more interesting than the events told in the fiction. That is, the career started at four years (the gift of having an absolute ear), childhood during the war, the arrival of the Americans (when they were still good), the first musical statements, the participation in « first applause » conducted by Enzo Tortora (with the invention of the applausometer), the tormented love with the wearer Roberta (Arianna Di Claudio), the new love for Giuliana (Gaja Masciar).
The second: all those who know In person Peppino describe him as a great gentleman, an ironic and intelligent person. Some songs by Peppino, starting from « Nobody in the world », accompanied me for a long time and the singer I had imagined is very different from what appears on the screen: not physically, but ideally. So, I confess, I struggled not a little to recognize him: the story in images is not up to his songs.
Peppino (played by the actor and singer Francesco Del Gaudio) has modernized the Neapolitan song (« Malatia »), launched the Twist, made the Italian youth of the fabulous 60s dance, launched Hit as « Roberta » and « Champagne », he participated I don’t know how many times at the Sanremo Festival, he conquered the title of King of the night, before becoming a senator and an evergreen of the Italian song.
The characters, especially the parents, do not come out dTo sketching and writing is often didactic, devoid of the author’s imprint, of a certain inscalling compactness that protects the work from the outside and, above all, of an unmistakable stamp, what defines the voice of Peppino di Capri.
