The forced "stop" due to the pandemic allowed us to bring to life an idea and a partnership that had long awaited their moment. We were able to rediscover the repertoire of songs from the 1800s and 1900s of two cities, Naples and Venice, which have always been symbols of Italian music in the world, and to reinterpret it by exploring the points of contact and creating a relationship and comparison between two musical traditions. Navigating through the Neapolitan repertoire, we were simply spoiled for choice given the infinity and beauty of the musical offerings.
After a brief foray into the world of Neapolitan villanella with "Vorria ca fosse ciaula" (1551), we began the true repertoire of song with “Te voglio bene assaje,” a hit at Piedigrotta in 1839. Since then, Neapolitan song has continued to be enriched with masterpieces up to the present day. It is not far from the truth to say that some pieces represent “Italian song” well beyond national borders. It was different for Venice. Between the 1600s and 1700s, Venetian song, the “canzon da batelo,” had undeniable diffusion and success. The term “barcarola,” in fact, means “composition evoking the songs of Venetian gondoliers,” translated in German also with the term "Gondellied."
With the fall of the Serenissima Republic, the fortunes, not only musical, of the lagoon city began to signal a crisis. There was hardly anything left to sing about or to be merry!
We had to wait until the end of the 19th century, when, in 1891, the satirical newspaper “Sior Tonin Bonagrazia” decided to hold a new singing competition in order to “revive Venetian song.” The Feast of the Redeemer in Venice became what Piedigrotta was for Naples. To close our program in a “perfect circle,” it could only be the two chosen instruments of the same repertoire: the guitar and the mandolin.
Our collaboration, friends for a lifetime, came about naturally as a consequence. Once we selected and arranged the pieces, singing while accompanying ourselves with guitar and mandolin and “playing” with the voices, we chose to intersperse the songs with original instrumental pieces from the so-called “classical” period of the mandolin. To tie the musical repertoire together, a series of narratives to help the listener follow the proposed journey in an almost theatrical unity, and here is ready “Music from the Two Gulfs. Venice and Naples.”
All that remains is the pleasure of letting you listen to it. An instrumental piece closes our showcase of sounds: “The Carnival of Venice,” a theme with variations by the Genoese Paganini, probably derived from an ancient Neapolitan song “O mamma, mamma ca.” This melody, today a symbol of Venetian music in the world, is reinterpreted by us in a “Varied Fantasy,” coincidentally, by the Neapolitan Carlo Munier.
Music goes and returns between Naples and Venice and knows no barriers that can stop it!
