| Abstrakt: |
The essay examines Raffaella Carrà's performances in musical television programs on the Italian national broadcasting company (Rai), focusing on the 1960s and 1970s, a crucial period for her national and international rise. Firstly, I reconstruct Carrà's television beginnings in the 1960s, based on available sources preserved by Teche Rai. I subsequently delve into her first major success in Io, Agata e tu (1970), a key four-episode program that laid the foundation for the "Carrà format", later seen in paradigmatic performances in successful shows of the 1970s, including Canzonissima (Raiuno, 1970-1971, 1974) and Milleluci (Raiuno, 1974). After hosting a series of shows on the second channel, such as Musica Hotel (1964), which featured Ennio Morricone's musical direction, and Tempo di Samba (1968), in the 1970s Carrà became one of the leading showgirls on the national first channel. This contribution aims to examine Raffaella Carrà's performances on television during the 1960s and 1970s to reinterpret her captivating force in light of precise musical strategies that enhance the expressive power of her presence on stage. I will discuss, in particular, the audiovisual paths through which Carrà's body is displayed, thematized, and transformed into a spectacle. Adopting methodologies borrowed from Film Music Studies and the so-called Choreomusicology, I argue that the singularity of Carrà's approach to performance - both in singing and dancing - should not only be traced to a new style of dancing but can be also understood within audiovisual logics. I seek to show how accurate choreomusical sync points are conceived through the combination of compositional strategies of the arrangements with exact body movements, following a mickey-mousing aesthetics. In a rapidly expanding mediascape like that of the 1960s, the musical arrangement is a decisive element in understanding the internal transformations of popular music and the construction of song sound. Likewise, I will show how the arrangement can be transformed into a spectacle and valued pedagogically in television programs, thanks to precise musical means and carefully managing the stage space in synergy with the featured singers. Indeed, in the variety shows of the 1960s and 1970s, a fundamental role is played by orchestras and their respective arranger-conductors, who accompany the performer, playing a prominent auditory and visual role during the performance, shaping the identity of a song and the artist performing it. The case of Carrà stimulates a broader reflection, still partially under development in Popular Music Studies, on the centrality of arrangement practices in Italian television's musical programs in years of crucial transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
