Core 'ngrato meets Joey Skee

This is a slightly spat-upon-then-polished repost, brought to the forefront from its début in January 2009 due to a surge in searches for Core 'ngrato, originating, of course, from the Great Lakes region of the United States. And from some nostalgic soul in Phoenix.

Any excuse will do to listen to the old music.

Part of the refurbishment was to be a short history of the song. In the course of doing that pleasant research, I hit upon the answer to the mystery behind the search statistics:

AN EDUCATIONAL EVENT! An-n-n edu-edu-edu-cay-cay-cay-shun-ul-ul eve-vent-t-t-t-uh.
[Oh. You were supposed to imagine strobbing colors and echo.]

Joseph Sciorra, of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute of Queens College, CUNY, will be presenting a Research in Progress Talk:

Mediated Renderings and Diasporic Musings: "Core 'ngrato," a WOP Song

A transnational stream of music in the Neapolitan tradition flowed from the United States to Italy, with "Core 'ngrato" acknowledged as the first song in the Neapolitan tradition composed or recorded in the United States that traveled to Italy. Historian Sciorra documents the role of lyricist Alessando Sisco's role in this international musical exchange that stretches from performances by Enrico Caruso to the television series "The Sopranos."

Let's meet up, shall we, cari amici, buoni amici? What? Oh. May 13, 2010. 3:30 to 4:30, 3rd floor, Elmer L. Anderson Library. Hmmmm?

Oh. Well, the University of Minnesota.
More precisely:
222 21st Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455



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This Joseph Sciorra fellow? Check out his website dedicated to Italian Rap! And thrill to this effort:

Towards a New Italian American Identity

This site is part of an ongoing effort to develop a sense of Italianità informed by history and vernacular culture that stands in opposition to ethnic chauvinism, racism, sexism, or homophobia.

This site is dedicated to all you historians and writers, you painters, you healers, ecstatic dancers of la pizzica tarantata, sons and daughters of Artemesia Gentileschi and Louis Prima, you women warriors and Neapolitan Rastas, you piece workers and day laborers of poetry and prose, devotees of La Madonna Nera, you po-mo neo-streghe, you nuovi briganti leading the cultural insurrection for fresh ideas, a reinvented community, and a new vision of who we are and what we can become.

Also, maybe better, known as Joey Skee, Joseph Sciorra is a folklorist, the associate director of Academic and Cultural Programs at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Queens College, City University of New York.
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La Bonne et Belle Bianca Castafiore is an avid Sopranos fan.

Having sold her Pioneer Elite Kuro PRO-111FD as part of the scheme to defraud local tourists fool enough to think that Francois Ier's bedroom might be found at the end of a three foot tunnel into the northern stone wall of Marlinspike Hall's Murky Moat, she now has to plop her considerable self down on our bed to have access to telly-vision.

Fred, long up and about, sat perched in the monk's choir section we scavenged last summer from one of the many 12th century Tête de Hergé Trappist monasteries -- he managed to seamlessly convert the careful carving and intricate iconography of the cabinetry into a computer work station that might be confounded with one of those numerous light, functional and terribly blonde Scandinavian excuses for furniture.

Obviously not having much foresight, he tittered in my general direction as I groaned, seasick from the white-tipped waves in the waterbed -- the ocean twisting and frothing under the Castafiore's plopped girth. (Any physicist can tell you that *plopped* girth is a totally different animal from yer everyday plain girth.)

Fred will get his, fret not. I am thinking flying buttress...

"Chut!" Bianca hissed, as apparently I was thinking too loud. "C'est l'heure! Taisez-vous! On n'entend rien!"

I'm not sure, but I think I heard "connards," followed by "salopes." La Bianca is about to become less belle the more she leaves traces of her fading... bonté -- ifyouknowwhatimean and I think you do.

Lucky for her, my bad humor fades away as we semi-snuggle, in typical European cooptation of girlish erotica, and watch the final episode to Season 3, both sniffing and sneezing as Dominic Chianese -- with a loving vibrato and far away eye -- sings Core 'ngrato.

Here are three versions of this lovely Neapolitan song -- leaving out Caruso and Corelli only because of the poor quality of their recordings.

Dominic Chianese



Andrea Bocelli



Placido Domingo




CORE 'N GRATO
(Cardillo e Cordiferro)
Beniamino Gigli (Italy)

Catarì, Catarì...
pecchè mm''e ddice sti pparole amare?!
Pecchè mme parle e 'o core mme turmiente Catarì'?!
Nun te scurdà ca t'aggio dato 'o core, Catarì...
Nun te scurdà...
Catarì...
Catarì, che vène a dicere
stu pparlà ca mme dà spàseme?
Tu nun ce pienze a stu dulore mio?!
Tu nun ce pienze, tu nun te ne cure...

Core, core 'ngrato...
T'hê pigliato 'a vita mia!
Tutto è passato...
e nun ce pienze cchiù

Catarì, Catarì...
tu nun 'o ssaje ca fino e 'int'a na chiesa
io sò' trasuto e aggiu pregato a Dio, Catarì...
E ll'aggio ditto pure a 'o cunfessore: "Io stò' a murì
pè chella llà...
Stò a suffrì
stò a suffrì nun se pò credere...
stò a suffrì tutte li strazie..."
E 'o cunfessore, ch'è perzona santa
mm'ha ditto: "Figliu mio làssala stà, làssala stà!..."

Core, core 'ngrato...
T'hê pigliato 'a vita mia!
Tutto è passato...
e nun ce pienze cchiù