The famous Italian actress came to Moscow to perform on the theater stage.
Photo: Mikhail FROLOV
Ornella Muti arrived in the Russian capital to perform the work “Beethoven. The heroic life of a genius.” It is based on the correspondence between Beethoven and Goethe; Muti reads it to the music of the great composer.
Before the premiere, Ornella met with journalists in an expensive Moscow hotel. It is difficult to say why she stayed there and not in her luxurious Ostozhenka apartment, bought several years ago. While they set up the cameras and wait for the actress to appear, someone remembers that she once saw her in an ordinary store in Moscow, where no one paid attention to her. However, Ornella’s agents prohibit asking questions about the apartment and about Russian citizenship (and there were rumors that Muti was going to get it after her partner in “The Last Woman” and “The Count of Monte Cristo” Gerard Depardieu ).
Photo: Mikhail FROLOV
Finally, Muti, 68, appears in a rather modest yellow knit dress. One of the journalists immediately congratulates her: she says that, despite her age, she looks like a schoolgirl. Ornella responds in Russian “Thank you” and says:
– I don’t hide my age because it’s funny. Our life has one path: from birth to death, and it is not the age on this path that determines a person. It is precisely because I think like this that I don’t feel my age! In general I am very careful with what I do. I have great respect for my work tools, body and face. This includes diet, sports, sleep and various types of sacrifices. And I don’t drink either. This is discipline.
Photo: Mikhail FROLOV
ABOUT PERFORMANCE
– This performance appeared in Italy. There is another dedicated to the life of Gabriele D’Annunzio… I love Beethoven’s work, he, like many artists, has a suffering soul. In general, I have encountered such suffering in other people, sometimes it affects me myself, but Beethoven was a brilliant musician, and do you understand what it is like for a musician to lose his hearing? Among his letters are those addressed to the woman he loves, and when reading them you understand the degree of this man’s torment. In Italy, we perform similar performances in churches, and the genre, reading with background music, was liked by many… As for the letters that I personally love the most, these are the letters from my children and my husband. . Nowadays, of course, few people write by hand anymore; All correspondence is done via mobile phone, but it’s nice to open an envelope and get paper out of there.
One of the most important fears of an actor is not remembering something, that his memory fails during the performance. But here everything was much simpler, because I’m not playing a role, but reading letters. They are aimed at different people, and each time you have to express emotions differently.
Photo: Mikhail FROLOV
ABOUT RUSSIA
– Now I came for work, but there were many cases when I came simply for love, to have fun. Unfortunately, learning Russian through a mobile app is moving slowly. Russian is not a language that you can just learn and learn. As soon as I have more time I will start studying more intensely, and with a teacher… Now I am here for a while, and my loved ones have already made a list of gifts that I should buy them in Moscow: first of all, of course, there are the russian dolls
And if we talk about Russian classical music, my mother was crazy about Rachmaninov. But it is very difficult for me to talk about my mother; I immediately want to cry. Now I’ll take my mobile phone and pretend I’m looking for it so you don’t notice my tears… (Ornella’s mother, Ilse Renata Krause, died in 2020. – Ed.)
Photo: Mikhail FROLOV
ABOUT REMAKES
– Would I like a new version of one of my old films to be made? I don’t like. I think that if a movie is well made, if something is done well, it doesn’t need to be remade. Of course, it’s easy, it’s tempting, but I prefer challenges.
KP QUESTION
– In the late 70s he starred in the film “Life is Beautiful” by Grigory Chukhrai. Would you like to star in a Russian film again?
– When I starred in Chukhrai’s film, it was a different Russia, completely different from what it is now… But, nevertheless, I would very much like to work here.
The play “Beethoven: The Heroic Life of a Genius” will be screened on November 27 at 7:00 p.m. on the stage of the Moscow Youth Palace and on November 28 at 7:00 p.m. at the Taganka Theater.
Photo: Mikhail FROLOV
FROM THE KP FILE
Ornella Muti was born in Rome on March 9, 1955. Her father is from Naples and her mother is Estonian (more precisely, Ornella’s maternal grandfather had Estonian and German roots, and her grandmother was Russian, from St. Petersburg). She made her debut at the age of 14 in the film The Most Beautiful Wife by Damiano Damiani. Damiani forced her to change her name (the actress’s real name is Francesca Romana Rivelli); The pseudonym “Ornella Muti” was combined from the first and last name of two heroines of the Italian classic Gabriele D’Annunzio. In the 70s she became one of the most famous young European actresses. He has roles in “A People’s Novel,” “The Last Woman,” “Death of a Scoundrel,” “Flash Gordon,” “The Taming of the Shrew,” “Stories of Ordinary Madness” and several dozen other films. She was married twice to actors Alessio Orano and Federico Facinetti. She has three children and four grandchildren.
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