Ornella Vanoni
Duemilatrecentouno Parole

Ornella Vanoni is the carnal representation of the independent woman, an emblem of ostentation and pride in the absence of constraints. Refined and cultured, a lover of literature and theater, intelligent with that reflective stride of arguments and concepts never spoken casually; we are not talking about a beach singer with watered-down talents. Those who know her artistically are aware of dealing with a character boasting more than half a century of prestigious collaborations.

Strelher, Fo, and the award-winning team of Garinei & Giovannini were initially responsible for shaping her, both as a prose actress and as a singer (during the "mala milanese" era). The meeting with Gino Paoli was decisive in making her famous and capable of slowly evolving, venturing from the late ‘60s into unusual genres for the conventional melodic song, constantly reinterpreting the great Italian and international singer-songwriter music, especially French and Anglo-Saxon, showing a particular fondness for bossa-nova, samba, and Brazilian sounds in general, from musicians like Toquinho, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius De Morales, Chico Buarque or Caetano Veloso (recording both albums and singles with some of them) and refining her style through elegant and never bland interpretations, under the supervision of Sergio Bardotti, who, after an important start to the decade with "Ricetta di donna", also produced the seminal "Duemilatrecentouno parole" in the autumn of 1981. This was fundamental because Ornella had rarely embarked on the role of a singer-songwriter until that moment. But at the dawn of her 47th year, it was precisely this project that gave her the impetus to take up pen and paper, drafting and finalizing a large part of those real 2301 words (not a title chosen by chance), which distributed across ten tracks, assembled the poetic structure of the album. It fell to master Maurizio Fabrizio, already the arranger of the many decorated records of Angelo Branduardi released between 1975 and 1980, and collaborator on Fabrizio De André's "La buona novella", to also handle the arrangements and the orchestra here, bringing to life very high-caliber pop and ballad instrumental sections.

Opening this pink diary is the exhilarating "Musica musica", a generous tribute to the sound art in question, followed closely by the famous "Vai, Valentina", one of the most favored tracks in her prolific discography, a zealous invitation and encouragement that the Lombard singer-songwriter speaks to this enigmatic woman; this happens because the theme of the double plays an essential role. Valentina is Ornella's alter-ego, in fact, they are the same substance: flesh, heart, and thought. She often performed this song in front of a mirror during concerts, and while looking inside herself, she addresses her more fragile and introspective side, urging it to react to the calm flow of a tepid blood, slowed down by melancholies, afflictions, and a never-ending quest for balance between herself and the surrounding reality. The mirror is also present on the album cover, replacing Ornella's face, bordered by her abundant mane, composed of those numerous words depicted for her by the cartoonist Forattini. A blood that then resumes to warm up and flow more swiftly when Ornella's pure voice injects the cells of passion into circulation, directed by sudden emotional peaks. That same dualistic feminine essence, takes form also in a provocative dancer in "Fandango", in the will towards disillusionment in "Volevo amarti un po’", in the afternoon frustrations of two friends during a walk along a beach in "Per un’amica" and in those of the night, in waiting to discover oneself different or unchanged the next day in "Risveglio" (written by Mario Lavezzi probably for Loredana Bertè, who would sing it only two years later), but manages to be wisely casual in the track "La gonna" and gracefully light in "Fatalità", a piece written by Bardotti himself thirteen years earlier for the Bertas, an emerging Sardinian band; it also features Pierangelo Bertoli duetting with her in the delicate "Favola", while old Gino, the platonic companion of always, an adopted brother, and former tormented impossible love, not to mention by a strange twist of fate, an almost twin, as they were both born 24 hours apart, eternal joy and pain, branded by a singular complicity, so distant yet always essential for each other. Ornella calls Gino and he is there. Ornella calls and Gino writes the last 105 words; they play together in the closing track; they will know how to call each other again and play many times also in the years and decades to follow, as they have always done. Ornella calls "And Gino answers", then the diary closes.

album rating 8.5/10