Maria Carta

Maria Carta (24 June 1934 – 22 September 1994) was a Sardinian folk music singer-songwriter. She also performed in film and theatre. In 1975 she wrote a book of poetry, Canto rituale (Ritual Song).

Throughout her career Carta covered a number of genres of traditional music of her native Sardinia (cantu a chiterra, ninne nanne—children's lullabies, gosos, Gregorian chants, and more), often reinterpreting them in more modernized and personal ways.

Career Maria Carta won the Miss Sardinia beauty contest in 1957 and later participated in the national Miss Italy competition.

Around 1960, she moved to Rome where she met the screenwriter Salvatore Laurani whom she later married. She attended the Centro Nazionale di Studi di Musica Popolare, directed by Diego Carpitella, at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia and at the same time she pursued a musical and ethnographic research path with important productions and collaborations.

In 1971, she made two albums: Sardegna canta and Paradiso in re, and in the meantime she attended the ethnomusicologist Gavino Gabriel. The same year RAI broadcast the television documentary Incontro con Maria Carta (photography by Franco Pinna and texts by Velia Magno), in which she sang and recited with Riccardo Cucciolla.

In 1972, she played at the Teatro Argentina in Rome in the Medea by Franco Enriquez. The same year she met Amália Rodrigues, with whom she held a concert at the Teatro Sistina. In 1973, the two artists made a tour in Sardinia.

In 1974, she participated in Canzonissima, interpreting the traditional Sardinian Ave Maria Deus ti salvet Maria. She reached the final and was ranked second in the group of folk music with the song Amore disisperadu. In 1975, she held an important concert at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. In 1976, she served as Communal Councilwoman for the Italian Communist Party, in the city council of Rome and remained in office until 1981.

In 1980, she participated in the Festival d'Avignon; in 1987 she performed in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City; and in 1988 in St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco.

She caught the attention of such directors as Francis Ford Coppola – who gave her the first of two of her widely-seen film roles as the mother of Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974) – and Franco Zeffirelli, who cast her as Martha, the sister of Lazarus, in Jesus of Nazareth (1977).

In 1985, she was awarded, as songwriter, the Targo Tenco for dialectal/regional music.

In the last years of her life, Carta gave her time to the University of Bologna where she conducted a series of classes and advised student theses on which she had relevant personal, human experience and scholarly background.

In 1991, the President of Italy, Francesco Cossiga, named her a "Commendatore della Repubblica" ("Knight of the Republic"), similar to the British CBE.

Death Maria Carta gave her last concert in Toulouse, France, on 30 June 1994. Ill with cancer, she died at her home in Rome on 22 September 1994, aged 60.

Discography

1971: Sardegna canta 1971: Ninna nanna / Muttos de amore 1971: Adiu a mama / Antoneddu Antoneddu 1971: Trallallera corsicana / La ragazza moderna 1971: Paradiso in Re 1973: Nuovo maggio / Funerale di un lavoratore 1974: Dilliriende 1974: Amore disisperadu / Ave Maria 1974: Dies Irae 1975: Diglielo al tuo Dio / Nuovo maggio 1975: Maria Carta 1976: Vi canto una storia assai vera 1976: La voce e i canti di Maria Carta vol.1 1976: La voce e i canti di Maria Carta vol. 2 1978: No potho reposare / Ballada ogliastrina / Muttettu 1978: Umbras 1980: Haidiridiridiridiridinni 1984: Maria Carta concerto dal vivo 1981: Sonos ‘e memoria 1984: Sonos’ e memoria 1992: Chelu e mare 1993: Le memorie della musica 1993: Muttos ‘e amore 1993: Trallallera 2002: Sardegna canta 2012: Il Recital di Maria Carta e Amalia Rodriguez with Amália Rodrigues (live album) Recorded in Rome in 1972.

Filmography Year Title Role NotesThe Godfather Part II 1974 Vito Corleone's mother by Francis Ford CoppolaCecilia – Storia di una comune anarchica 1975 Olimpia by Jean-Louis ComolliCadaveri eccellenti 1976 Signora Cres by Francesco RosiJesus of Nazareth 1977 Martha by Franco ZeffirelliTV Mini-seriesUn reietto delle isole 1980 Based on by Joseph Conrad's novel An Outcast of the Islandsby Giorgio MoserTV MovieDerborence 1985 Singer The Professor 1986 The mother by Giuseppe TornatoreDisamistade 1988 "Madre Di Sebastiano" by Gianfranco CabidduIl commissario Corso 1992 telefilmIl respiro della valle 1992 (final film role)