"A mille ce n'è..." Le fiabe dei fratelli Fabbri

Not long before Christmas 1966, the Fratelli Fabbri editori distributed a promotional record of “Le Fiabe Sonore”, with “The Three Little Pigs”, free of charge on newsstands. The following week, the first official issue was released, “Puss in Boots” by Charles Perrault, accompanied by a large format book (27x35) with splendid romantic and yet ironic, alluring, however modern illustrations.

Many of us, at the time, did not yet know how to read. It was our parents, therefore, who initiated us into magic, who opened the doors of our imagination, who introduced us to a world that would have enriched, bewitched, enchanted, frightened, amazed us. Week after week, we would have learned to read and write also thanks to the Fiabe Sonore, absorbing new and unknown words, not always easy.

The fairy tales were released continuously from 1966 to 1970, recorded on 45 rpm records and accompanied by beautiful books, illustrated by well-known painters: Pikka, Una, Ferri, Max and Sergio.

After listening to them from our parents, we then relied on the deep and reassuring voice of Silverio Pisu (1937–2004) actor, dubber, singer, writer and screenwriter. We curled up on the sofa on cold winter evenings, with the book on our knees, enraptured by the figures, with our ears strained to catch the slightest difference between the written text and the narrative voice. Or, cold and feverish, we spread fairy tales radially on the bed, took the vinyl record out of its case, anxiously inserted it into the record player. The little finger pressed, the key was lowered and in that small gesture there was an immense power, that of making sounds and images emerge, of evoking an entire parallel universe. We were the ones holding the magic wand, closing and opening the fairy door at will, at each re-reading, at each re-listening.

Many other professional actors collaborated with Silverio Pisu, including Ugo Bologna, Sante Calogero, Pupo de Luca, Isa di Marzio. The music was commissioned to a famous composer of the time, Vittorio Peltrinieri. None of us will ever forget the introductory song sung by the Radar Quartet, composed by Claudio Celli, Gianni Guarnieri, Dino Comolli and Stelio Settepassi, whose style was intended to resemble that of the more famous Quartetto Cetra.

Together with the closing song to the fairy tales, the memorable initial jingle was a sure sign of recognition of the series:

There are thousands of them

in my heart of fairy tales to tell.

Come with me

in my fairy world to dream…

You don’t need an umbrella

the red coat or the beautiful satchel

to come with me…

All you need is a little imagination and goodness.

After the introduction, the real fairy tale began, scripted, adapted, modernized without detracting from its charm. Each screenplay was characterized not only by the narrative voice of Silverio Pisu, renamed Cantafiabe, but also by lively dialogues and catchy songs such as the unforgettable ones of Little Red Riding Hood, of the Dwarf Rumpelstiltskin, of the Sticky Swan.

A few masterful nods were enough to create the atmosphere, such as the passage of time marked by a touch of the harp, capable of unleashing the imagination, appealing to several senses at the same time and making any word superfluous. In all, about 150 illustrated booklets and as many records were released. Fairy tales by the main European fabulists were revived: the brothers Grimm, Andersen, Perrault, Puŝkin and by the lesser known Bechstein, Leprince de Beaumont, Gianbattista Basile.

Thanks to Fabbri’s fairy tales, an entire generation enjoyed the hilarious Vardiello, and also learned — as Bruno Bettelheim explains — to manage their childhood fears, internally reworking, absorbing and making certain gothic atmospheres their own. How can we forget the fear aroused by the scary witch in “Hansel and Gretel” who was burned in the oven by the two little siblings, by “Tom Thumb’s ogre” who slits his daughters’ throats, by the unjust accusation of witchcraft made against the protagonist of “The Eleven Wild Swans” forced to remain silent because of the love for her brothers? Sound fairy tales taught us the clear division between good and evil, the boundary between licit and illicit, the sense of duty and the spirit of sacrifice, words that today seem meaningless.

In addition to the single fairy tales, masterful serial versions of “The Adventures of Pinocchio” were also published, with Paolo Poli in the role of the puppet, “Alice in Wonderland” and “Peter Pan”. The sound fairy tales were revived in ’77, in the ’80s, in ’90. They were then released for the first time on CD in 2003 and as an attachment to Corriere della Sera in 2007. Downloadable applications for iPhone and iPad have also been released.

And now I say goodbye to you as the Cantafiabe did, with that little song that gave me both sadness and consolation, the sense of something that ends and then begins again, in an infinite loop that helped me grow, to bear the return to normal life, to my labors as a child, symbolized by the “beautiful satchel” of the introduction.

It ends like this

This short story goes away

The record clicks

And, you will see, in a while it will stop,

but wait, and you will have another one

“Once upon a time” the Cantafiabe will say

And another fairy tale will begin