O 'sole mio, the history of the most famous Neapolitan song in the world

Among the many symbols of the city of Naples there is the sun, which helps to make the reality of Naples even more fascinating and evocative in the eyes of tourists, who come from all over the world to admire it.

Il sun in Naples it really is an integral part of the city: we can say that the sun in Naples is really life, everyday life.

And all this is even clearer and clearer if you think of one of the most famous Neapolitan songs in the world, or "O'sole mio", which was composed even before the beginning of the so-called "short century": perhaps many do not know that this melody was composed in the 1898.

This song, whose title is a semantic masterpiece, considering the ability to express very deep concepts with very few words, is among the most appreciated in the world and the confirmation is given by the fact that it has been engraved by a myriad of artists.

In this regard it is sufficient to think that the likes of Enrico Caruso, Luciano Pavarotti, just to mention 2 names. Furthermore also Elvis Presley, in the now distant 1960, he drew clear inspiration for his "It's now or never".

If you still don't believe in the fact that this song really made history, just think that it was able to go beyond the boundaries of music.

An example?
Proust quoted it in one of the volumes of "In search of lost time".

O'sole mio is capable of striking at first listening and of being magnificent despite great structural and conceptual simplicity: and this is probably its great strength, the one that has helped it to make it an immortal piece, still known throughout the world world.

But what is the story of what objectively continues to be the most famous Neapolitan song at international level?

The origins of O 'sole mio

It must be said that the origin of this song and the genesis of its success are very special and could seem decidedly unlikely. The "fathers" of the symbolic piece of the city of Naples were Eduardo di Capua e Giovanni Capurro: the first is the poignant melody that accompanies the lyrics of the song, fruit instead of the ability of the second.

Well, few perhaps know that Eduardo di Capua, when he put the notes of this masterpiece on the staff, he was in Odessa, intent on watching the dawn on the Black Sea, in a break of a tour with his father.

Legend has it that the moment he sat down to the piano to compose the melody of O'sole mine, the text, composed by the friend Giovanni Capurro, had already been sent to him by the latter.

In short, the song that still today is the symbol of Naples, it was not composed watching the sun rise over the Neapolitan city, but in a very different and distant reality. However this does not change what is the essence and the message of this masterpiece: love for the city of Naples, the Neapolitan and melancholy for the distance from a city that for those born there is really a second skin.

Another curiosity lies in the fact that the song did not initially have the desired success, failing to win at the beginning '900 what at the time was the most important Neapolitan song contest.

However, as often happens, a great failure is the prelude to something unexpected and grandiose, something that has happened to O'sole mio.

How?
Thanks to the public, which unlike the jury of that competition, it decreed its great success, forerunner for entering the legend.

The text and words of O 'sole mio