We’re aware that an earlier post on this blog caused confusion, and we’re sorry for that. It wasn’t as clear as it should have been. We’d like to set things out plainly here, and we hope the following makes the matter easier to understand.
Over the past twenty years there have been claims that Caterina Valente didn’t think her son Eric had any talent as a performer. After her death, her former manager went further still, stating that Eric had no talent whatsoever. That isn’t what she said, and it isn’t how she treated him. We’d like to set out what she actually said — and, just as importantly, what she actually did.
First, what she said. Two sources show it, and they should be looked at together, because each tells part of the story.
The Dutch television interview (early 1980s). In this interview, Caterina Valente talks about Eric directly. She says he is talented and that she could see him working in musicals. She also explains the practical side: at the time, Eric held a day job in an office and did his performances separately. After a first recording contract that didn’t go well, that was the sensible arrangement — a steady job, with performing alongside it.
The German magazine. This article confirms the same thing she said on Dutch television. So the two sources don’t contradict each other, and neither of them contradicts Eric. One is a Dutch TV interview; the other is a German magazine. They’re two different sources saying the same thing.
And what she did: the recordings they made together. Her words are only part of it; her choices say the same thing. Caterina Valente chose to perform and record with Eric more than once. She recorded a duet with him for one of her own releases. Later, she sang a duet with him on his solo record, on the song “Letters That Cross in the Mail” — the same song she performed alongside him on her last television appearance as a singer. And together with her brother Silvio, she accompanied Eric on “If I Had Rhythm in My Nursery Rhymes.” A performer of her standing does not repeatedly share a record and a stage with someone she believes has no talent. These collaborations are proof enough that she regarded her son as a colleague.
That’s the correction. Neither the press version nor her former manager’s claim matches what she said on the record or what she chose to do.
In the meantime, Eric van Aro has built a satisfying career of his own — both as a soloist and as part of a number of different musical projects.
The interview also touches on two projects that clearly meant a great deal to her, and neither came to be.
One was a performing-arts school. We’ll cover that in a separate post, as it’s a story of its own.
The other was a television special with Mel Tormé and Michel Legrand. Nick Vanoff had wanted to produce it, but he passed away before it could happen.
Both were things she hoped for, and both fell through for reasons that had nothing to do with her.