Interview with Leontina Giovanetti

Interview with Leontina Giovanetti

Leontina Giovanetti was born in 1913 and reminisces about her early life with three sisters, her father. who was a typographer and photographer, and her mother, a house-wife. She describes musical training at the Milan conservatory, stressing the demanding attitude of her teachers, She praises her mother who was prepared to endure many hardships to give a proper education to all her daughters. Leontina describes the 1918 flu pandemic, when she was quarantined, and remembers daily life in post-war Milan: hard life; class and gender divide; rigid upbringing and strict discipline were tempered by widespread solidarity and appreciation for music. She talks about her career as a performer in casinos and cafés; while she was in Rome she listened to Benito Mussolini’s addresses and was impressed by his command of public speaking. Leontina met her husband in Bengasi, while under contract as a performer, but left the colony at the start of the war, while pregnant. She describes the bombing of Milan, mentions the resistance of her son to go down into the shelter and the tense atmosphere inside, people patiently waiting for the all clear signal. She tells of a Jew hidden by her father and recounts wartime anecdotes about the town of Pievepelago: draft-dodgers and close links with emigrants to America. She also discusses the morality of bombing.

2018-08-13

00:41:58 audio recording

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