Neapolitan songs in an opera concert

What a Neapolitan song is

A Neapolitan song is a piece in the Neapolitan language, usually for a male soloist, in forms like the love song or the serenade. Its status as an institution dates from the 1830s, when a yearly songwriting contest began for the Piedigrotta festival, which honoured the Madonna of Piedigrotta at Mergellina. Emigrants from Naples and the south carried many songs around the world between about 1880 and 1920. In the early 1900s Enrico Caruso sang them as encores at the Metropolitan Opera and recorded many, and they entered the standard repertoire for opera tenors.

'O sole mio

'O sole mio dates from 1898 and is sung in Neapolitan; the title means 'my sun'. The words are Giovanni Capurro's. For about 75 years the tune was credited to Eduardo di Capua alone, until a Turin ruling in 2002 recognised Alfredo Mazzucchi as a co-composer. A guest at the Rome concert names it with Funiculì, funiculà and Granada. Caruso and Pavarotti are among its many singers, and Pavarotti's version won a Grammy Award in 1980.

Funiculì, funiculà

Funiculì, funiculà dates from 1880. Luigi Denza, from Castellammare di Stabia, set words by the journalist Peppino Turco, in Neapolitan, to mark the first funicular up Mount Vesuvius, and it was heard that year at the Piedigrotta festival. That festival's songwriting contest had run since the 1830s and carried on until 1950, so the song joined a long line of tunes written for a single night.

Torna a Surriento

Torna a Surriento is the work of two brothers: Ernesto De Curtis wrote the music in 1894 and Giambattista, a poet and painter, the Neapolitan words. The song was copyrighted in 1905. A later story links it to a 1902 visit to Sorrento by a prime minister, though family papers show a copy lodged eight years earlier. The English title is Come Back to Sorrento, and tenors still keep it close at hand.

Granada, a guest from Mexico

One guest at the Rome concert recalls the tenor singing Granada in Spanish. Granada is a 1932 song by the Mexican composer Agustín Lara about the Spanish city, and it has become a pop standard recorded by many tenors, among them Plácido Domingo, Mario Lanza and Luciano Pavarotti; it is José Carreras's signature tune. It is not Neapolitan, but it shows how the concert's songs stretch beyond opera proper. Programmes change by date, so no piece is promised, but these are the songs guests name.

The songs in order

The songs guests name were written decades apart, for very different occasions: the opening of a mountain railway, a lover's serenade and a tribute to a Spanish city. The dates below come from each song's own history, and together they show how a local Naples repertoire became something every tenor learned.

• 1880: Funiculì, funiculà, composed by Luigi Denza for the opening of the Vesuvius funicular
• 1894: Torna a Surriento, composed by Ernesto De Curtis; copyrighted 1905
• 1898: 'O sole mio, with words by Giovanni Capurro
• 1932: Granada, by the Mexican composer Agustín Lara

Hearing them in Rome

Guests at the Rome concert name 'O sole mio, Funiculì, funiculà and Granada. Programmes change by date, so no song is promised, but the evening has room for them: the description lists Neapolitan songs beside arias from Turandot and Rigoletto and Vivaldi's Four Seasons. If one of these songs is the reason you are booking, put the question to the organiser via the booking page before you pay.