“Sophia Loren will be the patroness of the evening celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Arena di Verona Opera Festival that will be broadcast worldwide,” Undersecretary for Culture, Gianmarco Mazzi, said.
“We have been waiting for confirmation to say it: an exceptional godmother, the icon that most of all gives the sense of Italy in the world, will be with us on the evening of June 16.
“We invited her and she has just confirmed her presence,” Mazzi, who promised a ‘true parterre de roi’ for the event, said.
Hosted by Milly Carlucci, the event will be broadcast worldwide and feature Anna Netrebko, tenor Yusif Eyvazov and an orchestra under the expert baton of Marco Armiliato.
Former sex symbol Loren, 88, was the first foreign-language actor to win an Oscar, for Two Women, in 1961, and also has five Golden Globes in her trophy cabinet.
Born in Rome in 1934, she endured a difficult and troubled upbringing.
The child of unmarried parents in a staunchly conservative Catholic country at the height of Italy’s fascist period, Loren grew up on the outskirts of Naples, one of Italy’s poorest regions, and was so skinny as a child that other kids in her neighbourhood named her “The Toothpick.”
Later meeting and marrying legendary Italian film producer Carlo Ponti, whom she would share many decades with in one of Italy’s great love stories, Loren would go on to star in Hollywood films including Desire Under the Elms and Houseboat, before earning rave reviews for her work in The Black Orchid and then in De Sica’s Two Women.
ANSA
