Dinner With The Mrs. - Mrs. Sergio Franchi That Is!

Ciao a tutti,

A couple of times a year I get the pleasure of having dinner with a lovely lady many people know as Mrs. Sergio Franchi. To me it's Eva and we have become good friends over all these years.

Whether she is in town, here in Los Angeles, or I am in hers in Connecticut, we always try and get together for at least a dinner. The best ones are when she cooks at home the dinners she used to cook her husband the late great tenor Sergio Franchi. I can't wait to show her making one of those recipes in her kitchen on our "Filippo and the Chef" Show one of these days.

This is how it all started. You may or may not know how it is in this business, but when people like you and what you do, and I am fortunate that so many people do, they want to help you. So often I would get people saying to me after concerts, that they were going to help me. And I mean big people, like these men in power suits that look like they own the world, and they just might, but up to that point, no one had come through.

One day I was singing at a large gathering of an Italian Women's organization here in Los Angeles. After I finished many women came up to talk to me and buy CDs etc., as did this little old lady who hobbled up on a cane and literally pushed her way through the crowds of fans to get to me.

The first words she said to me where, "Has anybody every told you that you remind them of Sergio Franchi?" I had actually heard that, though I didn't understand the connection because I knew Sergio as an opera singer and that is not how I sing.

The next thing she said in a bold and determined voice was, "Give me your card, I'm going to help you." I gave her my card and that was it, she hobbled away. I thought in my mind that it was really sweet that she liked me so much that she wanted to help, but I knew I would never hear from her. After all, people that look like they can do something for my career and had said they wanted to help either couldn't or didn't, what could this lady possibly do?

Oh, but I was wrong, she called me the very next day and told me, not asked me, but told me I was coming to her house the next evening to me Mrs. Sergio Franchi.

She helped me after all. Her name was Ann Nardi, and I will never forget her and will always be grateful to her. She actually didn't stop there with that introduction, but I will have to save the stories for another time.

Suffice it to say, I met Eva that next night at Ann's home and played and sang for her at Ann's grand piano. Eva jumped up from her seat and shook my hand and said, "Congratulations, you are invited to be a Sergio Franchi Foundation Scholarship participant," or something like that. I left Ann's house not really sure what had just happened but I knew it was a good thing.

That year was the first year I won a Sergio Franchi Scholarship and performed for the annual concert at Sergio and Eva's home in Connecticut on a sprawling 280 acre estate. I quickly got to learn what the connection was that people saw between Sergio and I, and it was his personality, the way he used his hands and the way he spoke to the audience.

There are many stories I could tell about the song I sang for Eva that first night, and the fact that everyone told me to cut my hair before getting to the concert, everyone but Eva that is.

Eva however wasn't sure about letting me go on stage to tell a story since no one had done that in any of the years prior. Both her and the conductor insisted I just sing. It was hours before the concert that I spoke to her again and I think she reluctantly agreed after I told her what I would say and promised her to keep it short.

Well, I don't know how short I kept it but I know it was such a hit that the next year she invited me back, didn't hire a comedian to entertain the crowd like she had done the years prior, and made time on the program for me to talk away..., and I have been talking ever since.

I have to say it has been a lot of fun. Unfortunately, Ann is no longer with us but she did get to come to Connecticut and see me perform that first year and was very proud of me, and I very grateful to her. Eva even thanked and acknowledged her from the stage for introducing me to her.

But the concert is still going strong and I go every year that I can to support a good cause of raising money for scholarships for young tenors. The only thing that is changing year to year is that the crowds are getting larger and the beautiful classic car collection that Sergio had is now no longer displayed, except for a few special ones, since they were all sold last year by Christie's at Greenwich Concours d'Elegance. Click on the link to see some of his car collection before it was sold.

So, now when Eva and I get together, and in this case, with her sister Suzy Scott, we talk about everything back to how Sergio got started, and the days performing at the Coconut Grove and in Las Vegas and..., you get the picture.

(Speaking of pictures, you see pictured here throughout the post, my entire Sergio Franchi Record collection, and I do mean record, starting with my favorite. I have CDs too now, but it was through these LPs that I came to know "la voce di Sergio Franchi,"the voice of Sergio Franchi.)

I love hearing and talking about "those days," it seems that there was something special about them. Maybe at the time they were just having fun "doing their thing" and we look back and romanticism about them.

Well, then I hope maybe someday I will be having dinner with a younger singer and telling him or her how I got started and the things I have done and people I have met and together we will romanticize about Ann and Eva and the wonderful time we had "doing our thing," too!

Filippo

P.S. I thought this video was very fitting for this post because here is another young winner of the Sergio Franchi Foundation Scholarship. It is also fitting because Sergio started singing at ten years old and this singer is twelve. He is Alex Prior and here he is singing for Meryl Streep in Russia. (In Russian and Italian)