Mara Maionchi and Alberto Salerno, A rock wedding

What is it that holds together who is together? Mapi Danna, author and writer, she asked herself and asked for it. The result, after hours and hours of conversations with famous couples and more, is I love you today too. Not forever but every day, now in the bookstore for Sperling & Kupfer (and presented in Milan on November 9th at 6:30 pm at the Mondadori megastore in Piazza del Duomo). Written in the first person, as if it were an intimate diary, a kind of confession. Pages, explains the author, that do not contain rules, but suggestions, provocations, very personal solutions.

Here, exclusively, an excerpt from the chapter that the author dedicates to Mara Maionchi and Alberto Salerno.

A rock wedding

Mara Maionchi and Alberto Salerno

The Mara, as Alberto calls her with a tone a little on the alert but full of complicity, for us is Mara Maionchi. He says that she suddenly became a starlet, when no one in the family would have imagined it, but that he was not surprised: you can expect anything from Mara. Mara is amazing, she has been so many times, in their life together. “La Maionchi” as a public figure is first of all funny, intelligent, authoritative, competent, ironic, straightforward. She is an iron lady, who goes straight to the point. Few frills, few fuss. Every now and then, if it weren’t for the fact that swear words come so lightly and so well, she could be reproached for excessive ease in language. But Mara can. Because she is the absolute queen of talent shows, containers of mixed dreams, in which thousands of young aspiring artists have hoped and hope to at least be noticed, to exist.

Mara never seems to have a doubt. He laughs with that round sound that tells a precise and hungry taste for life, a sound without a filter. His age is absolutely disproportionate to what he appears and what he feels, he has two daughters, three grandchildren, and has Alberto. Alberto, in addition to being the prince consort – but we must not tell him because he snorts – is an extraordinary author and lyricist. “Il Salerno”, as she calls it, has written pieces that have made the history of Italian music, I wanderer, beautiful as hell, promised land, she will come., Women and many others. She is eight years younger than Mara but continues to struggle to keep up with her. A little bit he gave up. Essentially, he has always been waiting for her. Wait for her to come back. Theirs is a long and passionate rock marriage, one of the tough ones, with electric notes, high, acute, with a straight kick. Yet it is a marriage full of sweetness, patience, relaxation, empathy and friendship. And, in spite of what one might imagine, it was Mara who drew the boundaries, who held together, cared for, kept and defended, every day, a promise made on the fly, without thinking too much, between a dinner and the other, with the permission of a sorceress. A promise kept. The sorceress was right. Mara and Alberto made it.

Mara

We have always known each other. Alberto was a very young and talented boy who worked as an author at Ariston, a record company for which I was the press office. We would meet in the corridors, at some meetings, he was experiencing a moment of great success, I, even then, was concentrating on music with absolute dedication and passion, few distractions and a lot of energy. We also found ourselves together with Numero Uno, a record company founded by Mogol, which in the early seventies was establishing itself as a new and stimulating reality. Among our artists were Lucio Battisti, Edoardo Bennato, Bruno Lauzi, Adriano Pappalardo, Ivan Graziani, Tony Esposito. There was an artistic ferment and a very powerful creative climate. A true factory of ideas and possibilities. In that historical period, record companies were places of thought, not just industries but territories where artists, producers, authors, musicians, agents, arrangers mingled in dynamic and fluid relationships. A family villa that is always open, without timetables and with few rules. A nice place to meet, discuss, collaborate, deepen knowledge.