Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni is an internationally recognized actress, painter, singer, song composer and writer. She was born on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Her unique family history spans countless cultures and countries, filled with an array of fascinating historic figures.
As a young child, she moved to Rome, Italy, where she spent many years. Coralina is the daughter of Maestro Walter Cataldi-Tassoni, a globally prominent opera director, and mezzo-soprano Velia Botti. Her grandfather, Maestro Corace Cataldi-Tassoni, studied under Mascagni and conducted for Giacomo Puccini.
She was an active member of her father's opera company since early childhood, singing her first role in Puccini's La Boheme at the age of three. Coralina continued performing on stage and assisting her father in theaters around the world until her late teens.
Her first starring role was in the romantic drama In Cerca D'Amore, a film commissioned by RAI (Italy's national TV network) for the primetime show Passione Mia, produced by acclaimed actress Monica Vitti. Cataldi-Tassoni's on-screen acting skills and undoubted charisma caught the attention of legendary film-maker Dario Argento, who cast her as Sally, the lead in his production of Lamberto Bava's Demons 2.
Her memorable performance in the movie prompted Argento to create the role of Giulia expressly for Coralina in his next movie,Opera. Coralina also co-hosted, alongside Dario Argento, a weekly segment on cinema and entertainment on RAI's primetime live TV show Giallo. Award winning director Luciano Odorisio cast Coralina in the historical drama La Monaca di Monza, and also directed her in the romantic movie Via Paradiso, in which Coralina captivates audiences with her whimsical and lively comedic performance.
Thanks to her strong dramatic skills,unique talent for comedy and innate professionalism, several directors(Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava, Mariano Baino, Pupi Avati, Luciano Odorisio, Andrea Manni, to name a few) have written roles specifically for Coralina and worked with her on more than one occasion.
Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni was offered a scholarship to the internationally recognized training center for comedy and improvisation Second City, in Chicago. This offer came as a true delight and honor.Eager for a new artistic venture, she returned to the United States.
While in Chicago, Coralina successfully performed on stage, acting in plays, comedies and musical theater where her powerful mezzo-soprano voice received many accolades.
Dario Argento cast Coralina once more in his re-imagining of Gaston Leroux's Phantom Of The Opera. She performed alongside Asia Argento and British actor Julian Sands, in the role of vivacious Honorine, a character invented exclusively for the film.
Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni's film roles have become iconic figures for fans all around the world.
Coralina's desire to explore her creativity has allowed her to blossom into a very successful painter. Her solo exhibits have gathered high praise within Manhattan's gallery scene.
Her art, which she simply signs "Coralina", has been displayed in the USA and Europe. This prolific artist's clientele includes many illustrious international film-makers and performers.
Coralina's body of work is an autobiographical walk through what she calls her "Magical Alternate Dimension", a spiritual journey interspersed with mystic characters from her past, present or future.
It could be a person she saw in a dream or a vision, but, ultimately,each painting becomes her through some form of transference. Each painting is a piece of the missing puzzle - a clue, a key to her true self.
"Everything and everyone has a sound, and every sound has an image. My memories, my voice, the voices of others, eyes, hands, situations,objects, cities,lips, streets, rain, moon, smiles, toys, pebbles.Everything. Everyone and everything are notes. Sounds. I feel them. I hear them. I am those sounds. My paintings are translations of those sounds."
Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni's love of music has not only translated itself into colors, but also fueled her to compose and produce her album Limbo Balloon, containing eclectic works which she likes to call "Arias",embodying an array of influences from Rock & Roll, New Wave, and Opera.
Coralina has performed her music in venues in the USA and Canada.
Lamberto Bava cast Coralina as Elizabeth in his supernatural thriller Ghost Son, shot in South Africa, where she performed alongside John Hannah (The Mummy), Laura Harring (Mulholland Drive), and Academy Award nominee Pete Postlethwaite.
Upon completion of this film, Dario Argento offered Coralina the pivotal role of Giselle in the final chapter of his long awaited "Three Mothers Trilogy" - The Mother of Tears. As with all their previous collaborations, the director created the role of Giselle specifically for her.
In 2008, Coralina received an award for Best Actress at Fright Nights Film Festival in Austria for The Dirt, a film directed by celebrated musician Claudio Simonetti (frontman of the band Goblin and composer of the soundtracks for numerous movies) along with his sister Simona Simonetti. The film also won a Special Award at Rome's Fantafestival 2008.
To accompany the launch of the book Coralina: Life is Art/Art is Life, edited by journalist Filippo Brunamonti, Coralina wrote and co-directed a highly cinematic short film, Coralina: Based on a True Life, along with renowned director Mariano Baino (Dark Waters, Never Ever After).
Cataldi-Tassoni and Baino's artistic collaboration has proven to be a very successful one:Hidden 3D, a stereoscopic movie based on an original story that Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni and Mariano Baino co-wrote, is due out in 2011.
Recently, Coralina was the leading lady in the romantic film Baggage Claim, written by award-winning writer Tim Lucas, and co-written and directed by Golden Globe winner Irene Miracle (Midnight Express).
Coralina lives in New York City.
