Sunday, December 18, 2011

Seeing Sophia

I’ll admit that I didn’t know who Carlo Ponti was until a few weeks ago when my friend Anna invited me to a concert in Roma.  It was a benefit concert for a charity called “Gregorio Fun and Safe”, which promotes motorcycle safety to young kids.  As with most charities, its founding was the result of a tragic motorcycle accident which took the life of Gregorio Brianzoli, aged 26.  Gregorio’s mother, Chantel, along with her sister, Desireé, are some of Anna’s closest friends from grade school.  And Gloria is the matriarch of the lot (see my blogpost from November – A Roman Weekend.) The draw for a Monday night concert in Roma was none other than Sophia Loren.



Never one to pass up a good charity event, I graciously accepted Anna’s invitation and didn’t think anything more of it until I was about to leave for the weekend.  The concert was entitled: Omaggio di Carlo Ponti.  If you search on Carlo Ponti you’ll discover a great many things, but the most important facts are he was a big-time movie producer, and he was Sophia Loren’s husband.

Sophia meets the paparrazzi
The concert featured Carlo Ponti Jr. who is a conductor, and Edoardo Ponti, an actor/director/producer.  Carlo Jr. got Sophia’s looks; Edoardo got Carlo’s.  Carlo Jr. conducted the Roma Sinfonietta orchestra and they played music from three of Ponti’s movies: La Strada, La Ciociara, and Il Dottor Zivago, connected by a family narrative/tribute read by Edoardo. If you haven’t seen La Ciociara (Two Women, or The Women) you should run out and rent it. It’s the movie that Sophia won her Oscar for Best Actress way back in 1962 and it’s pretty fabulous in that post-war, late fifties/early sixties gritty Italian realism kind of way, but I digress.  The second part of the concert was Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony.


Anna and I got smartly dressed, met up with Sonia (another friend) and off we went for aperitifs (drinks & a bit of food) and the concert at Parco della Musica, a 2002 Renzo Piano building and site of the Rome Film Festival among other things.
Sophia Loren
The pre-concert entertainment featured a parade of famous Italians (all of whom had to be pointed out to me) and a very well-heeled crowd – all the fur and all the jewels were real, followed by a photo-op of Sophia herself.  It was fun to watch the real paparazzi in action!  The concert started late, naturally, and just beforehand, Sophia arrived in the auditorium. Everyone got up and applauded as she took her seat – I imagine kind of like what happens when the Queen arrives at a function. Sophia sat 5 rows directly behind me, so it was a bit difficult to gawk, but you knew you were in the presence of aging-gracefully greatness!

Mayor Alemanno (left), Edoardo, Sophia, Carlo Jr. The blonde woman is
on TV, but don't remember her name.
After the concert, Sophia joined her children on stage and accepted a present from the Mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno.

Edoardo, Sophia, Carlo Jr.
More paparazzi and a few words of thanks and the evening was finished.  The crowd lingered longer than it normally would have, all in the hopes of catching more Sophia sightings or better yet, a chance to meet her.  Alas she avoided us lesser beings and probably went out for a smart dinner with her sons, as she should have.  It was a most memorable evening.