MY FAIR LADY
Irma was born in Naples, Italy, into a strong Catholic family. Her father was called Augusto. There is lots of uncertainty about her upbringing.
She claimed that her family were aristocratic and that she was a princess. Another family member said that Augusto owned an up-market car dealership.
In the 1960s, two journalists claimed in a story they wrote, that Irma’s father was actually a chauffeur and her mother the daughter of a janitor.
Irma took the journalists to court, although the outcome of the case is not known.
There is also confusion about when she was born. It is generally accepted that it was in 1935, but throughout her life she changed her age regularly, making herself older or younger, to suit the occasion.
As a teenager, Irma won the Miss Napoli competition.
She was around sixteen when she met King Farouk of Egypt. He was on holiday in the city – his favourite place outside of his own country.
There are three different versions of how she met the king.
The first said she was on a diving board at a swimming pool, dressed in a skimpy bikini and running her hands through her flaming red hair when the king clapped eyes on her.
The second version said he was watching a beauty contest in which she was participating. When she was not placed in the top three, Farouk stood up and started shouting that the contest was a fix.
The third version said they met when the king visited the exclusive Naples club, ‘Circolo Canottieri’, where her father was a member. She was chosen to present the monarch with some flowers.
Either way, they started an affair.
King Farouk had only just married Queen Narriman after he had divorced his first wife, Queen Farida.
Irma’s fiancé, Enzo Ancarola, was enraged by the affair. He challenged King Farouk to a duel, using either pistols or swords. The offer was not accepted.
Irma’s parents had strong views about the relationship too – until the king visited them and gave them a large sum of money.
In July 1952, King Farouk was deposed in a military coup led by General Muhammad Naguib. He was forced to flee Egypt in the royal yacht, taking his family with him.
Farouk now spent all of his time living between Monaco and Naples and consequently, he started spending more time with Irma. Time Magazine called her, ‘His current travelling companion – a voluptuous Neapolitan.’
Irma said they had devised a way of ‘slipping away’ from Farouk’s bodyguards to conduct their affair.
Farouk was a notorious playboy, with, ‘Such exorbitant tastes.’ He was addicted to fine dining, gambling and beautiful women.
Queen Narriman was unimpressed by Farouk’s extra-marital love life, so she went back to Egypt and filed for divorce.
After that, Irma and the deposed king had a long-standing on-off relationship. They were never out of the gossip columns.
He asked her to marry him, but she responded, “Marriage is the tomb of love.”
However, after his death, Irma claimed they had got married in a secret Islamic ceremony in 1957. There has never been any proof found of this so-called ceremony.
Whether they were married or not, Irma always insisted on being addressed as her ‘Royal Highness’.
In 1958, Farouk and Irma were having a quiet drink at a bar in Rome. A member of the paparazzi jumped out and took a photograph of them.
Farouk was taken by surprise and thought it was an assassination attempt. He grabbed the photographer by the neck and started to strangle him. The latter fought back and a massive fight ensued. The bar was destroyed. The papers reported it as being, ‘like something out of a 1950s western movie.’
When the 1960s began, Irma expressed a desire to become an opera singer. Farouk threw money at her dream. He hired top singing coach, Mercedes Liopart, to teach her and she had many lessons.
The gossip columns likened it to being a modern-day ‘Pygmalion’ or ‘My Fair Lady’ – “Farouk paying for Irma’s lessons like Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle.”
When it was deemed that she was ready, Farouk hired the exclusive Naples Artists Club. 300 guests were invited to hear Irma’s debut – singing Puccini’s ‘Madame Butterfly’.
Within one minute of her starting her performance, all the lights went out. Women screamed, men started laughing and the accompanying pianist stopped playing. Irma kept on singing with Farouk shouting as loudly as he could, “Marvellous voice, marvellous voice.”
Candles were brought in from the church next door. As soon as she re-commenced singing, the pianist’s sheet music went up in flames.
It was a shambles. The reviews were appalling and Irma became the laughing stock of Italy. Years later she reflected, “The public thought of me as this silly-headed, no-talent sexpot.”
King Farouk died suddenly in 1965, of a heart attack. He was having a secret midnight meal in a Rome restaurant with another woman. He was just 45-years old.
Irma attended his funeral in the company of his first wife, Queen Farida.
However, Farouk left Irma absolutely nothing in his will. Nevertheless, from that moment she added Farouk to the end of her name.
Irma also admitted that she knew he had, “Many women friends.”
Irma decided to return to opera singing. Due to her poor reputation, she found it hard to find anyone who would teach her. Eventually she succeeded and worked at this project for many years.
She gave herself a new stage name, Imra Di Canosa, and this time she was more successful. Her first performance was in Turandot at Rome’s Opera Theatre and it went well.
Reviews throughout her first tour were much more positive.
The real test was when she went to play the Opera House in Parma. It was nicknamed the ‘Lion’s Pit’ due to the difficult audience who had ruined many a career.
The concert was totally sold out, with, as one paper put it, “The lions and bears ready to tear her apart.”
Instead, the audience were stunned into silence as her performance was so good. At the end, somebody shouted out, “First, you sing marvellously; second, you are beautiful.”
There followed a standing ovation.
Irma’s career took off after that. She sang extensively in Italy, including at La Scala in Milan and La Fenice in Venice, and toured around the world.
She appeared in a few films, most notably Zeffirelli’s ‘Young Toscanini’ alongside Elizabeth Taylor, and was often on television.
Irma won singing competitions and became a judge on many more. She won several awards including the Maria Callas Prize.
She supported many charities and gave free tickets to poor families – especially children.
Irma never married again.
In the 1990s, Irma stepped back from performing and opened her own International Singing School in Rome.
Irma was still teaching there when she died.
RIP – Researching Irma’s Past
