The Archivio Storico della Canzone Napoletana, once again in collaboration with the Sorrento Foundation and Municipality, returns to Sorrento following the exhibitions dedicated to the De Curtis brothers and to Aniello Califano. The Cento anni insieme (One-hundred years together) are those that have elapsed since the first Neapolitan song (Mamma mia che vo sapè) was recorded by Enrico Caruso, who went to great lengths for the distribution of Neapolitan melody all over the world.
The exhibition is a journey through the artistic career and the private life of the most famous tenor in the world, who was like one of the family in Sorrento. It is not by chance that his legend returned to Sorrento, just to take off once again and go around the world, when during a stormy night Lucio Dalla gained inspiration for his post-modern romanza that was born "qui dove il mare luccica" (here, where the sea sparkles). The flair of the display, characterized by many exhibitions that have been proposed by the Ascn to date, is exalted by the material collected in Villa Fiorentino, where it will remain on show from July 10th until August 30th. Thanks to the photographs that the New York Metropolitan has put at the exhibition's disposal, we shall be able to admire the costumes and theatre shots of the most famous and successful operas performed by the tenorissimo. Thanks to the recordings belonging to the Archivio, we shall be able to listen to his voice as it sings arias, romanze, Neapolitan songs and classics written for and by him. Thanks to the Ristorante-Museo Caruso (Caruso Restaurant-Museum, again located in Sorrento) the figure of don Enrico will live once again, with his unrestrainable joie-de-vivre, in the midst of caricatures, billboards, convivial photographs and miscellaneous curious tidbits. Thanks to the Fondazione Bideri, more unprecedented material will be on display that is at the core of the description of a global legend such as "the great Caruso". Thanks to Teche Rai and the American archives, it will be possible to view film footage of Caruso, showing him in motion, both silent and sound, so close yet so distant from our times. Thanks to the Istituto Centrale per i beni sonori e audiovisivi(State Record Library) it will be possible to reconstruct his recording successes.
In other words, an extraordinary display curated by the Artistic Director of the Archivio, Paquito Del Bosco, which was established to celebrate the multimedia turning-point of the largest juke-box in the world, of the melody digital museum that was lost and once again found, but even an important contribution to the battle requesting UNESCO to add Neapolitan song in the World Heritage List of properties to be safeguarded.