Gino Moliterno. Encyclopedia of Contemporary Italian Culture
Подождите немного. Документ загружается.
Nichetti, Maurizio
b. 8 May 1948, Milan
Director and actor
Mime, actor, scriptwriter, director of features, animated films and commercials, Nichetti
is an eclectic and exuberant personality. After his debut with the short Magic Show in
1978, he gained public acclaim with his first feature Ratataplan (1979), a silent
generational filmic tale of Milanese youth living at the borders of consumerist Italy. He
soon became one of the most prominent directors of the New Italian Cinema as he
pursued a fertile contamination of comedy and drama, mime and slapstick, realist
narrative and animation. He has frequently produced exhilarating critiques of a society
suffering from a general feeling of loss and estrangement, which are at the same time
original and witty self-parodies characterized by the surreal juxtaposition of multiple
levels of reality in films such as Ladri di saponette (Icicle Thief) (1989), Volere volare
(1991) and Stefano Quantestorie (Stefano Many-Stories) (1993).
MANUELA GIERI
Nono, Luigi
b. 29 January 1924; d. 8 May 1990, Venice
Composer
Nono studied at the Venice Conservatory under Gianfrancesco Malpiero and Bruno
Maderna, and was deeply influenced by the music of Schoenberg. During the Second
World War he served in the Resistance as a member of the PCI (Italian Communist
Party). After the war, his social commitment and espousal of communism gave his work
its dramatic edge. Il canto sospeso (The Suspended Song) (1955–6) is a setting of
excerpts from the last letters of members of the European Resistance condemned to death
by the Nazis. Suite: Intolleranza (Intolerance Suite) (1960), one of his earliest works to
utilize recorded material, is a passionate denunciation of both fascism and intolerance,
which provoked a violent reaction from neo-fascists at its premiere in Venice (see also
fascism and neo-fascism). Working from Germany in the early 1960s, Nono became
recognized as one of Italy’s leading composers of electronic and serial music and, in
keeping with his political commitment, he created many portable tape works suitable for
recitals in factories and small halls. He crowned his career of socially committed music
with Prometeo (Prometheus), composed in 1985 and widely regarded as one of the
twentieth century’s most moving spiritual works.
LAURENCE SIMMONS
Entries A–Z 571
Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare
Founded in 1967 by singer-songwriter Eugenio Bennato and Carlo d’Angiò, the Nuova
Compagnia di Canto Popolare (New Company of Popular Song) brought together a
number of talented musicians (Giovanni Mauriello, Patrizio Trampetti, Peppe Barra,
Fausta Vetere and Nunzio Areni and others) in a project aimed at reanimating the long
and rich tradition of Neapolitan folk song. Joined in 1972 by ethnomusicologist and
theatre director Roberto De Simone, the group achieved wide recognition for their
genuine recreation of forgotten forms of Neapolitan song such as the villanelle and the
moresche of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Their grand musical spectacle, La gatta
Cenerentola (Cindarella, the Cat), directed by De Simone and performed at the Spoleto
Festival in 1976, was hailed as a milestone by both audiences and critics alike and
increased what was already a strong international reputation. During the 1980s many
members of the ensemble returned to solo performance and other individual activities
but, with the participation of several of the original members, the Compagnia was
reconstituted in the 1990s. It recorded a number of successful new albums including
Medina (1992) and Tzigari (1995) and appeared at several editions of the Sanremo
Festival to much renewed critical acclaim.
GINO MOLITERNO
Encyclopedia of contemporary italian culture 572
O
Occhetto, Achille
b. 3 March 1936, Turin
Politician
When Occhetto became general secretary of PCI in 1988, the party had been losing
ground for over ten years. Occhetto initiated a ‘new course’, proclaiming an affinity with
Western European social democratic parties and promoting greater internal democracy
and feminist and environmentalist concerns. Then, in November 1989, claiming that the
collapse of communism in Eastern Europe removed the basis for divisions on the Left in
Italy, he announced his intention to dissolve the PCI to make way for a new, unified left-
wing party. While this operation split the party, with many leaving to found Rifondazione
Comunista (RC), the majority joined Occhetto’s PDS (Party of the Democratic Left) in
1991. This remained the dominant left-wing party and was more ‘respectable’ than the
PCI as a candidate for government. Occhetto resigned following the defeat of the left-
wing coalition at the 1994 election, and thus it was his successor D’Alema who actually
took the PDS to government in 1996.
CLAIRE KENNEDY
olive oil
Produced over the centuries in Italy and other Mediterranean countries, olive oil is
extensively used in Italian cuisine: in fact, the healthiness of the so-called ‘Mediterranean
diet’ has been attributed in part to this type of mono-unsaturated oil. Olive oil is used for
cooking and as a condiment, but also to preserve vegetables such as eggplants, tomatoes,
olives, mushrooms and even herbs. Many types of bread and focaccia owe their softness
and flavour to the presence of olive oil in the dough.
Like all other oils, olio d’oliva is obtained by a pressing of the fruit, followed by
processes of settling, centrifugation and filtering. The percentage of fat and acid
contained in each oil influences and characterizes its flavour, nutritional value and
preservative capacity. Extra virgin olive oil includes only 1 per cent of oleic acid, while
Entries A–Z 573
the virgin olive oil contains 2 per cent of it. Other varieties are obtained through a
refining process of the virgin olive oil, or mixing several varieties. Olive oil is no higher
in calories than any other oil. The types of oil used depend on the dish being cooked.
Salads and steamed vegetables are generally dressed with lighter oils. More tasty oils are
preferred for minestrone, legumes, artichokes and bruschetta. Delicate-tasting oils are
selected for frying purposes.
MARIELLA TOTARO GENEVOIS
Olivetti
An industrial group of electronics and telecommunications based at Ivrea, Olivetti is
traditionally regarded as the anomaly of Italian big business. Established by Camillo
Olivetti in 1908 as the first Italian maker of typewriters, Olivetti was in the vanguard of
managerial culture from the 1930s on, when Adriano, the founder’s son, restructured the
family business by introducing scientific management and Taylorism.
Adriano Olivetti was a unique figure. He emerged in the postwar period as a
progressive entrepreneur with a socialist vein, who was regarded by his conservative
colleagues as a rather eccentric character. He strongly supported modern industry (that is,
rationality and efficiency) as a means of modernizing society but, in his enlightened
view, a company needed to be managed democratically, not only by accepting a role for
the unions but also by making a major contribution to the progress of the local
community, i.e. by organizing social services and city planning. ‘Community’ was
Adriano’s keyword. ‘Movimento di Comunità’ was, in fact, the name of a political
movement he created in 1950s, which was totally independent of political parties, won a
large popular support in Ivrea and ruled local government for a long time. His publishing
group was also named ‘Comunità’ as Olivetti attempted to play a fundamental role in
promoting modern enlightened culture. By financing young scholars such as Franco
Ferrarotti, Luciano Gallino and Alessandro Pizzorno—who later became the founders of
contemporary Italian sociology—to research the impact of industrialization and
technological development on rural communities, workers and the young, Olivetti
contributed enormously to the renewal of Italian culture by facilitating the spread of the
more progressive trends of American sociology. Intellectuals and writers such as Franco
Fortini and Paolo Volponi were also deeply influenced by their experience as employees
in Olivetti’s research and social relations department. Above all, by enlisting the services
of imaginative architects such as Figini and Pollini for Olivetti’s own buildings and
innovative designers such as Sottsass and Bellini to design its office products, Olivetti
came to be a byword for postwar Italian design culture.
Adriano’s death proved to be a real watershed in the company’s history. Thanks to a
management wedded to its tradition of dynamism and innovation, Olivetti quickly
entered the computer sector, established a joint venture with Bull, a French group, and
tried to redress the wide technological gap with American companies. However, this
move was not successful. Such a small concern could not compete with the American
giants, and the Olivetti family refused to admit any strong outsider shareholders until a
Encyclopedia of contemporary italian culture 574
grave financial crisis in 1963 forced them to give up control to a private group led by
Mediobanca, Fiat and Pirelli. Research costs soon skyrocketed, and Olivetti quit the
computer sector to fall back on typewriters. This was to prove a crucial strategic mistake,
since the computer sector grew tremendously and American giants such as IBM and
Honeywell soon conquered the Italian market while Olivetti, after its false start in the
electronics race, plodded along in its traditional activities.
A successful trend seemed to start again in early 1980s under the dynamic
management of Carlo De Benedetti. Thanks to an effective restructuring plan, Olivetti
dramatically improved its productivity and economic performance and in 1983 formed an
alliance with AT&T, the US telecommunications giant, in order to enter the fast growing
personal computer market. This, however, proved a bad marriage, which ended in 1989
with a separation by mutual consent.
In the 1990s, with the group’s standing in the international personal computer market
continuing to decline and personnel drastically reduced, telecommunications became the
major challenge. In a clever move, Olivetti established a strategic partnership with the
German group Mannesmann, and successfully entered the market for mobile phones and
fixed-line service through its subsidiaries Omnitel and Infostrada, thus effectively biting
into Telecom’s former monopoly (see STET). At the beginning of 1999, in alliance with
a group of Italian entrepreneurs and leading banks under the financial co-ordination of
Mediobanca, Olivetti sold Omnitel and Infostrada to Mannesmann and successfully
launched a hostile takeover bid for Telecom. This was the biggest ever hostile takeover
bid in Europe and an unprecedented innovation for Italian business style, which suddenly
transformed Olivetti once again into a leading force in the Italian economy and a group of
great international standing.
See also: industrial design
Further reading
Kicherer, S. (1990) Olivetti: A Study of Corporate Management of Design., New York: Rizzoli (a
comprehensive history of the company and its role in Italian design culture; also contains a
useful bibliography).
STEFANO BATTILOSSI
Olmi, Ermanno
b. 24 July 1931, Bergamo
Film director
After making almost forty short documentaries in the 1950s, Olmi made his first feature
film Il tempo si è fermato (Time Has Stopped) in 1959. Acutely observant and with quiet,
subdued tones, the film accurately presents the daily life of two ordinary individuals in
the mountains of northern Italy. In Il posto (The Job) (1961) and I fidanzati (The
Entries A–Z 575
Fiancées) (1963), Olmi continued to use a documentary style which would characterize
most of his later films, while E venne un uomo (A Man named John) (1965) is a sensitive
and respectful portrait of Pope John XXIII. Olmi came to international renown,
however, with L’albero degli zoccoli (The Tree of the Wooden Clogs), a moving epic of
peasant life in Lombardy in the late nineteenth century which won the Golden Palm at
Cannes in 1978. His later La leggenda del santo bevitore (The Legend of the Holy
Drinker) (1988), adapted from a novel by Joseph Roth, was also awarded the Golden
Lion at Venice.
CRISTINA DEGLI-ESPOSTI REINERT
Olympics
Although Italian athletes participated in the second edition of the modern Olympic
games, held in Paris in 1900, it was only after the establishment of CONI (the Italian
National Olympic Committee) in 1914 that Italian participation in the games become a
concerted effort. In 1996, Italy won thirty-five medals at the Atlanta Olympic Games, an
accumulation of victories second only to those of 1932 and 1960. Performances of this
kind established Italy’s role as a major player in the world of sports (see also winter
sports).
The 1952 Helsinki games was the site of Italy’s first outstanding postwar achievement.
Placing fifth overall in the medal count, Italian athletes took eight gold medals, nine
silver and four bronze. Giuseppe Dordoni won the 50-km walk, establishing a new world
record, while fencer Edoardo Mangiarotti continued the series of wins he had begun four
years earlier. At the London Olympic games of 1948, Mangiarotti was part of the foil and
épée teams which took silver medals, and achieved third place in the individual épée. In
Helsinki, Mangiarotti won two gold medals (individual and team épée) and two silver
(individual and team foil). In Melbourne in 1956, Mangiarotti added a gold medal in the
team foil, a gold in team épée and a bronze in individual épée.
Italy was again fifth in Melbourne, this time with eight gold, eight silver and nine
bronze medals. Five of these medals came from cycling and seven from fencing
(including first, second and third place in individual épée). In 1956, due to Australian
quarantine laws, the equestrian events were held in Stockholm. Brothers Raimondo and
Piero D’Inzeo received silver and bronze in the individual jumping event, and when
teamed up with Salvatore Oppes, took the team silver medal as well. Raimondo and
Piero’s Olympic success continued until 1972 for a total of twelve medals.
Rome, chosen to host the Olympic Games of 1960, underwent a series of
transformations. Most of the sporting venues were built for the occasion, including the
stadium and the Olympic village. A new road, the Via Olimpica, was added to facilitate
the flow of traffic within the city. The 1960 Olympics were especially significant because
they were the first to be broadcast via television. Italy finished as third nation overall in
terms of medals. As it did in 1948, the Italian water polo team was able once again to
thwart Hungary’s supremacy in the sport (with the exception of 1948 and 1960 Hungary
took all the gold medals in water polo from 1932 to 1964). Livio Berruti’s gold medal in
Encyclopedia of contemporary italian culture 576
the 200 metres was the first ever for an Italian sprinter. Rome also marked the
international debut of boxing sensation Nino Benvenuti. The most enduring memory of
the Rome Olympics, however, remains that of barefooted Ethiopian Abebe Bikila, who
won the men’s marathon, setting a new the world record in the process.
At Tokyo in 1964, Italy took ten gold, ten silver and seven bronze medals. The cycling
team did its part as always, finishing with eight medals. Abdon Pamich, third in Rome in
the 50-km walk, managed to win the event, setting a new Olympic record. Franco
Menichelli’s gold medal in the floor exercise came more than thirty years after Italy’s
previous Olympic success in gymnastics, and Klaus Dibiasi’s silver medal was the first
ever for Italy in diving events. Dibiasi went on to become the most successful diver of all
time, winning a total of five Olympic medals in diving events from 1964–76. In 1968 he
took gold in men’s platform and silver in men’s springboard. Dibiasi repeated his victory
in the men’s platform at the 1972, following with two gold and two silver medals at
World Championships in 1973 and 1975. He then took gold for the men’s platform again
at Montreal in 1976, becoming the only diver in the sport’s history to win the same event
in three consecutive Olympic games.
As a team, Italy did not perform well at the Olympic games of Mexico City in 1968,
Munich 1972 or Montreal 1976. The combined medal count of these three games was
lower than that of Rome alone. In 1972, victories came from Novella Calligaris, Italy’s
first woman swimmer to step on the podium (silver in the 400-metre freestyle, bronze in
the 800-metre freestyle and the 400-metre individual medley), and runner Pietro Mennea,
third place in the 200-metre sprint. Mennea competed in Montreal as well, with no
success. His major breakthrough was in 1979, when he set the world record for the 200
metres with the time of 19.72s (it took almost seventeen years before Michael Johnson
bettered that mark). In Moscow in 1980, at his third participation, Mennea finally won an
Olympic gold medal in the 200 metres. High jumper Sara Simeoni, the first Italian
woman to break the 2-metre barrier, also won her event. In 1980, many nations
(including the USA) did not participate to protest against the USSR’s invasion of
Afghanistan. CONI decided to send to Moscow only those athletes who were neither
government employees nor military. Italy ended the 1980 expedition in fifth place overall
(eight gold, three silver and four bronze medals).
The XXIII Olympic games took place in Los Angeles, in 1984. This time, it was the
Soviet Union’s turn to boycott the games, along with the rest of the communist countries
except for China, Romania and Yugoslavia. Italy took full advantage of these absences to
win an unprecedented fourteen gold medals, some in sports such as pentathlon and
weightlifting traditionally ruled by the athletes of the former eastern block. Runners
Alberto Cova (men’s 10,000 metres) and Gabriella Dorio (women’s 1,500 metres)
obtained first-time victories for Italy. Vincenzo Maenza’s gold medal in Greco-Roman
wrestling (48 kg category), was followed by another gold in 1988, and silver in 1992.
Brothers Giuseppe and Carmine Abbagnale (with coxswain G. Di Capua) began their
own string of victories in 1984, capturing the men’s coxed pair’s gold medal; the same
crew won again in Seoul in 1988, and finished second in Barcelona four years later. If not
comparable to the accomplishment of 1984, the Seoul and Barcelona expeditions
produced satisfactory results for Italy, including the first victory in an Olympic marathon,
obtained by Gelindo Bordin in 1988.
Entries A–Z 577
The downward trend of 1988 and 1992 was reversed at the Atlanta Olympic Games of
1996. Twelve of Italy’s thirty-five medals came from cycling and fencing. Equally
impressive were the performances of the competitors in rowing and skeet and trap
competitions, while gymnast Yuri Chechi added an Olympic gold to his world title in the
rings event.
PAOLO VILLA
Ontani, Luigi
b. 24 November 1943, Vergato, Bologna
Artist
Highly innovative in his use of figuration, before the transavantgarde heralded the
figurative revival, Ontani also in some ways prefigured Francesco Clemente in the erotic
imagery of his work, his Indian influences and his concentration on himself as subject
matter. Ontani’s hand-tinted photographic works include elaborate staged tableaux,
featuring himself in various guises, such as Dante, Pinocchio and Leda, complete with
swan. The ceramic sculpture Panontale, from 1994, uses an agglomeration of tourist
kitsch to support an upside down shape of Italy. Even exhibition spaces come in for the
Ontani treatment, transformed with lush drapes as if to dispel every trace of the mundane.
Ontani was voted one of the most popular artists at the 1995 Venice Biennale
However in 1996, he caused an uproar with his commissioned design of a ‘mascot’ for
Milan. A clever collage of thoroughly Milanese elements, it was nevertheless stridently
rejected by many who described it as a deformed Frankenstein and an offence to the city.
Further reading
Weiermair, P. (ed.) (1996) Luigi Ontani, Kilchberg/ Zurich: Edition Stemmle (illustrated exhibition
catalogue, with various essays).
MAX STAPLES
opening to the Left
The so-called ‘opening to the Left’—proposed in the mid-1950s and consummated in
1963—signified the move towards government collaboration between the DC and PSI
which was intended, but failed, to deliver substantial social reform. Politically, the
alliance was essential: the DC could no longer rely on its weakening coalition partners
(PLI, PRI and PSDI) or support from the MSI. However, Church and American hostility
Encyclopedia of contemporary italian culture 578
to political collaboration between Catholics and socialists had to be overcome and here
the liberalizing influence of Pope John XXIII and President Kennedy proved decisive.
Moreover, the Soviet invasion of Hungary (1956) drove deeper divisions between PSI
and PCI and repaired relations between PSI and PSDI. Finally, Fanfani, Moro and
Nenni slowly persuaded their parties that their reformist ambitions for the changing Italy
of the economic miracle would be neither radicalized (DC) nor compromised (PSI) by a
centre-left government.
Further reading:
Ginsborg, P. (1990) A History of Contemporary Italy, London: Penguin (see ch. 8, ‘The Centre—
Left, 1958–68’).
DAVID MOSS
opera
The importance of opera to Italian composers in the twentieth century has been reflected
less in formal trends or conventions than in a culture of individuality allowing a wide
variance of approach. At the beginning of the century, the Verdian ideal of Romantic
opera was dominant to the exclusion of most foreign influences, with the exception of
Wagner. The characteristics of Romantic opera were a pronounced sense of theatrical
effect, strong, dramatic plots and a melodic prominence designed to reflect the utmost
vocal virtuosity. From this style developed verismo., an attempt to attain a greater
naturalism and to address those areas, particularly of working-class life, which the plots
of Romantic opera had largely ignored. Verismo was typified in the literary work of
Giovanni Verga, whose novella Cavalleria rusticana was accorded operatic treatment by
Mascagni in 1890, and in such operas as Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci (1892), in whose
prologue the key phrase ‘uno squarcio di vita’ (a slice of life) appears. Such a life was
increasingly to embrace the seamier side of human behaviour, with plots that
concentrated on criminal activity and crimes of passion.
The growth of one-act opera in this period was to provide an ideal vehicle for verismo,
producing, in addition to the two examples quoted above, Puccini’s Il trittico (1918) (in
particular its first part, Il tabarro), Giordano’s Mala vita (1892) and Sebastiani’s A San
Francesco (1896). Puccini (1858–1924) was to widen the horizons of verismo to produce
a broader and more convincing emotional range in his operas, although accusations of
sentimentality may be justly levelled at his work. Nevertheless, his most important
compositions for the stage, amongst which must be counted La bohème (1896), Tosca
(1900) and Madam Butterfly (1904), have attained a lasting place in the repertoire.
The influence of Puccini proved to be far-reaching, both in his native country and
throughout Western Europe, especially France. In particular, the concept of an overall
dramatic vision largely replaced the former ideal of opera as a vehicle for vocal display.
Younger Italian composers such as Pizzetti (1880–1968) and Malipiero (1882–1973)
Entries A–Z 579
sought to further regenerate opera as a vital artistic conduit in their bid to create a
coherent national style. This style typically eschewed the atonality of the Second
Viennese School in favour of native baroque and folk influences. Pizzetti’s operas, such
as Debora e Jaèle (1923) and L’assassinio nella cattedrale (Murder in the Cathedral)
(1958), display some particularly fine writing for the chorus and are generally successful
in their attempts at dramatic integration. Malipiero’s style proved to be considerably
more eclectic, avoiding contrapuntal developments such as serialism while maintaining a
sharply radical outlook. His opera Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) (1936) was partially a
celebration of the achievements of Mussolini, and was to be the first in a series of
classically inspired heroic treatments. Later, Malipiero was to adopt a more surreal,
fantastic style, as in L’allegra brigata (The Cheerful Brigade) (1950) and Mondi celesti e
infernali (The Worlds of Heaven and Hell) (1961), which would have a lasting influence
on the Italian avantgarde.
In the years following the Second World War the work of Menotti, who was of Italian
birth but was primarily domiciled in America and Scotland, rose to prominence. Menotti
achieved an immediacy of appeal that was indebted partly to a reliance on the backward-
looking techniques of verismo and partly to a simplicity of musical language. His early
success with The Medium (1946) and The Telephone (1947) showed a sure instinct for
both the serious and the more comic demands of the theatre, and this was to lay the
foundations for his popular television opera Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951).
Menotti’s dramatic command, however, was largely unallied to significant musical
development and the naïvety of his style meant that his achievements were less
influential among the composers of his homeland.
Among the avantgarde during this period, opera was largely secondary to instrumental
music. The two operas of Petrassi mark an attempt to bring a determined musical
radicalism to the operatic medium. In Il cordovano (The Man from Cordova) (1949,
revised 1959), the voices and instrumental parts go some way to achieving parity,
although the libretto was widely lambasted for its supposedly pornographic nature. Morte
dell’aria (Death in the Air) (1950) is more artistically successful, with a strong plot that
treats a birdman’s unsuccessful flight from the Eiffel Tower. The operas of Luigi Nono, a
pupil of Malipiero, were a more consistent reflection of a renewed interest in the
demands of the theatre, with Intolleranza (Intolerance) (1960) provoking a fascist-
organized riot at its première. Nono’s style incorporates a number of European
influences, notably in his use of serial techniques. During the 1970s he sought to reflect
the prevailing concerns of the time within an operatic structure; this resulted in Al gran
sole carico d’amore (To the Great Sun Charged with Love) (1975), which deals with the
ideals of the Paris Commune. The work of the fellow Malipiero pupil Bruno Maderna
was similarly coloured by an interest in the European serialists, this interest being
complemented by his activities in the revival of Renaissance music. His Satyricon (1973)
shows a sure instinct for drama within a highly complex musical language.
Since the 1980s, a number of young Italian composers have undertaken operatic work
of increasing diversity. The neo-tonalist Lorenzo Ferrero has been imaginative in his
assimilation of contemporary multimedia techniques into the operatic form, as may be
seen in Marilyn (1980), and has also sought to fuse the classical tradition with musical
features derived from pop music. In the work of Paolo Arcà, this search for a new
relevance has led to the continuation of the elements of myth and fantasy seen in
Encyclopedia of contemporary italian culture 580