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6 GENI SADERO (1886-1961): Fa la nana, bambin’ 2:48 ^ GAETANO ENRICO PENNINO (1859-1918): Pecchè? 2:55 ADD Sung by Tito Schipa Sung by Enrico di Mazzei ITALIAN POPULAR SONGS • 2 Recorded in Milan, 18th December 1929; mat. BM 1346-2, cat. HMV 1088 Recorded 19th December 1928; mat. KI 2061; cat. Odeon 188.624 8.110773 7 EDUARDO DI CAPUA (1864-1917): I’te vurria vasà! 3:42 & ERNESTO TAGLIAFERRI (1889-1937): Piscatore ’e Pusilleco 2:52 Sung by Giuseppe di Stefano Sung by Joseph Schmidt Recorded 15th June 1953; mat. OBA 8395; cat. HMV DA 11347 Recorded 22 April 1932; mat. 133505; cat. Decca 23049 Addio a Napoli • Aprile 8 ARTURO BUZZI-PECCIA (1868-1943): Lolita 3:10 * ERNESTO DE CURTIS (1875-1937): Senza nisciuno 2:53 Sung by Armand Tokatyan Sung by Tito Schipa Stornelli marini • Malia Recorded 25th March 1930; mat. CVE-59724-1; Cat. Victrola 7318 Recorded 22nd April 1932; mat. OM 493-2; cat. HMV DA 1271 9 FRANCESCO PAOLO TOSTI (1846-1916): Malia 3:20 ( SALVATORE GAMBARDELLA (1873-1913): Serenata a Surriento 3:42 and many more Sung by Tito Schipa Sung by Tito Schipa Recorded 15th September 1938; mat. OBA 2741-1; cat. HMV DA 5358 Recorded 27th April 1938; mat. OBA 2473-1; cat. HMV DA 5353 Mario Del Monaco • Giuseppe Di Stefano 0 GIOVANNI D’ANZI (1906-1974): Malinconia d’amore 3:03 ) PIETRO MASCAGNI (1863-1945): Stornelli marini 1:42 Sung by Mario Del Monaco Sung by Beniamino Gigli Beniamino Gigli • Tito Schipa • Aureliano Pertile Recorded 1948; mat. OBA 6648; cat. HMV HN 2378 Recorded in New York, 9th December 1926; mat. BVE-37118-2; cat. Victor 1403
! AUGUSTO ROTOLI (1847-1904): Mia sposa sarà la mia bandiera 3:55 ¡ EVEMERO NARDELLA (1879-1950): Surdate 2:39 Sung by Aureliano Pertile Sung by Tito Schipa Recorded 20th May 1927; mat. Ph 5942-1; Cat. Odeon N 6573 Recorded 27th April 1938; mat. OBA 2471-2; cat. HMV DA 5353
@ PASQUALE MARIO COSTA (1858-1933): Napulitanata (Uocchie de suonno) 3:25 ™ VINCENZO DE CRESCENZO (1875-1964): Tarantella sincera 2:39 Sung by Tito Schipa Sung by Joseph Schmidt Recorded in Camden, 10th September 1928; mat. BVE-27116-5; cat. Victrola 1415 Recorded 15th December 1934; mat. 85249-2; cat. Odeon O-4720
# FRANCESCO PAOLO TOSTI (1846-1916): Non t’amo più 3:25 £ ITALIAN FOLKSONG (arr. MAY-NEUBACH): Tiritomba 2:40 Sung by Aureliano Pertile Sung by Joseph Schmidt Recorded in Milan, 8th November 1928; mat. BF-2457-3; cat. HMV DA 1008 Recorded March 1934; mat. 85243-2; cat. Decca 23035
$ ERNESTO TAGLIAFERRI (1889-1937): Nun me scetà 3:15 ¢ LUIGI DENZA (1846-1922): Vieni 2:26 Sung by Joseph Schmidt Sung by Aureliano Pertile Recorded 22nd April 1932; mat. 133506; cat. Decca 23049 Recorded 23rd May 1927; mat. Pho 5961-1; cat. Fonotopia M 6029
% STEFANO DONAUDY (1879-1925): O bei nidi d’amore 3:31 Sung by Beniamino Gigli Recorded 4th October 1927; mat. BVE-36927-4; cat. Victor 1292
Historical Recordings 1926-1953 8.110773 5 6 8.110773 110773 bk ItalianSongs2 EU 5/16/06 12:26 PM Page 2
Italian Popular Songs • 2 in 1880 on his appointment as singing-teacher to the famously featured and recorded by Gigli and Giuseppe Neapolitan, the poet, and song festival director Ernesto market, which found its first flowering in a succession English Royal Family. Naturalised British in 1906, he Di Stefano. Murolo (1876-1939), most notably the expressly- of musical films, flimsy in storyline and of varying The Italian canzone popolare, or canzonetta, has long 1904), whose Mia sposa sarà la mia bandiera enjoyed was knighted by Edward VII in 1908. A celebrity in his While the song-publishing houses in Italy (Bideri, composed Nun me scetà and his otherwise much- calibre, which starred Lauri-Volpi, Piccaver, Gigli, held its place in the global market. Its clichéd and the distinction of having been sung by Cotogni and own lifetime, as a composer and stylish and influential Poliphon, Ricordi and others) flourished and street- recorded Piscatore ’e Pusilleco (1925), sung here by Tauber and a host of other tenor icons of the period. predominantly Neapolitan overtones of sunshine and Battistini among the baritones, and by Caruso and performer and promoter of his own songs, Tosti enjoyed vendors sold copies of their latest sheet music the Romanian Joseph Schmidt (1904-1942). The romance distinguish the genre from the more formal Pertile among the tenors, the Sicilian Stefano Donaudy a réclame equalled only by Thomas Moore (in the publications (copielle) in large amounts in major Italian Kiepura film signalled the start of a new transatlantic Peter Dempsey aria antica of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, (1879-1925), whose anthology 36 Arie di Stile Antico United States) and Reynaldo Hahn (in Paris). cities and towns, on records the songs were popularised which has now earned the rather more scholarly label of includes the charming O bei nidi d’amore, and Geni Like his contemporary Tosti, the Naples-born on the Fonotipia label by, among others, the Neapolitan bel canto. The selections in this CD programme are Sadero (alias Eugenia Scarpa (1886-1961), an Italian conductor and vocal pedagogue Luigi Denza (1846- tenor Fernando De Lucia (1960-1925). A similarly mostly survivors from the last Golden Age of the folk-song collector, aspiring opera-singer and vocal 1922) was a pupil of Mercadante at the Naples eager market for such music was also found among popular genre, which spanned a century-or-so prior to pedagogue, whose songs, of which the lullaby Fa la Conservatory. He too settled in London where, in 1898, immigrant Italian and Neapolitan populations in the the Piedigrotta and San Remo festivals of the mid- nana, bambin’ is among the best known, were he was appointed a professor of singing at the Royal United States, who rushed out to purchase the latest 1950s. The best known of these have the advantage of popularised by Schipa, Rosa Ponselle, Ferruccio Academy. Denza also inaugurated a noted singing Neapolitan song discs of Caruso, among numerous melodies which, having been re-recorded over several Tagliavini and Tito Gobbi. competition and reputedly penned some 500-600 songs others. decades by famous singers (and, most usually, by By the late nineteenth century the canzonetta’s (including several English drawing-room ballads in the The turn of the twentieth century also saw a tenors), have acquired familiarity and permanence in kindred creation, the melodia or canzone da camera, style of Pinsuti). Nowadays, however, if he is massive increase in the production of Italian song the public memory. Popular Italian songs also had also become fashionable in the salons of Europe remembered at all it is by only two: Occhi di fata and reflecting the spread of new technologies. Songs were traditionally had certain features in common: cast in an and English-speaking countries. A miniaturising of the the now hackneyed Funiculì, funiculà. now tailored to suit various media, first the gramophone impassioned, ballad-style, they called for the sustaining Italian operatic aria, its style evolved principally From the closing decades of the nineteenth century then, soon afterwards, radio, and were often composed Italian Popular Songs • 2 lyric tenor calibre of an Enrico Caruso or a Beniamino through a number of Italian composers who by mid- onwards, the production of the more specific genre of with specific singers in mind. A prime mover in verismo Gigli (1890-1957) in performance, and their viability century had settled in London. These included the Neapolitan song underwent a huge expansion through opera Leoncavallo, one of the first composers to exploit 1 TEODORO COTTRAU (1827-1879): Addio a Napoli 3:01 was further aided by a duration tailored to suit a three Neapolitan Michael (Michele) Costa (1806-1884) and the work of several acclaimed exponents of local origin the commercial possibilities of the gramophone, in 1904 Sung by Mario del Monaco or four-minute recording, although many were long- the Tuscan Ciro Pinsuti (1829-1888), a one-time pupil whose fame, in several instances, would later spread to accompanied Caruso in the creator recording of his Recorded ca. 1953; mat. IDR 771; cat. London P 18212 established favourites well before the advent of that of Rossini and noted vocal coach who taught for many America. Prolific among its major exponents were: Mattinata, that most time-honoured and durable of medium. years at the London Royal Academy. The Pasquale Mario Costa (1858-1933), whose canzonette, which he dedicated ‘to the Gramophone & 2 FRANCESCO PAOLO TOSTI (1846-1916): Aprile 4:01 Chronologically, the oldest song in the anthology is acknowledged master of the genre, however, was collaborators included the renowned local poet and Typewriter Company’. Another seminal verismo figure, Sung by Beniamino Gigli Addio a Napoli. Famously recorded by Caruso (in Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846-1916), well represented folk-song researcher Salvatore Di Giacomo (1860- Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) also wrote a number of Recorded in London, 12th May 1939; mat. 2EA 7902-2; cat. HMV DB 3815 1919) it is the work of the Neapolitan Teodoro Cottrau here by the affecting Aprile (Milan, 1882) and two of 1934); Eduardo Di Capua (1864-1917), whose popular songs, including Stornelli marini, which dates (1827-79), the composer of Santa Lucia (1850). First the most affecting examples from his London period, I’ te vurria vasà (1900), with lyrics by fellow- from 1906. 3 COLOMBINO ARONA (1885-?): La campana di San Giusto 4:14 published in Naples in 1868, like its more famous Non t’amo più (1884), sung by the Venetian Aureliano Neapolitan Vincenzo Russo (1876-1904), capitalised on By the early 1930s the new boom-industries of Sung by Tito Schipa precursor, it was among the first popular Italian Pertile (1885- 1952) and Malia (1887), one of several his 1898 success ’O sole mio; Salvatore Gambardella radio and the film-musical had given rise to a seemingly Recorded in Camden, 8th September 1926; mat. CVE-35858-2; cat. Victor 6629 productions to reach an American audience (in the early samples by the Lecce-born doyen of lirico-leggero (1873-1913), whose Serenata a Surriento (1907) has inexhaustible ‘production-line’ in canzoni popolari. In 1870s). These songs were prototypes for the wider tenors, Tito Schipa (1889-1965). lyrics by the noted poetaster Aniello Califano (1870- Italy, via the air-waves, the Florentine Carlo Buti 4 RODOLFO FALVO (1874-1937) Dicitencello vuje 3:34 range of canzonette which from the early twentieth Born at Ortona on the Adriatic, Tosti had first 1919); Evemero Nardella (1879-1950), whose best- christened dozens of new – and mostly ephemeral – Sung by Giuseppe di Stefano century were promoted in concert and assigned to disc studied violin at San Pietro in Naples, but later made a known song, Surdate, dates from 1909; Ernesto De titles each month, while in the cinema, beginning in Recorded 24th April 1953; mat. OBA 8337; cat. HMV DA 2047 by famous singers as varied as Caruso, McCormack, name as a pianist and as a tenor. Appointed a maestrino Curtis, whose song-hits, both from 1915, Tu, ca nun 1930 with the Polish Jan Kiepura’s Napoli, città Mario Lanza and the Bulgarian-born Armand Tokatyan (pupil-teacher) at the college by his tutor Mercadante, chiagne, with lyrics by Libero Bovio (1883- ?), canora, a welter of Neapolitan and Neapolitan-style 5 ERNESTO DE CURTIS (1875-1937): Tu, ca nun chiagne! 2:54 (1894-1960). One such is Lolita, by Arturo Buzzi- he was soon playing and singing in Neapolitan salons sometime director of the Naples-based publishing firm material was soon laid before an altogether more global Sung by Alessandro Valente Peccia (1868-1943) a one-time Metropolitan Opera and by 1870, through contacts secured via his pianist- of La Canzonetta, and Senza nisciuno were first audience. Otherwise titled City Of Song, the soundtrack Recorded ca. 1932; mat. TB 1111; cat. Decca F 3871 coach who spent many years in America. Other writers composer friend Sgambati, had become the darling of recorded and popularised by Caruso) and Rodolfo Falvo of this pioneering sound-on-film musical offered of previously famous, but now virtually forgotten Roman artistic circles. Singing-master to the Queen of (1874-1937), dubbed ‘Il Mascagnino’ (the miniature various numbers composed expressly by the Neapolitan examples in the genre include Augusto Rotoli (1847- Italy, Tosti first visited London in 1875, settling there Mascagni), whose Dicitencello vuie (1930) was Ernesto Tagliaferri (1889-1937) with his fellow-
8.110773 2 3 8.110773 4 8.110773 110773 bk ItalianSongs2 EU 5/16/06 12:26 PM Page 2
Italian Popular Songs • 2 in 1880 on his appointment as singing-teacher to the famously featured and recorded by Gigli and Giuseppe Neapolitan, the poet, and song festival director Ernesto market, which found its first flowering in a succession English Royal Family. Naturalised British in 1906, he Di Stefano. Murolo (1876-1939), most notably the expressly- of musical films, flimsy in storyline and of varying The Italian canzone popolare, or canzonetta, has long 1904), whose Mia sposa sarà la mia bandiera enjoyed was knighted by Edward VII in 1908. A celebrity in his While the song-publishing houses in Italy (Bideri, composed Nun me scetà and his otherwise much- calibre, which starred Lauri-Volpi, Piccaver, Gigli, held its place in the global market. Its clichéd and the distinction of having been sung by Cotogni and own lifetime, as a composer and stylish and influential Poliphon, Ricordi and others) flourished and street- recorded Piscatore ’e Pusilleco (1925), sung here by Tauber and a host of other tenor icons of the period. predominantly Neapolitan overtones of sunshine and Battistini among the baritones, and by Caruso and performer and promoter of his own songs, Tosti enjoyed vendors sold copies of their latest sheet music the Romanian Joseph Schmidt (1904-1942). The romance distinguish the genre from the more formal Pertile among the tenors, the Sicilian Stefano Donaudy a réclame equalled only by Thomas Moore (in the publications (copielle) in large amounts in major Italian Kiepura film signalled the start of a new transatlantic Peter Dempsey aria antica of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, (1879-1925), whose anthology 36 Arie di Stile Antico United States) and Reynaldo Hahn (in Paris). cities and towns, on records the songs were popularised which has now earned the rather more scholarly label of includes the charming O bei nidi d’amore, and Geni Like his contemporary Tosti, the Naples-born on the Fonotipia label by, among others, the Neapolitan bel canto. The selections in this CD programme are Sadero (alias Eugenia Scarpa (1886-1961), an Italian conductor and vocal pedagogue Luigi Denza (1846- tenor Fernando De Lucia (1960-1925). A similarly mostly survivors from the last Golden Age of the folk-song collector, aspiring opera-singer and vocal 1922) was a pupil of Mercadante at the Naples eager market for such music was also found among popular genre, which spanned a century-or-so prior to pedagogue, whose songs, of which the lullaby Fa la Conservatory. He too settled in London where, in 1898, immigrant Italian and Neapolitan populations in the the Piedigrotta and San Remo festivals of the mid- nana, bambin’ is among the best known, were he was appointed a professor of singing at the Royal United States, who rushed out to purchase the latest 1950s. The best known of these have the advantage of popularised by Schipa, Rosa Ponselle, Ferruccio Academy. Denza also inaugurated a noted singing Neapolitan song discs of Caruso, among numerous melodies which, having been re-recorded over several Tagliavini and Tito Gobbi. competition and reputedly penned some 500-600 songs others. decades by famous singers (and, most usually, by By the late nineteenth century the canzonetta’s (including several English drawing-room ballads in the The turn of the twentieth century also saw a tenors), have acquired familiarity and permanence in kindred creation, the melodia or canzone da camera, style of Pinsuti). Nowadays, however, if he is massive increase in the production of Italian song the public memory. Popular Italian songs also had also become fashionable in the salons of Europe remembered at all it is by only two: Occhi di fata and reflecting the spread of new technologies. Songs were traditionally had certain features in common: cast in an and English-speaking countries. A miniaturising of the the now hackneyed Funiculì, funiculà. now tailored to suit various media, first the gramophone impassioned, ballad-style, they called for the sustaining Italian operatic aria, its style evolved principally From the closing decades of the nineteenth century then, soon afterwards, radio, and were often composed Italian Popular Songs • 2 lyric tenor calibre of an Enrico Caruso or a Beniamino through a number of Italian composers who by mid- onwards, the production of the more specific genre of with specific singers in mind. A prime mover in verismo Gigli (1890-1957) in performance, and their viability century had settled in London. These included the Neapolitan song underwent a huge expansion through opera Leoncavallo, one of the first composers to exploit 1 TEODORO COTTRAU (1827-1879): Addio a Napoli 3:01 was further aided by a duration tailored to suit a three Neapolitan Michael (Michele) Costa (1806-1884) and the work of several acclaimed exponents of local origin the commercial possibilities of the gramophone, in 1904 Sung by Mario del Monaco or four-minute recording, although many were long- the Tuscan Ciro Pinsuti (1829-1888), a one-time pupil whose fame, in several instances, would later spread to accompanied Caruso in the creator recording of his Recorded ca. 1953; mat. IDR 771; cat. London P 18212 established favourites well before the advent of that of Rossini and noted vocal coach who taught for many America. Prolific among its major exponents were: Mattinata, that most time-honoured and durable of medium. years at the London Royal Academy. The Pasquale Mario Costa (1858-1933), whose canzonette, which he dedicated ‘to the Gramophone & 2 FRANCESCO PAOLO TOSTI (1846-1916): Aprile 4:01 Chronologically, the oldest song in the anthology is acknowledged master of the genre, however, was collaborators included the renowned local poet and Typewriter Company’. Another seminal verismo figure, Sung by Beniamino Gigli Addio a Napoli. Famously recorded by Caruso (in Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846-1916), well represented folk-song researcher Salvatore Di Giacomo (1860- Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) also wrote a number of Recorded in London, 12th May 1939; mat. 2EA 7902-2; cat. HMV DB 3815 1919) it is the work of the Neapolitan Teodoro Cottrau here by the affecting Aprile (Milan, 1882) and two of 1934); Eduardo Di Capua (1864-1917), whose popular songs, including Stornelli marini, which dates (1827-79), the composer of Santa Lucia (1850). First the most affecting examples from his London period, I’ te vurria vasà (1900), with lyrics by fellow- from 1906. 3 COLOMBINO ARONA (1885-?): La campana di San Giusto 4:14 published in Naples in 1868, like its more famous Non t’amo più (1884), sung by the Venetian Aureliano Neapolitan Vincenzo Russo (1876-1904), capitalised on By the early 1930s the new boom-industries of Sung by Tito Schipa precursor, it was among the first popular Italian Pertile (1885- 1952) and Malia (1887), one of several his 1898 success ’O sole mio; Salvatore Gambardella radio and the film-musical had given rise to a seemingly Recorded in Camden, 8th September 1926; mat. CVE-35858-2; cat. Victor 6629 productions to reach an American audience (in the early samples by the Lecce-born doyen of lirico-leggero (1873-1913), whose Serenata a Surriento (1907) has inexhaustible ‘production-line’ in canzoni popolari. In 1870s). These songs were prototypes for the wider tenors, Tito Schipa (1889-1965). lyrics by the noted poetaster Aniello Califano (1870- Italy, via the air-waves, the Florentine Carlo Buti 4 RODOLFO FALVO (1874-1937) Dicitencello vuje 3:34 range of canzonette which from the early twentieth Born at Ortona on the Adriatic, Tosti had first 1919); Evemero Nardella (1879-1950), whose best- christened dozens of new – and mostly ephemeral – Sung by Giuseppe di Stefano century were promoted in concert and assigned to disc studied violin at San Pietro in Naples, but later made a known song, Surdate, dates from 1909; Ernesto De titles each month, while in the cinema, beginning in Recorded 24th April 1953; mat. OBA 8337; cat. HMV DA 2047 by famous singers as varied as Caruso, McCormack, name as a pianist and as a tenor. Appointed a maestrino Curtis, whose song-hits, both from 1915, Tu, ca nun 1930 with the Polish Jan Kiepura’s Napoli, città Mario Lanza and the Bulgarian-born Armand Tokatyan (pupil-teacher) at the college by his tutor Mercadante, chiagne, with lyrics by Libero Bovio (1883- ?), canora, a welter of Neapolitan and Neapolitan-style 5 ERNESTO DE CURTIS (1875-1937): Tu, ca nun chiagne! 2:54 (1894-1960). One such is Lolita, by Arturo Buzzi- he was soon playing and singing in Neapolitan salons sometime director of the Naples-based publishing firm material was soon laid before an altogether more global Sung by Alessandro Valente Peccia (1868-1943) a one-time Metropolitan Opera and by 1870, through contacts secured via his pianist- of La Canzonetta, and Senza nisciuno were first audience. Otherwise titled City Of Song, the soundtrack Recorded ca. 1932; mat. TB 1111; cat. Decca F 3871 coach who spent many years in America. Other writers composer friend Sgambati, had become the darling of recorded and popularised by Caruso) and Rodolfo Falvo of this pioneering sound-on-film musical offered of previously famous, but now virtually forgotten Roman artistic circles. Singing-master to the Queen of (1874-1937), dubbed ‘Il Mascagnino’ (the miniature various numbers composed expressly by the Neapolitan examples in the genre include Augusto Rotoli (1847- Italy, Tosti first visited London in 1875, settling there Mascagni), whose Dicitencello vuie (1930) was Ernesto Tagliaferri (1889-1937) with his fellow-
8.110773 2 3 8.110773 4 8.110773 110773 bk ItalianSongs2 EU 5/16/06 12:26 PM Page 2
Italian Popular Songs • 2 in 1880 on his appointment as singing-teacher to the famously featured and recorded by Gigli and Giuseppe Neapolitan, the poet, and song festival director Ernesto market, which found its first flowering in a succession English Royal Family. Naturalised British in 1906, he Di Stefano. Murolo (1876-1939), most notably the expressly- of musical films, flimsy in storyline and of varying The Italian canzone popolare, or canzonetta, has long 1904), whose Mia sposa sarà la mia bandiera enjoyed was knighted by Edward VII in 1908. A celebrity in his While the song-publishing houses in Italy (Bideri, composed Nun me scetà and his otherwise much- calibre, which starred Lauri-Volpi, Piccaver, Gigli, held its place in the global market. Its clichéd and the distinction of having been sung by Cotogni and own lifetime, as a composer and stylish and influential Poliphon, Ricordi and others) flourished and street- recorded Piscatore ’e Pusilleco (1925), sung here by Tauber and a host of other tenor icons of the period. predominantly Neapolitan overtones of sunshine and Battistini among the baritones, and by Caruso and performer and promoter of his own songs, Tosti enjoyed vendors sold copies of their latest sheet music the Romanian Joseph Schmidt (1904-1942). The romance distinguish the genre from the more formal Pertile among the tenors, the Sicilian Stefano Donaudy a réclame equalled only by Thomas Moore (in the publications (copielle) in large amounts in major Italian Kiepura film signalled the start of a new transatlantic Peter Dempsey aria antica of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, (1879-1925), whose anthology 36 Arie di Stile Antico United States) and Reynaldo Hahn (in Paris). cities and towns, on records the songs were popularised which has now earned the rather more scholarly label of includes the charming O bei nidi d’amore, and Geni Like his contemporary Tosti, the Naples-born on the Fonotipia label by, among others, the Neapolitan bel canto. The selections in this CD programme are Sadero (alias Eugenia Scarpa (1886-1961), an Italian conductor and vocal pedagogue Luigi Denza (1846- tenor Fernando De Lucia (1960-1925). A similarly mostly survivors from the last Golden Age of the folk-song collector, aspiring opera-singer and vocal 1922) was a pupil of Mercadante at the Naples eager market for such music was also found among popular genre, which spanned a century-or-so prior to pedagogue, whose songs, of which the lullaby Fa la Conservatory. He too settled in London where, in 1898, immigrant Italian and Neapolitan populations in the the Piedigrotta and San Remo festivals of the mid- nana, bambin’ is among the best known, were he was appointed a professor of singing at the Royal United States, who rushed out to purchase the latest 1950s. The best known of these have the advantage of popularised by Schipa, Rosa Ponselle, Ferruccio Academy. Denza also inaugurated a noted singing Neapolitan song discs of Caruso, among numerous melodies which, having been re-recorded over several Tagliavini and Tito Gobbi. competition and reputedly penned some 500-600 songs others. decades by famous singers (and, most usually, by By the late nineteenth century the canzonetta’s (including several English drawing-room ballads in the The turn of the twentieth century also saw a tenors), have acquired familiarity and permanence in kindred creation, the melodia or canzone da camera, style of Pinsuti). Nowadays, however, if he is massive increase in the production of Italian song the public memory. Popular Italian songs also had also become fashionable in the salons of Europe remembered at all it is by only two: Occhi di fata and reflecting the spread of new technologies. Songs were traditionally had certain features in common: cast in an and English-speaking countries. A miniaturising of the the now hackneyed Funiculì, funiculà. now tailored to suit various media, first the gramophone impassioned, ballad-style, they called for the sustaining Italian operatic aria, its style evolved principally From the closing decades of the nineteenth century then, soon afterwards, radio, and were often composed Italian Popular Songs • 2 lyric tenor calibre of an Enrico Caruso or a Beniamino through a number of Italian composers who by mid- onwards, the production of the more specific genre of with specific singers in mind. A prime mover in verismo Gigli (1890-1957) in performance, and their viability century had settled in London. These included the Neapolitan song underwent a huge expansion through opera Leoncavallo, one of the first composers to exploit 1 TEODORO COTTRAU (1827-1879): Addio a Napoli 3:01 was further aided by a duration tailored to suit a three Neapolitan Michael (Michele) Costa (1806-1884) and the work of several acclaimed exponents of local origin the commercial possibilities of the gramophone, in 1904 Sung by Mario del Monaco or four-minute recording, although many were long- the Tuscan Ciro Pinsuti (1829-1888), a one-time pupil whose fame, in several instances, would later spread to accompanied Caruso in the creator recording of his Recorded ca. 1953; mat. IDR 771; cat. London P 18212 established favourites well before the advent of that of Rossini and noted vocal coach who taught for many America. Prolific among its major exponents were: Mattinata, that most time-honoured and durable of medium. years at the London Royal Academy. The Pasquale Mario Costa (1858-1933), whose canzonette, which he dedicated ‘to the Gramophone & 2 FRANCESCO PAOLO TOSTI (1846-1916): Aprile 4:01 Chronologically, the oldest song in the anthology is acknowledged master of the genre, however, was collaborators included the renowned local poet and Typewriter Company’. Another seminal verismo figure, Sung by Beniamino Gigli Addio a Napoli. Famously recorded by Caruso (in Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846-1916), well represented folk-song researcher Salvatore Di Giacomo (1860- Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) also wrote a number of Recorded in London, 12th May 1939; mat. 2EA 7902-2; cat. HMV DB 3815 1919) it is the work of the Neapolitan Teodoro Cottrau here by the affecting Aprile (Milan, 1882) and two of 1934); Eduardo Di Capua (1864-1917), whose popular songs, including Stornelli marini, which dates (1827-79), the composer of Santa Lucia (1850). First the most affecting examples from his London period, I’ te vurria vasà (1900), with lyrics by fellow- from 1906. 3 COLOMBINO ARONA (1885-?): La campana di San Giusto 4:14 published in Naples in 1868, like its more famous Non t’amo più (1884), sung by the Venetian Aureliano Neapolitan Vincenzo Russo (1876-1904), capitalised on By the early 1930s the new boom-industries of Sung by Tito Schipa precursor, it was among the first popular Italian Pertile (1885- 1952) and Malia (1887), one of several his 1898 success ’O sole mio; Salvatore Gambardella radio and the film-musical had given rise to a seemingly Recorded in Camden, 8th September 1926; mat. CVE-35858-2; cat. Victor 6629 productions to reach an American audience (in the early samples by the Lecce-born doyen of lirico-leggero (1873-1913), whose Serenata a Surriento (1907) has inexhaustible ‘production-line’ in canzoni popolari. In 1870s). These songs were prototypes for the wider tenors, Tito Schipa (1889-1965). lyrics by the noted poetaster Aniello Califano (1870- Italy, via the air-waves, the Florentine Carlo Buti 4 RODOLFO FALVO (1874-1937) Dicitencello vuje 3:34 range of canzonette which from the early twentieth Born at Ortona on the Adriatic, Tosti had first 1919); Evemero Nardella (1879-1950), whose best- christened dozens of new – and mostly ephemeral – Sung by Giuseppe di Stefano century were promoted in concert and assigned to disc studied violin at San Pietro in Naples, but later made a known song, Surdate, dates from 1909; Ernesto De titles each month, while in the cinema, beginning in Recorded 24th April 1953; mat. OBA 8337; cat. HMV DA 2047 by famous singers as varied as Caruso, McCormack, name as a pianist and as a tenor. Appointed a maestrino Curtis, whose song-hits, both from 1915, Tu, ca nun 1930 with the Polish Jan Kiepura’s Napoli, città Mario Lanza and the Bulgarian-born Armand Tokatyan (pupil-teacher) at the college by his tutor Mercadante, chiagne, with lyrics by Libero Bovio (1883- ?), canora, a welter of Neapolitan and Neapolitan-style 5 ERNESTO DE CURTIS (1875-1937): Tu, ca nun chiagne! 2:54 (1894-1960). One such is Lolita, by Arturo Buzzi- he was soon playing and singing in Neapolitan salons sometime director of the Naples-based publishing firm material was soon laid before an altogether more global Sung by Alessandro Valente Peccia (1868-1943) a one-time Metropolitan Opera and by 1870, through contacts secured via his pianist- of La Canzonetta, and Senza nisciuno were first audience. Otherwise titled City Of Song, the soundtrack Recorded ca. 1932; mat. TB 1111; cat. Decca F 3871 coach who spent many years in America. Other writers composer friend Sgambati, had become the darling of recorded and popularised by Caruso) and Rodolfo Falvo of this pioneering sound-on-film musical offered of previously famous, but now virtually forgotten Roman artistic circles. Singing-master to the Queen of (1874-1937), dubbed ‘Il Mascagnino’ (the miniature various numbers composed expressly by the Neapolitan examples in the genre include Augusto Rotoli (1847- Italy, Tosti first visited London in 1875, settling there Mascagni), whose Dicitencello vuie (1930) was Ernesto Tagliaferri (1889-1937) with his fellow-
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6 GENI SADERO (1886-1961): Fa la nana, bambin’ 2:48 ^ GAETANO ENRICO PENNINO (1859-1918): Pecchè? 2:55 ADD Sung by Tito Schipa Sung by Enrico di Mazzei ITALIAN POPULAR SONGS • 2 Recorded in Milan, 18th December 1929; mat. BM 1346-2, cat. HMV 1088 Recorded 19th December 1928; mat. KI 2061; cat. Odeon 188.624 8.110773 7 EDUARDO DI CAPUA (1864-1917): I’te vurria vasà! 3:42 & ERNESTO TAGLIAFERRI (1889-1937): Piscatore ’e Pusilleco 2:52 Sung by Giuseppe di Stefano Sung by Joseph Schmidt Recorded 15th June 1953; mat. OBA 8395; cat. HMV DA 11347 Recorded 22 April 1932; mat. 133505; cat. Decca 23049 Addio a Napoli • Aprile 8 ARTURO BUZZI-PECCIA (1868-1943): Lolita 3:10 * ERNESTO DE CURTIS (1875-1937): Senza nisciuno 2:53 Sung by Armand Tokatyan Sung by Tito Schipa Stornelli marini • Malia Recorded 25th March 1930; mat. CVE-59724-1; Cat. Victrola 7318 Recorded 22nd April 1932; mat. OM 493-2; cat. HMV DA 1271 9 FRANCESCO PAOLO TOSTI (1846-1916): Malia 3:20 ( SALVATORE GAMBARDELLA (1873-1913): Serenata a Surriento 3:42 and many more Sung by Tito Schipa Sung by Tito Schipa Recorded 15th September 1938; mat. OBA 2741-1; cat. HMV DA 5358 Recorded 27th April 1938; mat. OBA 2473-1; cat. HMV DA 5353 Mario Del Monaco • Giuseppe Di Stefano 0 GIOVANNI D’ANZI (1906-1974): Malinconia d’amore 3:03 ) PIETRO MASCAGNI (1863-1945): Stornelli marini 1:42 Sung by Mario Del Monaco Sung by Beniamino Gigli Beniamino Gigli • Tito Schipa • Aureliano Pertile Recorded 1948; mat. OBA 6648; cat. HMV HN 2378 Recorded in New York, 9th December 1926; mat. BVE-37118-2; cat. Victor 1403
! AUGUSTO ROTOLI (1847-1904): Mia sposa sarà la mia bandiera 3:55 ¡ EVEMERO NARDELLA (1879-1950): Surdate 2:39 Sung by Aureliano Pertile Sung by Tito Schipa Recorded 20th May 1927; mat. Ph 5942-1; Cat. Odeon N 6573 Recorded 27th April 1938; mat. OBA 2471-2; cat. HMV DA 5353
@ PASQUALE MARIO COSTA (1858-1933): Napulitanata (Uocchie de suonno) 3:25 ™ VINCENZO DE CRESCENZO (1875-1964): Tarantella sincera 2:39 Sung by Tito Schipa Sung by Joseph Schmidt Recorded in Camden, 10th September 1928; mat. BVE-27116-5; cat. Victrola 1415 Recorded 15th December 1934; mat. 85249-2; cat. Odeon O-4720
# FRANCESCO PAOLO TOSTI (1846-1916): Non t’amo più 3:25 £ ITALIAN FOLKSONG (arr. MAY-NEUBACH): Tiritomba 2:40 Sung by Aureliano Pertile Sung by Joseph Schmidt Recorded in Milan, 8th November 1928; mat. BF-2457-3; cat. HMV DA 1008 Recorded March 1934; mat. 85243-2; cat. Decca 23035
$ ERNESTO TAGLIAFERRI (1889-1937): Nun me scetà 3:15 ¢ LUIGI DENZA (1846-1922): Vieni 2:26 Sung by Joseph Schmidt Sung by Aureliano Pertile Recorded 22nd April 1932; mat. 133506; cat. Decca 23049 Recorded 23rd May 1927; mat. Pho 5961-1; cat. Fonotopia M 6029
% STEFANO DONAUDY (1879-1925): O bei nidi d’amore 3:31 Sung by Beniamino Gigli Recorded 4th October 1927; mat. BVE-36927-4; cat. Victor 1292
Historical Recordings 1926-1953 8.110773 5 6 8.110773 110773 bk ItalianSongs2 EU 5/16/06 12:26 PM Page 5
6 GENI SADERO (1886-1961): Fa la nana, bambin’ 2:48 ^ GAETANO ENRICO PENNINO (1859-1918): Pecchè? 2:55 ADD Sung by Tito Schipa Sung by Enrico di Mazzei ITALIAN POPULAR SONGS • 2 Recorded in Milan, 18th December 1929; mat. BM 1346-2, cat. HMV 1088 Recorded 19th December 1928; mat. KI 2061; cat. Odeon 188.624 8.110773 7 EDUARDO DI CAPUA (1864-1917): I’te vurria vasà! 3:42 & ERNESTO TAGLIAFERRI (1889-1937): Piscatore ’e Pusilleco 2:52 Sung by Giuseppe di Stefano Sung by Joseph Schmidt Recorded 15th June 1953; mat. OBA 8395; cat. HMV DA 11347 Recorded 22 April 1932; mat. 133505; cat. Decca 23049 Addio a Napoli • Aprile 8 ARTURO BUZZI-PECCIA (1868-1943): Lolita 3:10 * ERNESTO DE CURTIS (1875-1937): Senza nisciuno 2:53 Sung by Armand Tokatyan Sung by Tito Schipa Stornelli marini • Malia Recorded 25th March 1930; mat. CVE-59724-1; Cat. Victrola 7318 Recorded 22nd April 1932; mat. OM 493-2; cat. HMV DA 1271 9 FRANCESCO PAOLO TOSTI (1846-1916): Malia 3:20 ( SALVATORE GAMBARDELLA (1873-1913): Serenata a Surriento 3:42 and many more Sung by Tito Schipa Sung by Tito Schipa Recorded 15th September 1938; mat. OBA 2741-1; cat. HMV DA 5358 Recorded 27th April 1938; mat. OBA 2473-1; cat. HMV DA 5353 Mario Del Monaco • Giuseppe Di Stefano 0 GIOVANNI D’ANZI (1906-1974): Malinconia d’amore 3:03 ) PIETRO MASCAGNI (1863-1945): Stornelli marini 1:42 Sung by Mario Del Monaco Sung by Beniamino Gigli Beniamino Gigli • Tito Schipa • Aureliano Pertile Recorded 1948; mat. OBA 6648; cat. HMV HN 2378 Recorded in New York, 9th December 1926; mat. BVE-37118-2; cat. Victor 1403
! AUGUSTO ROTOLI (1847-1904): Mia sposa sarà la mia bandiera 3:55 ¡ EVEMERO NARDELLA (1879-1950): Surdate 2:39 Sung by Aureliano Pertile Sung by Tito Schipa Recorded 20th May 1927; mat. Ph 5942-1; Cat. Odeon N 6573 Recorded 27th April 1938; mat. OBA 2471-2; cat. HMV DA 5353
@ PASQUALE MARIO COSTA (1858-1933): Napulitanata (Uocchie de suonno) 3:25 ™ VINCENZO DE CRESCENZO (1875-1964): Tarantella sincera 2:39 Sung by Tito Schipa Sung by Joseph Schmidt Recorded in Camden, 10th September 1928; mat. BVE-27116-5; cat. Victrola 1415 Recorded 15th December 1934; mat. 85249-2; cat. Odeon O-4720
# FRANCESCO PAOLO TOSTI (1846-1916): Non t’amo più 3:25 £ ITALIAN FOLKSONG (arr. MAY-NEUBACH): Tiritomba 2:40 Sung by Aureliano Pertile Sung by Joseph Schmidt Recorded in Milan, 8th November 1928; mat. BF-2457-3; cat. HMV DA 1008 Recorded March 1934; mat. 85243-2; cat. Decca 23035
$ ERNESTO TAGLIAFERRI (1889-1937): Nun me scetà 3:15 ¢ LUIGI DENZA (1846-1922): Vieni 2:26 Sung by Joseph Schmidt Sung by Aureliano Pertile Recorded 22nd April 1932; mat. 133506; cat. Decca 23049 Recorded 23rd May 1927; mat. Pho 5961-1; cat. Fonotopia M 6029
% STEFANO DONAUDY (1879-1925): O bei nidi d’amore 3:31 Sung by Beniamino Gigli Recorded 4th October 1927; mat. BVE-36927-4; cat. Victor 1292
Historical Recordings 1926-1953 8.110773 5 6 8.110773 CMYK NAXOS Historical 8.110773 ITALIAN POPULAR SONGS • 2 Playing Mario Del Monaco 1 • Beniamino Gigli 2 • Tito Schipa 3 Time ADD 4 5 broadcasting and copying of this compact disc prohibited. translations reserved. Unauthorised public performance, All rights in this sound recording, artwork, texts and Giuseppe Di Stefano • Alessandro Valente 75:47 8.110773 6 7 & Armand Tokatyan • Aureliano Pertile Joseph Schmidt 8 • Enrico di Mazzei 9 2006 Naxos Rights International Ltd. 1 TEODORO COTTRAU: Addio a Napoli 1 3:01 & ERNESTO TAGLIAFERRI: 2 FRANCESCO PAOLO TOSTI: Aprile 2 4:01 Piscatore ’e Pusilleco 8 2:52 3 COLOMBINO ARONA: * ERNESTO DE CURTIS: Senza nisciuno 3 2:53 La campana di San Giusto 3 4:14 ( SALVATORE GAMBARDELLA: 4 RODOLFO FALVO: Dicitencello vuie 4 3:34 Serenata a Surriento 3 3:42 5 ) ERNESTO DE CURTIS: PIETRO MASCAGNI: ITALIAN POPULAR SONGS • 2 Tu, ca nun chiagne 5 2:54 Stornelli marini 2 1:42 6 GENI SADERO: ¡ EVEMERO NARDELLA: Surdate 3 2:39 Fa la nana, bambin’ 3 2:48 ™ VINCENZO DE CRESCENZO: 7 EDUARDO DI CAPUA: Tarantella sincera 8 2:39 I’ te vurria vasà! 4 3:42 £ ITALIAN FOLK SONG: Tiritomba 8 2:40 8 ARTURO BUZZI-PECCIA: Lolita 6 3:10 ¢ LUIGI DENZA: Vieni 7 2:26 9 FRANCESCO PAOLO TOSTI: Malia 3 3:20 0 GIOVANNI D’ANZI: With its predominantly Neapolitan overtones of Malinconia d’amore 1 3:03 sunshine and romance, the Italian canzone popolare, ! AUGUSTO ROTOLI: or canzonetta, has long held its place in the global Mia sposa sarà la mia bandiera 7 3:55 market. The selections on this disc are mostly @ PASQUALE MARIO COSTA: survivors from the last Golden Age of this popular Napulitanata (Uocchie de suonno) 3 3:25 genre, which spanned a period of about one hundred
ITALIAN POPULAR SONGS • 2 ITALIAN # FRANCESCO PAOLO TOSTI: years prior to the Piedigrotta and San Remo festivals Non t’amo più 7 3:25 of the mid-1950s. The best known, such as Cottrau’s $ ERNESTO TAGLIAFERRI: Addio a Napoli, Tosti’s Non t’amo più and Mascagni’s Nun me scetà 8 3:15 Stornelli marini have been recorded over several % STEFANO DONAUDY: decades by famous singers as varied as Caruso, MADE IN O bei nidi d’amore 2 3:31 McCormack, Mario Lanza and the Bulgarian-born THE EU ^ GAETANO ENRICO PENNINO: Armand Tokatyan. Volume 1 of Italian Popular Songs Pecchè? 9 2:55 is available on Naxos 8.110768.
Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Ward Marston 8.110773 Co-producer Lawrence F. Holdridge • Thanks to Paolo Zeccara and John Bolig www.naxos.com A complete track list can be found in the booklet Cover image: Travelling barrel organ players at Piedigrotta NAXOS HistoricalNAXOS (Giovanni Panza, 1930, Private Collection)