Chiara Buratti, born in Cento, in the province of Ferrara, in 1977, is a theatrical actress, journalist and television host. His training goes from the theatre, which remains the center of his work as a actors, but over time he also passes through cinemas and TV programs. At the same time, Buratti built a path in the world of cultural dissemination, landing at Rai Cultura, where he became one of the most recognizable faces of the canal. She was the wife of Massimo Cotto, journalist and historical voice of Virgin Radio, who died in the summer of 2024. Today Buratti is back on stage with a theatrical show from a Cotto text dedicated to the history of Chelsea Hotel, a place symbol of rock mythology and theater of some of the darkest and legendary episodes of American music culture, in the background of a New York out of scale.
Let’s start with your career. How did you start working as an actress? What was your real baptism of fire?
I am native to the province of Bologna, between Ferrara, Modena and Bologna, and while studying at the university I have always cultivated a passion for theatre. My first audition was for a theatrical show. I was just over 20 years old and an agent: I was really moving the first steps. The audition was for a show with Lando Buzzanca, who at that time was working on productions of a certain level, also musical. The music was by Bruno Zambrini and he was selecting several young interpreters. He chose me for the role of a collegial. I was a little more than a little girl. We had so much fun. We’ve made almost two hundred replicas of that show, Carlo’s Aunt. It was a very intense experience, also “violent” in the good and difficult sense: it immediately catapulted me into real theatrical tours, the long ones, 180–200 replicas. Today they are much rarer, while fifteen or twenty years ago were more frequent.
Your route starts from the theatre, but then it also crosses television and cinema. Where are you feeling more comfortable?
Actually, my story is a little special, because besides being an actress I am also a journalist. For about thirteen or fourteen years I collaborate with RAI Cultura, especially on scientific programmes. As a television actress, instead, I did a few things: small parts, A place in the sun, short experiences. If you ask me where I really feel at home as an actress, the answer is simple: theater, all life. The relationship with the public is completely different, but above all the path is different. You don’t work “on snaps”, you don’t turn out-of-order scenes, you don’t enter a story already started. Television is another adrenaline rush. As a conductor I find myself very well: in front of a camera on it is you, it is a more individual job. I have always made recorded programs, so there is less tension than direct: if something does not work, you can stop. But at the base of everything – theatre or television – there is always the same thing: a great curiosity. The desire to go to the bottom, whether it’s a character or a person you’re interviewing, a text or an argument.
What are you working on today?
I just brought on stage a theatrical show that is also a tribute to a text of my husband, Massimo Cotto, music journalist who died last year. It’s called Chelsea Hotel and it’s a project I care about. It tells the story of this legendary New York hotel, which has hosted extraordinary artists and often out of the box. His historic owner, Stanley Bard, had a real passion for “strange” artists, often distracted: if they had no money, sometimes they paid with their works. And if Bard liked you, you could stay. The Chelsea Hotel is a place full of incredible stories. I was there two months ago: it recently reopened, it was refurbished, but it still preserves that mystery that was in the Sixties and Seventies – and even before, since it exists since the end of the nineteenth century. In the show I tell what happened in the different rooms: Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, Edith Piaf, Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol. Bright and dark stories together. On stage I am flanked by Mauro Ermanno Giovanardi, voice of the La Crus, who accompanies the story with music, creating an emotional continuation of the words.
Your relationship with Massimo Cotto has joined theatre and music. How long has it been left of that union?
Massimo went on stage with me once, in the Decamerock show, taken from his book. Everyone thinks we did a thousand things together, but that was the only real stage collaboration. How long was the music? So much. When I met him I was almost a rock profane: I loved more Italian songwriters and I was even asthmatic. He, Piedmontese, introduced me to good wine and then to rock. He became a part of me, of my family, even of my son. Today I could not live without rock, understood not only as a musical genre, but as a way to stay in the world: no compromises, give value to what you really want, to your vocation. He cared about taking me to New York. The Chelsea Hotel, of course, but also Coney Island, Village, Bowery, St. Mark’s Place. These are places that have a soundtrack for me: Velvet Underground, Ramones, David Bowie. New York is my city of heart. Going back is getting harder and harder, living even more, but every time I go home with something more.
Last question: What smile do you feel to be when you smile?
A free smile. A little asymmetric. And also a little melancholy.
L’articolo Chiara Buratti tra la “sua” New York e i palchi proviene da IlNewyorkese.
