The presenter recounts: the years with Berlusconi (“I told him not to do politics”), the affections (“My niece is everything”), the illness (the 4 bypasses)
Claudio Lippi lives in Rome, in a residential area that develops in the green. The house («For rent») is beautiful and surrounded by a lawn. Inside she is silent, very sober, comfortable, elegant like the landlord: 76 years old (“now almost 77”) carried with the vaguely melancholy smile of someone familiar with an irony so subtle that it is often imperceptible. An irony for very few, in short.
Claudio, you seem like a serene person.
“Yes, it is. I am husband, father, grandfather. And then how could a person not be happy who, when he was only nine years old, saw the television switch on for the first time? “
On January 3, 1954 Fulvia Colombo launched the television broadcasts of the national program, as the first Rai network was called.
“What a disappointment when I learned that that announcement had been taped.”
But at the time it was strange to find a talking box in the house.
“Much. It was all new, all possible. You had the feeling that becoming part of that world was a simple thing after all. This is why private television later became so successful: we all wanted to “get in” there. I’m from Varese, and in the Lombardy province television stations have played a widespread role ».
So you already imagined yourself a conductor?
«No, I wanted to be a singer. Which then I will really do because until 1972 I earned my living with the voice. But as a child, singing shocked me: my mother took me to audition at Rai in Milan. The teacher listened to me for a few seconds, then interrupted me and took my mother aside. “Madam – she told her – her son is a monster”. My mother thought of a compliment, but he explained himself better: “No, madam, he’s a monster because he has a big voice, he’s too strong”. She began to cry and I got a sense of guilt that accompanied me for years ».
What did his father do?
“He used to work in a large company and, in essence, he was healing companies. He was often away, I saw little of him but I was very attached to him. Then, when I was an adult, he let a guy persuade him to get into a business, some kind of buttermilk. Too bad that then that guy disappeared and left a huge financial hole on my father’s shoulders. “
And she?
“I decided to take on that debt. It was the first time I realized that I had lost everything, it was like feeling the earth disappear under your feet. But I reacted strongly and, I believe today, with clarity. I couldn’t leave my family in that abyss, it’s not like me. Result: twenty billion old lire to be repaid in twenty years. It was hard, but I did it. “
Working tirelessly, I assume.
«Look, for me work is a very serious thing. Every type of work that I am able to do: from the television appearance to the participation in the village festival. Of course I do that too, indeed, I like it because I meet people, I look people in the eye when they tell me their stories, I get emotional with them. But when I speak of “work” I speak of things that are coherent with me and with who I am ».
Proposals that he refused?
«The island of the famous and the Big Brother. But believe me, it’s not fake snobbery and it doesn’t even mean that I don’t need money, on the contrary. It is simple consistency: I go to some talk show every now and then and I am pleased, but I cannot be asked to enter those dynamics where quarrels, reconciliations, disagreements are made to make a show. It’s not for me. Not to mention that I have four bypasses on me ».
It is a very professional concept of television work, an idea today perhaps surpassed by other dynamics, such as provocation for the purposes of listening, the presence of the “contrary bastian” to create an audience.
“There is a detail: when I started making television, that is, in the seventies, there was a very defined concept of talent. Something to refine, defend, preserve, increase, even pass on, why not. You grew up inside a company, you had teachers who helped you. One of my fathers was Modugno, for example. I consider Vianello an older brother. From Corrado I learned refined irony: I looked at him, studied his words for hours, his way of being. And that talent became a precious material: you listen or you don’t listen, format or not format. Alas today I see format more than conductors o conductors».
Perhaps the time has come to revisit certain myths. In your opinion, hasn’t Mike Bongiorno often assumed male-dominated attitudes?
«Once I saw him make a horrible scene to Antonella Elia, who had dared to say something about the choice to wear a fur coat, sponsor of the program. He was a very hard man, I know, but he had a brilliant intuition: he valued mediocrity, making it a communicative cornerstone. The opposite of what, for example, Paolo Bonolis does today, who underlines it, points to it, perhaps looking at it from above. It is not a criticism, they are expressive, professional choices ».
Claudio, since 1980 you have been a regular and very popular presence on television. From «Games without borders» to «Corrida», after Corrado’s farewell. How did you experience success?
«I’ll be honest: always with a sense of precariousness, like someone who is settling a bill with conscience and meticulousness, as if I had still been there to repay the financial hole that happened to my father. I don’t live things superficially, I don’t think everything is due to me. They say that disasters happen to the most sensitive people and in fact, in the nineties, I lost everything again, this time due to an agent-lawyer who made the wrong investments, financial messes in short. But he sees, every time something happens to me I find that boy who chose to take on the family debt with commitment and dedication. I go back to being like this ».
Is it true that you were very close to Berlusconi?
“I’ve always thought of him as a great man of television. When he got the word out that he would be on the pitch, we met in Porto Rotondo and I begged him not to play politics. He replied that it was a necessary step. “Also for you”, he added ».
Between the eighties and nineties there was much controversy over the remuneration to conductors derived from sponsors. Did you always say yes?
«But first I checked. For example, before I said yes to the sponsorship of a well-known beer, I wanted to visit their factory. But once I made a “tear” and I want to tell him. He had hired me, with stellar fees, a finance company. No problem, until I received a letter from a listener, a gentleman from Lucca who basically told me that the financial one promised something but then, on the phone, it turned out that the conditions were not exactly those there, even if – it must be said to be honest – there was nothing illegal. I could very well have ignored that letter and continued to earn very high sums. But I decided not to renew the contract: that gentleman from Lucca trusted me, he listened to my words. In summary: he believed me. Those who go on television, even today, have enormous power and must know how to manage it. One false step and people’s trust is lost ».
She made another sensational “tear” with “Buona Domenica”. After five episodes she decides to leave. Were there any consequences?
“Well, I haven’t worked on television since October 2006. Do it yourself.”
But Antonella Clerici and Elisa Isoardi have often and constantly hosted her at the “Prova del Cuoco”.
“In the meantime, let me thank both the one and the other. Especially Elisa who, poor thing, has collected a very difficult inheritance and, in addition, was engaged to a very famous and divisive person, which has attracted guns from all over. But it wasn’t a role like that of Have a nice Sunday. I left because I felt that it no longer conformed to who I was and what I was doing. You see, even in this case I followed that internal voice that always warns me when something suits me well or not. Of course, it meant giving up good earnings, sure, it meant a great responsibility for someone with a family. My wife and I, after a period of crisis, we are back together. It was she who wanted it, because underneath a hard shell there is a woman who is understanding and attentive. And then I’m a man who has lost everything twice in life. Today I smile at everyone, even those who love me badly. It is my strength ».
Claudio, is there a regret in your life?
“Maybe I shouldn’t have stopped singing. But in the seventies I felt that things were changing: songwriters were coming, I was an interpreter, I was something else. I felt outdated. Then I started doing other things, for example I started selling beer, but I didn’t like it because I was quite well known, people recognized me and didn’t believe that I was there to sell something or, at least, that I knew how to do it for a living. So came the television. A little by chance, a little because someone believed in that famous talent we talked about earlier ».
How much strength comes from your family?
«I don’t think I’m exaggerating if I say that my granddaughter, Federica’s daughter, is the true meaning of my life today. Her name is Mia Summer and for me it is truly an eternal summer. In general I strive to be a good father and a good grandfather. For various vicissitudes I have not seen my other daughter for years, but in recent times we have both worked hard to reconnect and today even a message from her or a call from her make me very happy. I would like to recover all the days that I have not spent with her or with the other people I love. However, on reflection, a lot of strength also comes from knowing how to be a correct person ».
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