Simple Italy

Celebrating Your Inner Italian

Remembering Luciano Pavarotti

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I’ve spent quite a bit of time with the late Luciano Pavarotti this week and it has been emotional.

Last Saturday, Walter and I were in Pavarotti’s hometown of Modena, Italy. I made a pilgrimage to his statue outside the opera house, now named Teatro Comunale Luciano Pavarotti in his honor.

We drove out to the countryside to tour the light-saturated home where the great operatic tenor lived and died. The building is now Luciano Pavarotti Casa e Museo (Luciano Pavarotti house and museum). It’s a treasure trove of audio, video, photographs, celebrity fan letters to the maestro, theatrical costumes and more. The walls are adorned with Paravrotti’s colorful paintings and a glass box showcases some of his art supplies.

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Verrà l’estate

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On the piazza in Ravello, it will always be summer.

On the piazza in Ravello, it will always be summer.

On a soggy sunless October day, I couldn’t get the song Verrà l’estate out of my head.
The stirring duet from Italian pop singers Pacifico and Malika Ayane always makes me smile.

The tune celebrates the simple joys of summer, but, for me, it becomes a reason for hope in life itself.

The single Verrà l'estate is from Pacifico's CD Dentro Ogni Casa (Inside Every House).

The single Verrà l’estate is from Pacifico’s CD Dentro Ogni Casa (Inside Every House).

Verrà l’estate
sarà nel vento
nel fiato caldo dietro le persiane

There will always be the summer
it will be in the wind
the hot breath behind the blinds

Sempre ti aspetto
salvami stanco e infelice
Nell’aria la tua luce

I always wait for you
you save me from fatigue and unhappiness
your light in the air

Malika Ayane has collaborated on several songs with Pacifico.

Malika Ayane has collaborated on several songs with Pacifico.

Click here for the complete lyrics.

This lush video of Pacifico and Ayane’s performance is the official release of the single from Sugar Music.

I prefer this bare bones video. The sound quality is terrible. It seems as if someone taped it at a media conference judging by all the camera flashes. But, for me, the expression on the singers’ faces conveys the pure joy of the song.

I know winter is coming to wrap me in its icy embrace but I’m not worried. . .

Verrà l’estate!

The Most Beautiful Italian Love Song?

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watercolor by Walter Sanders

Watercolor by Walter Sanders

I search google.it for la canzone d’amore più bella (the most beautiful love song) and get 741,000 entries.

The first is a YouTube post of “Adagio,” sung by Lara Fabian. With more than 3 million viewings, it merited a listen from me. I found the song a tad overwrought—more longing than loving–but seems as if I may be in the minority.

The second link is a blog called clo&demk that couldn’t limit itself to just one melody. Its Le 200 Canzoni D’Amore Più Belle di Tutti i Tempo (The 200 Most Beautiful Love Songs of All Time) leads with “I Say a Little Prayer” by Aretha Franklin. Sorry, it’s a sweet song but not Italian.

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Buon Compleanno Rossini

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The house of Rossini's birth is now a museum dedicated to the composer.

If you’ve done a Google search today, you already know from the doodle that it is Gioachino Rossini’s birthday. The great Italian composer came into the world in the Leap Year of 1792. Luckily for me, Martin Kettle of The Guardian did the math on just what number anniversary this is. Depending upon whether you count every year or only the leaps, Rossini is either 220 or 53 (there are no leaps in 00 years).

Think you don’t know any Rossini works? You do. The theme from the classic TV program The Lone Ranger is The William Tell Overture. Director Stanley Kubrick also used the William Tell in the film A Clockwork Orange along with La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie).

As a fan, I’ve visited both Rossini’s birthplace and his tomb. The former is a two-room second floor apartment in the placid Adriatic coastal town of Pesaro. The latter is in the Basilica di Santa Croce, a veritable pantheon of cultural luminaries, in Firenze.

The triumphant arc of his life and career is summed up in those two locations. From his impoverished beginning, Rossini’s talent launched him into the musical stratosphere. He was a rock star of his era. Every August, Pesaro hosts The Rossini Festival continuing to shine a spotlight on their hometown genius. Check out the 2012 program.

Today, I’ll be listening to one of my favorite pieces—the overture from La Scala di Seta (The Silk Ladder). This wonderful recording is a performance of Arturo Toscanini conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1938.

Do you love Rossini’s work? What’s your favorite?

Malika Ayane

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Even if something isn’t a secret, don’t you feel brilliant when you discover it for yourself? As far as I’m concerned, my current musical obsession Malika Ayane is all mine.

Passing time in Fiumicino Airport in Rome recently, I drifted into Feltrinelli. Since I had zilch carry-on space, buying an Italian book really wasn’t a viable option. But then I spotted the CD rack. I heard my Italian tutor Gabriella’s voice, “Listening to Italian music is a great way to learn the language.” [Read more…]

Christmas Cherubs

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Luciano Pavarotti’s sweet, powerful voice always sounds, to me, like a benediction. Never more so than in this sentimental Italian carol Mille Cherubini in Coro, Chorus of 1,000 Cherubs. The lyrics, set to a melody by Schubert, are about a choir of cherubs looking over the baby Jesus . . . and every baby.

Detail from Madonna of the Pomegranate by Sandro Botticelli.

These are the lyrics in Italian and English. . .

Mille Cherubini in Coro

Dormi, dormi,
sogna, piccolo amor mio.
Dormi, sogna,
posa il capo sul mio cor.

Mille cherubini in coro
ti sorridono dal ciel.
Una dolce canzone
t’accarezza il crin
Una man ti guida lieve
fra le nuvole d’or,
sognando e vegliando
su te, mio tesor,
proteggendo il tuo cammin.
Su te, mio tesor,
proteggendo il tuo cammin.

Dormi, dormi,
sogna, piccolo amor mio.
Dormi, sogna,
posa il capo sul mio cor.

Chiudi gli occhi,
ascolta gli angioletti,
dormi, dormi,
sogna, piccolo amor.

Dormi, dormi,
sogna, piccolo amor mio.
Dormi, sogna,
posa il capo sul mio cor.

Chiudi gli occhi,
ascolta gli angioletti,
dormi, dormi,
sogna, piccolo amor.

Sogna, piccolo amor.

A Choir of a Thousand Cherubs

Sleep, sleep,
dream, my little love.
Sleep, dream, ,
rest your head on my breast.

A choir of a thousand cherubs
smiles on you from the sky
A sweet song
caresses your brow,
A hand is gently guiding you
through the clouds of gold,
dreaming and keeping watch
over you, my treasure,
protecting your path through life.
Over you, my treasure,
protecting your path through life.

Sleep, sleep,
dream, my little love.
Sleep, dream,
rest your head on my breast.

Close your eyes,
listen to the little angels,
sleep, sleep,
dream, my little love.

Sleep, sleep,
dream, my little love.
Sleep, dream, ,
rest your head on my breast.

Close your eyes,
listen to the little angels,
sleep, sleep,
dream, my little love.

Dream, my little love.

Mille Cherubini in Coro, on Pavarotti’s O Holy Night CD with Kurt Herbert Adler and The National Philharmonic, is available on amazon.com