Tag: Pino Daniele

A true world in a glance – Jasmina Trifoni

Posted on by alice

We are very proud to open our Artist Window with the work of Jasmina Trifoni.
Jasmina Trifoni is a journalist living in Rome who specializes in travel writing and narrative journalism. She works for Italian and International magazines including National Geographic and Meridiani, among the others. In a world where the “big frames” have almost all been discovered, she loves to find those small stories that can make the difference in the perception of a place. She has traveled extensively in all the continents (with the exception of Antarctica, and with a preference for everything that is “south”) but she doesn’t like to just check the country off the list and move on. Instead, she prefers to return to the same place several times to deepen her research. She has written several books which have been translated in many languages (100 Adventures of Our Lifetime, World in Danger, Patrimonio mondaile dell’Unesco, 80 Islands to Escape to, among the others).

 

The word that comes to mind when looking at Jasmina’s photos is spontaneity.
An avid traveller originating from Rome, she seems to truly have Naples in her eyes.
Our first encounter with Jasmina was by way of her photos. As it often happens, we’ve found her to be the exact embodiment of what her camera illustrates – a curious, inquisitive, impassioned woman who is in love with the most extravagant sides of life.

She’s always ready to laugh authentically at all that she sees in her surroundings. For her, she looks at the world and from the first glance she is categorising everything that interests and fascinates her – or what does not, in an instance! It’s true, we are all a little like that though few people blend integrity and flamboyance so seamlessly.
What is more extravagant that the human spirit – be it in depictions by talented artists or in the unbridled exuberance of people in the streets?

If you try to compliment Jasmina on her photos, she will squint her eyes and look at you as if you are saying something strange. Even if she is prolific in her photography, she doesn’t consider herself a photographer and doesn’t want to hear that her lens has immortalised a portrait of society in a precise – and fabulous – way.
What we love about Jasmina’s photos is her simple but earnest staging of life. Through her lens, a nameless street becomes the backdrop for neorealist theatre full of faces captured in their most honest moments.

Unique to many, Jasmina does not try to photograph dramatic or intense moments. Hers is a different approach: through the faces and bodies she shoots – quickly and without creating any kind of set – all of the depth of a moment is immortalised. In that moment lies all the complexity of life which her humour and exaggeration can render solemn and powerful.
In Jasmina’s photos, the landmarks, architecture and cities disappear and become irrelevant. Her objective concentrates on the representation of the souls narrating a psyche. Often you discover that her instant snapshots of faces precisely express the inner life of that person. What sets Jasmina apart is that she doesn’t stage a situation around the person in order to get a good shot. She doesn’t prepare the scenery in any way yet magically the realness of life reproduces a detailed biography in one quick click of the camera. This spontaneous process results in telling a deeply resonating story of the life of a stranger that seems to be someone that Jasmina has already known.

 

The harbor of Naples and the entire seafront stretching from the Castel Nuovo to the eastern extremity of the town, offer extraordinary exhibitions. This was the region of the Lazzaroni: the finer-looking or merrier vagabonds than those who are now found in it, it is not easy to meet. The streets that they frequent, and in which they may be said to live, lie in this quarter, and are altogether unique. Brawling, laughing, cooking, flirting, eating, drinking, sleeping, together with most of the other concerns of life, are all transacted here beneath the canopy of heaven
James Fenimore Cooper From the letters describing travel undertaken in 1828-1829

 

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The large stage of the world

 

Around every corner of the city you’ll hear someone singing, you’ll catch the tune of a Pino Daniele song or notes from the posteggiatori going trattoria to trattoria, encouraging the crowds of diners to sing along to traditional songs. Music is at the heart of the city and the greatest artists started in the neighborhoods we love, the number one being the Sanita’, well-known recently for its street parties with all kinds of musical performances going into the early hours of the next day. One of our favourite Neapolitan singers and icons, Ria Rosa, quotes the bridge of this neighborhood in one of her incredible tunes recorded in New York.

 

One of the most popular theatrical traditions of Naples is the commedia del’arte dating from the 16th century whose origins go back to the ancient Roman Atellan Farce (Fabule Atellane).
The main character of the commedia dell’arte is Pulcinella, now one of the most popular souvenirs from bella Napoli.

Pulcinella has a strong and contradictory personality, like the characteristics Naples is known for: exuberant and lazy, reliable and crazy, cynical and happy, funny and sad. He is a great representative of that emblematic cunning spirit for which Neapolitans are – or maybe were – famous.

 

 

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Being Neapolitan it’s wonderful

 

The Patron Saint Gennaro was martyred in 305 AD. Three days a year the saint is celebrated in the cathedral of Naples where believers and curious folks wait for the miracle of the liquefaction of his blood secretly and securely kept in a vial.
On September 19, New York celebrates the San Gennaro Feast in Little Italy. All began in Mulberry Street with the building of a small chapel dedicated to the Saint where offers for the poor people of the neighborhood were collected. Now it’s a party complete with fried zeppole.
San Gennaro is becoming more and more popular in Naples, not only as an historical and religious icon, but also in the design and top-quality arts market.

 

 

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The black gold of Naples

 

Coffee in Naples means espresso and the traditional caffè is ristretto, very short and dense.
Neapolitans consider coffee a necessity, something you cannot live without. This explains why the Suspended Coffee started in Naples, maybe after WWII. You drink a coffee at your favourite bar, and you pay a second caffè for someone who may not be able to afford it. The bar holds on to the “suspended” cup until someone comes and requests it. Why coffee and not bread? Because caffè in Napoli is considered as important as primary food. In a Neapolitan bar you always chat with the busy barista (coffee-maker) so it’s like sharing kindness, friendship and much more.
In his Neaplitan song Tazza ‘e café parite Giuseppe Capaldo compares coffee to a desirable woman, strong but with the sugar that once melted will make the drink beautiful!
We Neapolitans think our coffee is the best, and we are pretty sure to be right!

 

 

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Naples is synonymous with food

 

Red like lava, the piennolo tomatoes grow in volcanic soil. These small round-shaped tomatoes with a pointed tip and a thick skin are called “Piennolo” after Latin pendulus (hanged)  because of the system adopted to preserve it in bunches similar to grape and hanged in dry and ventilated places. The piennolo is represented in the traditional Neapolitan nativity scenes as well as tripe which is also sold as a street food and dressed with lots of lemon and salt.

The King of the Neapolitan snacks is the tarallo ‘nzogn e pepe (in Neapolitan dialect).  Some of the traditional tarallifici, where taralli are baked daily are in the Sanità neighborhood, but the tarallo was probably invented in the densely populated area of the Port of Naples in the 18th century. Due to poverty, bakers were mixing the leftover bread and dough with lard (“nzogna” in Neapolitan) and pepper.
In the past, taralli were sold by the “tarallari”, a man or a woman walking along the waterfront of Naples with baskets filled with warm taralli for people strolling along the coast.

 

 

 
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Art in the Art

 

From the murals and the masterpieces within Naples’ stunning museums to the hidden workshops of the tireless Neapolitan craftspeople, this is what Jasmina creates while capturing art with her immediate glance.

 

Artists like Turner and Warhol have flocked to Naples’ from all over the world to experience its energy and depict its landscape in their works. More and more, there are international artists coming to Naples to paint Naples itself. When touring the historical center, it is not unlikely to see a new colorful work pop up just around the corner.

The features of our face are hardly more than gestures which force of habit made permanent. Nature, like the destruction of Pompeii, like the metamorphosis of a nymph into a tree, has arrested us in an accustomed movement. Marcel Proust

 

 

 

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A bustling and struggling humanity

 

Mark Twain during his Neapolitan stay in 1867 wrote: “It is Broadway repeated in every street, in every court, in every alley! Such masses, such throngs, such multitudes of hurrying, bustling, struggling humanity! We never saw the like of it, hardly even in New York, I think. There are seldom any sidewalks, and when there are, they are not often wide enough to pass a man on without caroming on him. So everybody walks in the street–and where the street is wide enough, carriages are forever dashing along. Why a thousand people are not run over and crippled every day is a mystery that no man can solve.”

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

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The vertical city

Naples is a vertical city and from its belly to its hills, two cities cohabit in harmonic chaos with elegance, deterioration, noise, and silence. The diametrical oppositional humanity lives under the same sun and breath of the same salty breeze.

 


Mr Giancarlo Maresca, Gran Maestro of the Guardian Knights of the Nine Doors

 

Everyone in this city follows the sun. In the summer, people from all neighborhoods flock to the seafront to get a chance to soak in the rays. Every corner will be covered with those looking for a relaxing moment of sunshine.

 

 

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Piety and superstition in the womb of Naples
The Fontanelle Cemetery

In this ancient quarry where tuff rock was extracted, the remains of 40,000 victims of epidemics -and not only- are displayed in a very artistic way.
Fontanelle is located at the bottom of the hill of Materdei, where once streams ran down to the valley (thus the name fontanelle, little fountains). Despite its 54,000 square feet, this cavity has a very intimate atmosphere due to the soft lighting and the warm affection that Neapolitans express to the “poor souls” who live here.
Candies, toys, plastic flowers, written messages, a soccer shield, next to bus tickets and coins to pay Charon for the journey to the other world, are offered to those “little beggar souls” as the tradition calls them. They implore a prayer in exchange for who knows? Maybe one of the generous legendary skulls will appear in a dream providing a couple of lucky numbers to be played at the lottery.

The use of the quarry as a cemetery has stopped, but piety, mercy, love, superstition and devotion go on.

 

Some might lament that I were cold,
As I, when this sweet day is gone,
Which my lost heart, too soon grown old,
Insults with this untimely moan;
They might lament—for I am one
Whom men love not,—and yet regret,
Unlike this day, which, when the sun
Shall on its stainless glory set,
Will linger, though enjoyed, like joy in memory yet.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley
(Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples)

The Fabulous Prince of Laughter

Posted on by alice

In this time of great challenges due to the outbreak of coronavirus disease, we of Naples Fabulous wanted to share a post about an extraordinary person who will hopefully bring some lightness to your days. We’ve been trying to keep our spirits high through reading, music, films and art about Naples and we thought: who better to represent Neapolitan resilience and spirit than this Neapolitan character?

Totò is one of the most beloved figures of the Neapolitan history, art and folklore. But though he has worked with some of the most iconic actors in the history of cinema like Anna Magnani, Vittorio de Sica, Sophia Loren, Mastroianni and movie directors such as Monicelli and Pasolini, many people outside of Italy do not know the work of one of the greatest Neapolitan figures of all time. However, to Italians, he is considered to be one of the most extraordinary comic geniuses of all time.


Totò and Anna Magnani

He went by Totò or simply Antonio de Curtis but actually has an incredibly long name. Starting out as Antonio Clemente, he was born in the heart of Naples – his beloved Sanità – in 1881 to Anna Clemente and the nobleman Giuseppe de Curtis, who never recognized him. He always knew of his noble blood but it wasn’t until he was 35 that he was formally adopted by the Marquis Francesco Maria Gagliardi Focas di Tertiveri. Therefore he inherited a long list of names and a noble title, from which comes the nickname “the prince of laughter”.

Walking the streets of Naples you’ll see icons of his image everywhere, not just in the Sanità. To Neapolitans, Totò represents honour and talent, pride and purpose; he was a champion for the poor and is a symbol of hope. His spirit is woven into the collective conscious of this city and that crooked nose and pointy chin, broken a youth, are as ubiquitous as the landscape of the Vesuvius or the image of the Pizza Margherita or the outline of Capri in the Gulf of Naples. Most bars have a photo or ceramic figure that might be placed alongside an image of the Madonna or Maradona.


Totò by Salvatore Scuotto 2017 – donated by Rober Lèon

To many he is considered to have achieved a uniqueness in comic-tragic style like that of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton or Stan Laurel. Comparisons have even been made with his physicality and the movement technique of Michael Jackson. He grew up poor with an unparalleled work ethic that would accompany him during his entire life. Long after he achieved fame and celebrity, living the bella vita in Rome, he never lost connection with his roots in Naples and was always committed to helping the poor not only in his beloved hometown but everywhere.
His characters in the over 100 films he performed in were often poor, clever people who would, through his iconic, often improvised puns philosophise on the current state of the world and the human condition. This way of living humour through tragedy is emblematic of the Neapolitan spirit and what makes his prolific career symbolic of the triumph of a man who started his life in utter poverty.
His work, rooted in the Commedia dell’Arte tradition, started in Naples at age 15 and would then take him to the stages of Rome where he’d marry his first wife Diana Bandini Rogliani. A few years prior to making his film debut, he’d have a daughter, Liliana whose name would be a source of speculation. Totò had had an affair with the actor Liliana Castagnola whose haunting suicide would remain a mystery for the duration of his life. Though his marriage was dissolved in 1940, Diana and Totò would remain connected until she met another man and Totò married the much younger Franca Faldini.

He’s considered a genius for his comic abilities but his career and art expanded to song writing, music and poetry which had a depth recognised by many and celebrated today. Toto’s most famous song is Malafemmena (Wayward Woman), dedicated to his ex wife Diana.
Often when walking the streets of Naples you’ll hear a trace of one of his songs or, even better, musicians or posteggiatori will serenade diners at the local trattorias which will almost always lead to a sing-a-long of his famous melody.
Here is one of his poems, also engraved in an inscription outside the historic Caffé Gambrinus:

‘A cunzegna

The exchange
In the evening when the sun goes back home
And changes shifts with the moon for the night,
The sun whispers in the moon’s ear
“I’m going home:
Take care of all the lovers!”

Totò is a link between two generations of Italy. People of all ages (and social strata) fluidly repeated his jokes, his gestures and entire phrases from his film by heart because his genius has just as much relevancy in today’s world.
Fifty years later Totò’s films still make people laugh, demonstrating the modernity of his humour and some of his characters. He grew up in the densely populated neighbourhood Sanità which was a source for much of his material. As a child he observed his neighbours and the most extravagant people who he would later incorporate into comical characters in his performances. This earned him the nickname of “ ’o spione ” (the spy).
In Sanità you can see representations of Totò on every wall and there are two large light installations dedicated to him, one of his outline and the other with an inscription in Neapolitan of his delicate love poem “Core analfabeta” (Illiterate heart). They both welcome those entering into Totò’s native neighbourhood.

Baroque churches, noble buildings, a bustling market with perfume of delicious food and the voices of the authentic Naples captivate and lead us to the discovery of the many faces of the prince of laughter.
Federico Fellini said “His capacity of making us laugh should make him a saint” and in actuality, our fabulous Naples has sanctified him!


Palazzo dello Spagnuolo

The tarallificio Poppella (taralli are typical Neapolitan savory snacks) celebrates Totò with a mosaic at the entrance to the shop as does the wine bar Sciò with a mural. All of the shops in the area have a photo of him and his cherished films.


taralli napoletani

The first “Vicolo della cultura” (cultural alley) in Italy, inaugurated in the Sanità in December 2019 honours him with a wall-painting amongst books free for whoever might want them. The non-profit organisation Opportunity seeks to challenge criminality with culture, colours, light and art. The portrait of Totò is found at the entrance of the itinerant library along with other celebrated Neapolitans such as Sophia Loren, Peppino De Filippo, Massimo Troisi and Pino Daniele.


Via Montesilvano

Yet it is at the Pizzeria e Trattoria Taverna di Totò where we would like to conclude our little homage to this artistic genius.
With happiness and a scrumptious pizza, a delicious potato crocchè and maybe a tasting of a fabulous side dishes of eggplant and friarielli, we will raise a glass to Totò’s wonderful legacy in the company of the kind server, always ready to entertain customers with a genuine smile, in the spirit of the immortal prince of laughter.


pizza Cosacca

A Fabulous Musical Street

Posted on by alice

Alice: I remember when I came to Naples eighteen years ago. It was a dark and rainy January and I would walk the historical centre, making friends with the people I’d meet at the shops and bars I spent time in to keep warm. One of the friends I made was working in a CD store on via Sebastiano I had stumbled upon because I was too shy to visit the stores, although I was fascinated by their instruments, especially their mandolins. He introduced me to local musicians like Pino Daniele, Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare, Almamegretta and 99 Posse. Along the street named after the once-present San Sebastiano Monastery and with its proximity to the Music Conservatory which has been visited by Rossini, Alessando Scarlatti, Bellini and Donizetti (among others), it is still the home to the biggest concentration of music instruments and equipment in Naples.

Fiorella: You are right! It is always nice to walk by the Conservatory and hear the musicians and singers practising.
Neapolitans are never tired of visiting this fabulous place.
The Royal Conservatory of San Sebastiano was established  in 1807 by King Giuseppe Bonaparte. In 1826 it was named Royal Conservatory of Music of San Pietro a Majella. It originated by fusing together three conservatories founded in the 16th century in the churches of Santa Maria di Loreto, Sant’Onofrio in Capuana and Pietà dei Turchini. The aim of the three institutions was to rescue children from the streets of Naples by housing them and educating them through music.
The conservatory and the adjacent church are part of the 14th century monastery of San Pietro a Majella, built at the end of the 13th century and dedicated to Pietro Angeleri, who became Pope as Celestine V in 1294.

The church is also a must-see! The transept is decorated with valuable frescoes dating from the 14th century, baroque marble inlays and a cycle of paintings by Mattia Preti, amongst the others. The fabulous 17 th century cloister with palm and banana trees and a monument to Beethoven by Francesco Jerace, leads to a second cloister and to the Conservatory.
The Conservatory library houses important manuscripts of the numerous composers  who lived and worked in Naples.

Alice: Also Neapolitan-by-adoption like me love to walk down the narrow, tree-lined street and hear notes from guitars, violins and mandolins waft in and out of the doors of the stores. Music lovers will truly appreciate this corner of Neapolitan history. Don’t be shy like I was initially!We visited Giuseppe Miletti store as well as others the other day to buy a speaker and a mixer for upcoming concerts. Two hours and an impromptu concert later, we walked out smiling and in appreciation of Manuela’s patience for all the models she happily let us try!

When you leave via San Sebastiano, turn left at Spaccanapoli to check out the artisan street vendors and street musicians performing for the throngs of people walking by. If you’re looking for something to please your sweet tooth, there is Gay Odin which has some of the best chocolate and gelato in town.
In the late 19 th c. Isidoro Odin, a young chocolatier from Alba, come to Naples, one of the most important and populated European capitals. Naples was a melting pot where artists, aristocrats, scholars and food-lovers from all over Europe spent their time in the already colorful and busy streets of the city. The first classy and wonderfully smelling factory was opened in Chiaia, the area where it is still today. Isidoro worked day and night to create delicious new delicacies and surprise the Neapolitan fine palates. Gay Odin chocolate was and is still today considered one of the best in town. All phases of production are handmade, from chocolate roasting to packaging. Packaging is still the original from paper with vintage images to fabulous boxes representing Naples’ vedutas and guaches. One of the reasons why it is in the registry of Italy’s historical places.
Fiorella: Hungry for something more substantial? Try out the pizza at historical Pizzeria Lombardi.
Pizzeria Lombardi a Santa Chiara is a 5 th generation pizzeria, decorated with majolica tiles inspired from the next door cloister of Santa Chiara. The first pizzaiolo in the family started in 1892 in his bare basso (street level home) in vico Limoncello where calzoni with ricotta and maybe cicoli or simply tomato sauce were coming out from a frying pan and sold for few liras to the neighbours. Four generations have made pizzas every day in the historical center.
A coffee is also mandatory in 70s original style Settebello bar, a bohemian spot where whoever desire to play the piano is welcome…be advised though that the owner, Pino, is an expert in classical music. Also, his fabulous nephew is a musician who studies music and plays piano between serving one espresso after another. Intellectuals, street artists, old professors, street vendors and students are all sitting at the tables of this welcoming corner, where table service is not charged.

 

RIA ROSA: A FABULOUS NEAPOLITAN CHARACTER

Posted on by alice
Fiorella: Alice I know that you are a big fan of varietà theatre and that you also studied all of the theatres of Naples. Haven’t you also done researches on cafè chantant which inspired your performances? It is a world which isn’t that well known as an important facet of the life and culture of Naples.
You, an American in Naples, you made me fall in love with my compatriot Ria Rosa!
Alice: It is seriously a joy to share with those reading a little about the biography of a woman so revolutionary and ironic!
Historically, Naples is a city of  theatre, music and film: it has the oldest Opera House in Europe which was opened here in 1737. Did you know that Enrico Caruso was from Naples?
More recently Pino Daniele, beloved in all of Italy composed blues songs in Neapolitan dialect. You cannot forget about the actors such as Vittorio De Sica, Totò, Sofia Loren among others who are etched in the fabric of this dramatic city.
Many say that Naples is a stage. You hear the notes it in the voices of those selling fish in the morning, in the calls of the lemon granita vendors on Via Dei Tribunali, on the street corners with buskers playing music from all over the world, in the piazzas full of performances of every type and the way people tell a story to their best friend over coffee.
A few years ago I had an opportunity to spend a summer researching women in theatre and music during Naples heyday at the Fondo De Mura in Castel Nuovo (Maschio Angioino).
The Belle Epoque with the Festival of Piedigrotta, Salone Margherita and a pervasive culture of performance produced exceptional writers, actors, dancers and musicians but there was one woman who I came across, Ria Rosa (Maria Rosaria Liberti), who changed the
face of the traditional Neapolitan song. I had to put her song “Preferisco il ‘900” (I prefere the 20th century) in my show which she wrote in Neapolitan the early 30’s in New York.
New York is the city where she settled after doing a tour there in her early 20’s:
My boyfriend is not modern, he prefers the 19 th century. Instead, I like the 20 th century
Every day I get so angry!
This girdle needs to be loosened, it is such a waste of time
Lipstick, cigarettes, men’s trousers… he doesn’t want to see any of it, he would rather die!
Instead, I want to do all of those things just to spite him
I want to smoke, I want to wear lipstick on my lips!  What’s wrong with that?
I want to go walking in the sand of Coroglio Beach, I love the smell of the beach there!

Coroglio Beach     

Il mio fidanzato non é moderno, gli piace l’Ottocento, a me invece piace il Novecento e tutti i giorni mi devo intossicare (arrabbiare).
Il corpetto va allacciato, questo spreco non mi piace. Il rossetto, la sigaretta, i pantaloni alla maschietto… non vuole vedere nulla di questo. Che lo possano ammazzare!
E io invece per dispetto lo voglio fare. Voglio fumare e il rosso sulle labbra voglio vedere! Che male c’è?
Sulla spiaggia di Coroglio mene vado a passeggiare. Sulla sabbia, sugli scogli ma che odore che ci sta.
She went to New York and never looked back. In a world dominated by male composers, agents and producers, she was one of the only women to write and perform her own songs. In contrast to the other songs of immigration, love and family being performed by others who had left the home country, she chose not to adhere to the traditional themes of that time and penned lyrics with social and political importance.
One of the best things about her music is that she never lost the roots of her native Napoli. Not only are the songs in the Neapolitan dialect, they are full of details about the streets, the people and the landscape of the city. Fabulous!
Today when I perform the song, charged with irony and humor but the honesty of having to fight for the freedom of expression, I try to think of all of the courage it took to leave her country and blaze a path for other female performs to come after her.
When Igo to Coroglio beach, a place where music echoes on the water all night at the clubs dotting the coastline, I think of Ria Rosa in New York, imagining herself in trousers, walking unaccompanied in the sand, cigarette in hand and the reddest of lipstick on her.