With Saint Valentine’s day just passed and with all the time in the world to listen to music (which hopefully we will be able to hear live once again) I have been delving into Italian song. No, not the operatic arias of the likes of Verdi or Vivaldi but popular song on which so much of these great composers’ music is based.
The archetypal Italian tenor from Caruso to Bocelli has never disdained these products of a less sophisticated milieu and, in particular, the Neapolitan song of which my favourite is that melting ballad ‘cor ‘ngrato’ as sung by the unforgettable Giuseppe di Stefano who I am old enough to remember singing with La Divina Callas (her voice was by then sadly rather less than divina) at a farewell concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall in 1974.
My Milanese-born mother, who was classically trained in piano at the conservatoire of her birthplace (among her graduation pieces was Bartok’s ‘Allegro Barbaro’), would occasionally sing a lovely tune to the words ‘Ma l’amore No.’ She said she remembered it from a wartime film.
I looked into this song recently; it’s interesting how lockdown can conjure up so many early recollections in the deprived social world we are forced to live in these days!
“Ma l’amore no” (But not love) is an Italian song, dating from 1942 and written by Giovanni D’Anzi and Michele Galdieri, which was sung for the first time by Alida Valli in the film directed by Mario Mattoli, “Stasera niente di nuovo”. (‘Nothing new tonight’).
A few months after the release of the film the song was recorded by Lina Termini. The version by Alberto Rabagliati is the one that is the best known but the song has been covered by many other artistes including Mina and Gigliola Cinquetti (my favourite cover version) and US singer Mike Patton (very upbeat and to my mind rather terrible). Several of these singers would come and perform at Bagni di Lucca during its fifties heyday. I wonder if those times will ever return…
Although there was an international trend in Italian songs during the war years largely due to the increasing presence of the Allied American army and there were numerous songs with exotic rhythms and strong jazz accents, this enchanting piece, with its classical tinge, soon became one of the Italian musical leitmotifs of the forties. Indeed, “ma l’amore no” has become a perennial favourite…a sort of Italian equivalent of ‘we’ll meet again’ and that most touching of Second World War songs and one which transcended enemy frontiers to be sung alike by both Allied and Axis powers: ‘Lili Marlene’, originally performed by Lale Andersen.
In spite of some quite convincing covers I have to go back to Alida Valli’s performance. It is simply unbeatable in spite of the fact that the great actress of aristocratic descent – who threw back in the face of the fascists any attempt to make her an icon of Mussolini’s propaganda films – never recorded the song outside its film setting and who, compared with LinaTermini, did not have a particularly projecting voice.
(Alida Valli)
There is another reason why I prefer Alida. She includes a very sweet introductory passage which all subsequent versions cut. Furthermore, in her singing of the chorus stanza Valli introduces a grace note a third interval above which makes all the difference.
Anyway, here is that delectable song interpreted by the wonderful Alida Valli who left us as recently as 2006 after an exceptional career with all the greatest that Italy has produced including Luchino Visconti.
And here is my translation of the Italian words.
”Looking at the roses that bloomed this morning
I think they will be withered by tomorrow
And all things are like roses
Which live a day, an hour and no more.
But love, no, my love cannot
Be dispersed in the wind with the roses.
It is so strong that it will not give up.
It will not fade;
I will watch over it, I will defend it
From all those poisonous snares
Which would like to snatch it from my heart.
Poor love
Maybe you will leave
And you will seek caresses from other loves.
Alas
And if you come back already withered
All sweetness you will find in me
But love no, my love cannot
Dissolve with the gold of your hair
As long as I live it will be alive in me
Only for you
Maybe you will leave
And you will seek caresses from other loves
Alas.
And if you come back already withered
All sweetness you will find in me.
But love no, my love cannot
Dissolve with the gold of your hair.
As long as I live it will be alive in me
Only for you.”
Great songs last for ever whether they have been written by Schubert or Bixio. They are also the best way to enter into the mentality of a nation and to brush up one’s language skills!