LA STRANIERA

YOU LOVE ME, MARRY ME 

  

 "Les autres revent de ce qu'elles n'ont pas, je reve de ce que j'ai."

I think of Titta day and night,my guardian angel,the man I love.For the first time in my life I have financial security,no money worry,can concentrate on the goal,becoming the greatest singer of the world.Ferrucio Cusinatti,the Verona Opera chorus master,taught me all the operas of my repertoire,private lessons paid by Titta.Like Maria Trivella,he never got the credit he deserves.

I spend my day at the Accademia,have lunch at the Pavadena ,and wait for Titta till past midnight when he returned home,and we have dinner.

We talk,know that we are in love, can't imagine a life without each other.

He loves me,had family problems,doesn't want to commit himself, so I wait and wait .

They hate me,his folks,the whole town,they call me the gypsy.

--- Titta what are you doing ?

--- Don't you see she is built like a potato?

--- Can't you see how ugly she is,how clumsy?

---- Have you lost your mind,you're not yourself !

 I  was La Straniera,fat,lonely and dead broke.Titta was twenty when his father died leaving his ten siblings under his care.He wanted to be a journalist,had dreams of travelling the world,gave up everything for his family.One of his brothers became a university professor,another a gynecologist,a third rose to the rank of general in the Italian army,his sisters married well,Titta bought a beautiful villa in Zevo,a suburb of Verona for his mother.He was a self-made millionaire,when they realized that he was in love and wanted to marry me,they flew into a rage, join forces against me.They knew that Titta had the genius,built up the family business ,without him it will collapse,They inherited a small factory from their father,a few men making bricks by hand in the courtyard and heating them in a kilt,the business grew to become one of the most successful businesses of the Veneto region,north of Italy,with twelve factories.After the war there was a demand for bricks to rebuilt houses,Tita saw the opening,went all out for it,and seized the opportunity. 

The Meneghinis became rich and respected.  

What Titta did for his family business he did it for me,instead of marketing bricks and building supplies,he marketed my voice, the Voice of the century.

 He loved me,but money was more important than the woman,kept me waiting for two years,didn't want to commit before he was certain of the investment.

I was to sail for Argentina for my first tour..

--- I won't sail for Buenos Aires tonight unless we married.You say you love me,I want to be your wife.

The contracts were signed,a three month engagement,prestigious because Serafin will conduct,I became his wife at noon in the poorest little church of the town, I was not Catholic,we married in the sacristy,a consecrated area but not in the church proper.At midnight in tears and in agony,I sailed for Latin America,in retrospect I should have done the same thing with Ari in 1959.I became his mistress in August of that year,had I insisted I would have married me then.His wife,the young and beautiful and very rich Tina wanted her freedom,had another man in her life,didn't need his money,was an heiress in her own right..