Continuing opera with other means: Opera, Neapolitan song, and popular music among Italian immigrants overseas

Abstract

The author asks himself how it is that without a specific local or even national connection to Neapolitan song, Naples’ music heritage ‘speaks’ to him, as it speaks to millions of people around the world. Neapolitan song is indeed one of the few local musical traditions that have become truly global. The notions of imagined community, cultural distance, geographic distance, and nostalgia must be summoned and played out against each other if we want to understand the impact that Neapolitan songs had for centuries and, to a certain extent, still have. If opera is the ‘official’ musical representation of Italian unity, Neapolitan songs are the familiar lexicon of the Italian diaspora and have been appropriated by emigrants from every region of Italy. Opera and Neapolitan song share similar characteristics, however. They are both ancient and literate. Their diffusion, in addition, has been facilitated not just by printed scores but by oral transmission as well. Opera composers, not necessarily from Naples, also wrote Neapolitan songs, and famous songs whose authors are uncertain have been attributed to opera composers. Moreover, Neapolitan songs can be performed in two opposite styles (operatic, with orchestral accompaniment) and intimate (an untrained voice accompanied by a guitar) without losing their appeal and their stylistic uniqueness. The author also refers to his personal experience researching the musical heritage of Italian emigrants to Australia, where Neapolitan song has been for a long time a token of belonging.