Spaghetti, Mandolino e Bel Canto

M – Hello everybody, this is VITOR Italy, I am Marcello and my colleague Patrizia is here with me today.  Ciao Patrizia, what are talking about today?

P – Today, Marcello, we’ll start from a sentence that many travellers have heard, with reference to Italy: “Spaghetti e mandolino”, spaghetti and mandolin. So, the subject of today’s episode is music. 

M – Well, “Spaghetti and mandolin” is a picturesque and very dated way to define Italians, but sometimes in a cliché you can find some truth. Spaghetti means cuisine, and Italian cuisine is among the best in the world, but maybe you do not know, or haven’t paid enough attention to the fact that Italy has a place of honor in the history of music.

P – Sure, we are the country of “Bel canto”

M – Yes, “Bel canto”. Bel Canto could be translated with Beautiful Singing, but it is an italian expression which is not translated and refers to lyric singing. Opera originated in Italy and is still performed in theatres all over the world. Here are a few titles or names of composers, so that we understand what we are talking about: Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” is the most performed opera in the world; then we have is Giacomo Puccini with “Tosca”, “La Bohème”, “Madama Butterfly”; Gioacchino Rossini with “Il barbiere di Siviglia”. Arias such as “Casta diva” from Bellini’s Norma sung by Maria Callas have become iconic. And then we had world-famous singers like Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli, who mix lyric music with pop, with great international success. 

Even if you are not a fan and do not know titles and composers, I am sure that listening to just a few short passages from these works you would immediately recognize them. Overtures, arias, choruses of these masterpieces are used in hundreds of commercials, films, documentaries.

P – “I Pagliacci” by Leoncavallo, “L’elisir d’amore” by Donizetti”, “Cavalleria rusticana” by Mascagni. There are so many, and all are very famous. The overture to Rossini’s William Tell (Guglielmo Tell) is in the top ten of the most used music in advertising.

M – Exactly, and the echo of this prestigious past still resonates. Hundreds of young opera singing students from all over the world come to Italy every year to attend Masterclasses and Workshops with Italian masters. And in Italy we have the oldest and most famous opera houses in the world such as the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, or La Fenice in Venice, the San Carlo in Naples. But also ancient open-air amphitheaters such as the Arena di Verona, where, in an enchanting and unique setting in the world, a prestigious opera festival in summer that attracts enthusiasts and tourists from all over the world: the Arena di Verona Opera Festival.

P – Absolutely! Seeing an opera in the enchanting setting of the Arena di Verona, under the starry sky, in a theatre built 2000 years ago is an emotion that is difficult to explain in words. 

M – The Arena di Verona not only hosts operas, but over the years has hosted international artists of the caliber of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, The Who, Deep Purple, David Bowie, Paul McCartney and Nick Cave, as well as One Direction and the Italian Maneskin.

P – Opera, rock, pop, jazz, electronic music, musical. We can say that there is something for everyone, or almost.

M – After all, music is like that, genres and apparently distant eras have more in common than you might think. Going back to the contribution that Italian musicians have made to music and its history, it is quite evident, just pick a musical score. The terms that are still used today are in Italian, ADAGIO, ALLEGRO, PIANO, FORTE… And so on. Almost all opera singers and many classical musicians study Italian. But even the word used all over the world at the time of applause to express appreciation for an artist’s performance is Italian: BRAVO! And this is because historically many of the artists who were applauded, musicians, actors, singers were often Italian and the public wanted to use Italian to cheer them on.

P – Bravo Marcello! You also deserve a BRAVO for all the interesting things you’re telling us. Not just spaghetti and mandolin.

M – Speaking of the mandolin, it reminds us of baroque music but above all of Neapolitan folk music; there are songs of Neapolitan folklore that have become famous everywhere, “O’ sole mio”, “Funiculì Funiculà”, or “‘O surdato ‘nnammurato”, if you listen to them you will realize you’ve already heard them.

P – You said baroque music, and another super famous composer came to my mind: the Venetian Antonio Vivaldi.

M – Super famous, Vivaldi’s “Le quattro stagioni” the four seasons

P – Yes, especially “l’Estate”, Summer, also in the top ten of the most used songs in commercials.

M- Advertising, television productions, cinema. Another important strand for Italian music is soundtracks, with authors who between the 60s and 80s have composed music for cinema and television from which many contemporary musicians have drawn inspiration.

The most famous of them all is Oscar-winner Ennio Morricone.

P – And here spaghetti comes back. Sergio Leone, king of “Spaghetti Westerns”, with his “The Dollars Trilogy” that made famous “The man with no name”: Clint Eastwood 

M – “A Fistful of Dollars”, “For a Few Dollars More” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and the wonderful music of Ennio Morricone.

P – Quentin Tarantino is a fan of Morricone.

M – Yes, in fact he wanted it for the soundtrack of his film “The Hateful Eight”, but already in “Kill Bill” in “Django Unchained” and other films of his he had used music by the master. 

P – Marcello, but, in the end, what is the most famous Italian song or piece of music?

M – What do you say if I say: VOOOOLAAARE?

P – OOOOOH OOOOOOH, nel blu dipinto di blu..

M – Felice di stare lassù. Of course, This song is known worldwide as “Volare” but its title is “Nel blu dipinto di blu”, it was sung by Domenico Modugno and is the most famous Italian song ever, it climbed all the charts. Just do a little experiment when you are here: start singing VOLARE, someone near you will follow you with “Nel blu dipinto di blu”

P – So, time is over, where are we going today?

M – Well, hard choice: La Scala in Milan, the Arena in Verona, Modena for Pavarotti, Venice for Vivaldi. Also, since we mentioned the Neapolitan song “Funiculì funiculà”, Capri with the funicular, about 4 minutes of wonder and breathtaking scenery.

And, last but not least, Polignano a Mare, in Puglia, the birthplace of Domenico Modugno. There is a beautiful statue in a square by the sea, with Domenico launching himself towards the sea, very moving for those who have seen him sing.

So, we say goodbye and we are waiting for you, to sing “Volare” together.