Peppino Mazzullo, the legendary voice of Topo Gigio, died this morning at his home in Santo Stefano di Briga, a hamlet of Messina. Mazzullo had celebrated his 100th birthday on June 6th.

The bond between Mazzullo and Topo Gigio officially began in 1961, but the maestro swore he'd "met" the rodent 35 years earlier: "One morning, when I was about two years old, I saw the little mouse at the foot of the bed. I was scared, and I tried to call my mother, but my voice failed me. After a while, perhaps because he felt sorry for me, the mouse disappeared. I told my mother everything, and she consoled me: it's a 'pixie,' it will bring you good luck."

The second meeting, the official one, will be at Rai, when Mazzullo will invent the voice for the puppet created by Maria Perego and Federico Caldura: «When I saw it, I got shivers.
"I already knew him, but I couldn't tell anyone," he recalled. "He was a poorly made puppet, the glue wouldn't hold and he also had an ugly face, but I liked him. I picked him up and started making him talk. Gino Bramieri, who was there, told me not to forget that voice, because he thought he would make his fortune. And so it was."
Topo Gigio's voice has accompanied generations of boys and girls, who still remember some iconic phrases today. Among them, the famous question "What are you telling me?", which Mazzullo invented. "I always wrote the lyrics, in every language," he said. "I was an improviser, and everything Topo Gigio said came to me, on the spot. No one ever told me what to do."
(Unioneonline/D)