KARACHI: When Roberto Franceschinis, the extremely popular head of the Italian mission in Karachi asked me what kind of Italian music would go down well with the citizens of Karachi, I unhesitatingly replied, “i canzone di Napoli” [the song of Naples]. That was a year ago.
On Saturday, he staged a programme of exquisite music from the land of eternal sunshine at the Beach Luxury, the hotel by the sea. The invitation included a lavish spread of Italian food, especially prepared by an Italian chef, served after the concert – the most melodious and evocative folk songs that I have heard through the years, which portray the riveting tapestry of human emotion, have emanated from Italy, Mexico and Paraguay.
Composers in Italy, or more specifically, Naples, the cradle of the internationally popular and much loved, Neapolitan folk song, have thrown up such a profusion of masterpieces, that even a connoisseur of this genre would have a tough time deciding which was his favourite – is it Core ‘ingrato or I’m arricordo ‘e Napule, a great favourite with the immortal Enrico Caruso.
The first part of the programme was devoted to a selection of arias from Italian operas, composed by Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. The tenor Mariano Sanfilippo gave it his best shot, and his earnestness and commitment were quite fetching. He has a young light-timbered voice which is full of promise, perfectly suited to the love songs of the English Baroque era, as well as, some of the Lieder in the Song Cycle of Franz Schubert, particularly the Serenade.
But when he plunged into the repertoire of Italian 19th century opera, I couldn’t help getting the impression that his voice would have sounded much better if the hall had been smaller. I’ve said this before in my reviews and I’ll say it again: a single piano, even if it is a Grand Steinway, is not a match for a full-fledged orchestra like the Vienna Philharmonic.
Perhaps in the future, enterprising diplomats from Italy, Germany, Russia and France, who are the only people who are regularly presenting vignettes of European culture in Pakistan, could use the technique which the innovative French successively employed in the Alliance Francaisé, a number of years ago. They used taped music from one of the established orchestras which provided the background music and the tenor or soprano pretended they were spending an evening in La Scala or Covent Garden. It was a unique experiment that, unfortunately, has not been used since.
The tenor appeared to be much more at home in the second half of the programme, which was a celebration of the Neapolitan folk song. He established a warm and friendly rapport with the audience and even encouraged them to provide their own tempo. Many of the great Italian tenors and baritones who featured in operatic roles, such as Beniamino Gigli, Franco Corelli, Tito Schipa, Mario del Monaco and Giuseppe di Stefano and Titi Gobbi, wouldn’t stray too far from Surriento and the Bay of Naples and contributed immensely to the popularity of the compositions of Tosti and di Capua.
I thought the pianist, Maestro Marco Giliberto, was quite splendid throughout the performance. He never put a finger wrong and drained the score of its emotional juices. Predictably, I enjoyed the two Liszt transcriptions the most – the Noctune and the paraphrasing of a part of Verdi’s Rigoletto, marvelling at the way the Maestro revelled in the luxurious textures of the composition.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 18th, 2013.