TY - BOOK AU - Guido Brignone AU - Guido Brignone; Emma Gramatica, Carola Hohn, Beniamino Gigli, Ugo Ceseri, Friederic Benfer, Carlo Campanini TI - Mamma: Mother AV - PN1997 .M266 1941 PY - 1941/// CY - Italy PB - Italia Film N1 - N2 - This is Gigli's most famous film, in part because he did not otherwise sing Otello, in part because of Cesare Andrea Bixio's songs "Mamma" and "Se vuoi goder la vita," both written for the film and both hits. "Mamma" became so popular that it was sung by Italian soldiers and prisoners of war. Notice how Gigli sometimes sings the first syllable of the word "mamma" "open" while at other times singing it "covered." - Stefan Zucker For Stefan Zucker's extended biography of Gigli see Bel Can-to Society's catalog. EMMA GRAMATICA (1875-1965) was for many years the leading actress of the Italian theater. She began her career in 1884 and in her youth toured Europe with the Eleonora Duse company. Gramatica began her career as a romantic actress, but in time her style became quintessentially veristic. A distinguished interpreter of Racine, Ibsen, D'Annunzio and Pirandel-lo, she was the first to perform the works of Shaw in Italy. She was still appearing in theater, films and on TV in the late 1950s, often with her equally gifted sister, Irma. Emma's best-known film outside Italy is De Sica's Miracle in Milan (1950). In later years she was often cast in lachrymose mother roles. Like many other stage actors, she was criticized for bringing grand-scale stage technique to film. Viewing Mamma, however, it is immediately apparent that we are in the presence of no ordinary artist. Her job is to pull our heartstrings, and even with the unremarkable lines she is given, she succeeds totally. Mamma may be old-fashioned melodrama, and she may push it to the very edge, but she makes it all work, and we are genuinely moved (despite ourselves) ER -