AMHS PROGRAM ON SEPTEMBER 27, 2015: LOVE THAT NEAPOLITAN MUSIC & FOOD!!
The 5th AMHS program of the year gave us a glimpse of the beautiful songs and wonderful food of Naples. At the program on September 27, 2015, we showed the film “Cuore Napoletano” (Neapolitan Heart) which traces the origin of the classic Neapolitan songs.
The film, which showed archival footage and featured interviews with some of those famous singers, was in Italian with English subtitles, with some Neapolitan dialect thrown in. Paolo Santoni directed the film, made in 2002, about this cherished regional music. I first saw the film when it came out and I liked it so much, it inspired me to go to Naples for the first time. But the movie was not readily available here so Kirsten Keppel tracked down a copy.
More recently, Lucio D’Andrea and Maria D’Andrea looked at the movie and agreed that yes, our members would enjoy seeing it too. In the film, the director creatively weaves in vintage newsreel and movie clips with interviews and performances from surviving practitioners of the Neapolitan songs which passionately tell of “the truth of everyday life.” In the movie, one of the singers explains, “To sing Neapolitan songs, first of all, you need heart.
Then a brain, then a voice and—balls.” The singers ranged from Jerry Vale in the U.S., whose songs were used in the Martin Scorsese movies “Goodfellas” and “Casino” to Peppe Barra, whose emotional rendition of the antiwar classic “Tammurata nera” brings a dramatic close to the movie. Of course the movie also featured well-known and much-loved Neapolitan songs such as “O sole mio”, “Aneme e core”, “Core ‘ngrato” and many more. One of the most popular songs is
“Te voglio bene assaie” which was the winning song back in the 1830s in the annual songwriting contest for the Festival of Piedigrotta, dedicated to the Madonna of Piedigrotta, a well-known church in the Mergellina area of Naples. The origins of the famous song “Finiculi finiculà”
are explained in the movie, with an old film showing the cable car going up Mt. Vesuvius, which must have been an engineering marvel in those days. This popular song was written in 1880 in Castellammare di Stabia to commemorate the opening of the first funicular cable car on Mount Vesuvius. Such songs as “Torna a Surriento,” “O sole mio,” “Aneme e core,” “Santa Lucia,” “Core ‘ngrato,” and so many others, are known and loved by many. For example, “Finiculi finiculà” has been performed by Mario Lanza, Connie Francis,
The Grateful Dead, Luciano Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli and Il Volo. And “Santa Lucia” was sung by Elvis Presley in Italian (you can check it out for yourself on YouTube). Many of the Neapolitan songs are world-famous because they were taken abroad by immigrants from Naples and southern Italy roughly between 1880 and 1920. The music has also been popular with classical singers such as Enrico Caruso, Luciano Pavarotti, Mario Lanza and Andrea Bocelli. Among the most important native Neapolitan singers are Roberto Murolo, along with Sergio Bruni, Renato Carosone Rita Berti and Mario Maglione, and many others. (One of the raffle prizes was a Roberto Murolo CD which was won by Father Father Ezio Marchetto who was celebrating his birthday that day).
Representatives of different veins but nevertheless continuing the tradition are Pino Daniele and the folkloric group Nuova Compagnia di Canti Popolari. Of course, all true Neapolitan songs are sung in the dialect of Naples (Napulitano). But the issue of dialect has not discouraged a few non-Neapolitans from writing the songs—the most well-known example of which is “A Vucchella” by the famous Abruzzese poet Gabriele D’Annunzio. And in the movie we actually heard a Ukranian man sing a Neapolitan song with his Russian accent. So in the world of Neapolitan songs, it seems, anything is possible!!
Before watching the movie with all the wonderful music, we also enjoyed some of the food Naples is rightly famous for - pizza margherita and sfogliatelle. The “pizza fun facts” sheet put on each table noted that pizza margherita was created for Queen Margherita of Savoy during a visit to Naples in 1780. The colors of the ingredients of the pizza margherita— red (tomato), white (mozzarella) and green (basil) - represent the colors of the Italian flag. As you may know, pizza napoletana was the featured food at the Italian pavilion of the Milan Expo 2015.
Many thanks to Lynn Sorbara and the members of the Hospitality Committee for providing us with a delicious lunch of pizza margherita from Wise Guys New York Pizza, salad from Fontina Grill, as well as desserts. Also thanks to Lucio D’Andrea for providing the sfogliatelle. Unfortunately, time ran out before we could make use of the songbooks Lynn kindly provided, so instead we will take the opportunity to sing some of these wonderful songs at our November 15 wine-tasting meeting (see related article in this issue). Meanwhile, Lynn found a website that has all the lyrics to many of these famous Neapolitan songs, which you can find at http://www.sorrentoradio.com/prova/testinapoli/canzoni.htm. In closing, our heartfelt thanks also to those who donated raffle prizes and those who bought tickets. As a result, we collected $301 for the Society’s Annual Scholarship Fund.
HOSPITALITY NEEDS YOU!
Like the slogan of the U.S. Marines, “We Are Looking for a Few Good Men (and Women)!”, AMHS needs your help. I think we can all agree that the success of our Society is due to its wonderful members, great programs and leadership, and in part, the terrific food that seems to appear at every event. The Hospitality Committee is in need of volunteers. I have served as the Chair of this committee for three years now but I will be stepping down from this position at the end of 2015. We will need a replacement for the Chair position as well as several people to serve on the committee.
One does not need any particular cooking or baking skills… just lots of love for your fellow members and some time to devote to the Society. The duties of hospitality include: ordering meals from various restaurants and/or catering halls; keeping inventory of supplies and paper products stored at Casa; and organizing the food setup and service at events. These duties need not be the responsibility of just one person but rather can be distributed among the members of the committee. I sincerely hope you will think about serving our Society in this capacity. I am happy to meet with anyone who wishes to take on these responsibilities. If interested, or if you wish more information, please contact me, (301) 926-7792, or via e-mail at drlynnrose@yahoo.com. Thank you.