Pinocchio, to read and listen to

The double face series of the Emons publishing house aims to re-propose some classics of our literature in a "double" edition. In fact, in the traditional paper book, there is a QR code that allows you to listen to the audio version of the book. In short, masterpieces to read and listen to in a series which, after presenting, among others, Mastro don Gesualdo di Verga read by Ninni Bruschetta and Cuore by De Amicis interpreted by Alessandro Benvenuti, now offers readers-listeners " Pinocchio " (2023, pp. 175) in the reading by Paolo Virzì .

Let's say immediately that the masterpiece of Carlo Collodi (1826-1890) in the reading of the great director from Livorno is particularly enjoyable and one immediately perceives Virzì's pleasure in giving voice to the pages and characters of a book that he feels particularly close to him as he confesses in introduction to the volume: «I like the Tuscanisms of Collodi's language, I adore his voice and the voices of his characters , which I tried to hint at when I read the story to my children before falling asleep. Its pages seem made for reading aloud. Collodi's voice is harsh, concrete, exact, abrasive. His music is stupendous, rough, and at times it can be languid and very sweet, but always accompanied by a mocking smile».

A mocking tone, tinged with irreverent Tuscan irony in which Virzì fully recognizes himself, so much so that he writes that «Collodi loves his characters, his protagonist, but at the same time makes fun of them, makes fun of them, envelops them in an ironic light» . And the director renders these characteristics of Collodi's text well, enhancing in his reading the vitality, laughter, perennial mobility, desire for freedom and unconscious and irritating curiosity - at least from an adult's point of view - of Pinocchio. As Virzì writes again: «The puppet is a cyclothymic, with excessive impetus, both in enthusiasm and in disappointment and anger. He exalts himself in moments of happiness and is crucified in moments of discouragement". And for all of this we love him as millions of readers and readers, children and adults have loved him.

It is precisely the surreal, almost crazy traits of Pinocchio's character that make us feel close to him because they are those traits that represent the most effective antidote to a world of constraint and duty imposed from the outside in which everyone is a little - or too much - we feel compelled. Collodi's total adherence to the fantastic infantile world of the puppet, his nightmares and dreams, makes the book absolutely credible: every reader identifies with the fears, hopes, misadventures and adventures of Pinocchio. Every reader knows that, as for Pinocchio, the best job in the world, the one dreamed of by every boy who knows how to fantasize freely, to use the words of the book is «to eat, drink, sleep, have fun and live life from morning to night of the tramp". At least in fantasy, why not indulge in desires like these together with Pinocchio.