Vasilisa Berzhanskaya reads Il topo che mangiava i gatti by Gianni Rodari

“Once upon a time, in the heart of the city, there was a huge library in a building called Brera. One day the library began to read.”
 

Vasilisa Berzhanskaya is a Russian mezzo-soprano.

Gianni Rodari (1920-1980) was one of Italy’s best-loved writers of children’s books. In 1951 he published his first book of nursery rhymes and Le avventure di Cipollino, a book that was successfully translated into Russian. His work is known and loved by all Russians born after World War II through the translations of the poet Samuil Marshak and the linguist Julia Dobrovolskaja. Rodari began to be read and appreciated in Italy only years later.