Dario Fo brings 'Callas' to life on TV

(ANSA) - Rome, December 4 - Nobel Prize-winning writer Dario Fo is bringing one of his previously unpublished works to the small screen in the new special 'Callas', written together with his late wife Franca Rame and starring Paola Cortellesi, scheduled to air December 4 on RAI 1 and January 6 on RAI 5.
    Fo performs alongside Cortellesi in the show, and described his experience working with her as "feeling the brain and the body in sync with the one who's acting with you".
    Produced by Gianmarco Mazzi and Jacopo Fo, and directed by Felice Cappa, the show is a journey through the life of Maria Callas, whom Fo met when he was 20 years old.
    The show is filled with lively and unpredictable dialogue that ranges from the comic to the grotesque and the tragic, on a large stage with a simultaneous projection of over 90 colorful paintings that Fo made in tribute to the opera soprano and the places, people and situations that surrounded her.
    "For me by now it's become normal not to do a show unless I can tell it through painting, engravings, drawings," Fo said.
    "That's how I clarify my ideas and I unwind".
    Fo said that 'Callas', presented by RAI 1 and RAI Cultura, was one of the most difficult shows he's ever worked on.
    "I was worried, because in my 65 years I've had the fortune of performing with many great actors from around the world, but in some cases nothing could be done about the fact that I couldn't find a rhythm with them and vice-versa," Fo said.
    "I couldn't find the breath, the heartbeat, the pause, the silence, the acceleration, that 'use of the minimum to obtain the maximum' as Franca always said.
    "When I did the first rehearsals with Paola I was amazed," he said.
    "I had the joy of acting outside of trivial balances, stereotypes, and everything became true and believable".
    When Franca Rame died on May 29, 2013, Fo said he thought the unfinished work on Callas would remain tucked away.
    "It was an incredible stroke of luck to have the positive opportunities to take it back up, rewrite it again and put it on stage," he said.
    For Cortellesi, acting alongside Fo was "a dream come true".
    "He's a master who doesn't act like one, because he experiences the things together with you and gives you confidence," she said.
    "The greatest gift that could have happened to me is having been able to spend some time with him. It was more a life experience than a work experience".
    Cortellesi said 'Callas' is "many stories, not just one character".
    "Both of us on stage tell the story of many people," she said.
    The show begins with the 20-year-old Fo meeting Callas, and goes through to the soprano's death - within which her divine voice is heard only twice - and the story reveals a passionate and fallible woman who is surprisingly modern.
    RAI 1 Director Giancarlo Leone said that following Fo's return to RAI in June 2014 with Franceso Lu Santo Jullare, the new show in which Fo presents "unpublished work in both theatre and television" is "for some courageous, for us a duty".
    "RAI 1 is happy if this project doesn't stop here and we'd like to be able to do something else," Leone said.
    Fo said he "welcomes and applauds" that decision, and recalled the period between 1962-1977 when RAI management banned him from programming after censoring the satirical work he performed on a variety show with Rame.
    "Even when there was another way of thinking at RAI, what once seemed like a disaster transformed into a success. With that public banishment, we ended up becoming the company with the largest audience, not only in Italy, but also in Europe," Fo said.
    Silvia Calandrelli, director of RAI Cultura, said that RAI 5 will also continue to work with Fo.
    Cortellesi has already expressed her willingness to work again with Fo if the opportunity were to present itself, and professed that she is "in love" with him.
    "If he did a show by himself, I'd be the first in line.
    There's an artistic love that came about, but not only because I care for Dario. I like his humanity, his ability to make you feel comfortable on stage and off, and that's what allows one to work with a giant of the theatre like him," Cortellesi said.
    "Dario makes you feel that you're good".