Funiculì Funiculà.

  • 16 years ago
This is a famous song written by Italian journalist Peppino Turco and set to music by Italian composer Luigi Denza in 1880. It was composed to commemorate the opening of the first funicular on Mount Vesuvius. It was sung for the first time in the Quisisana Hotel in Castellammare di Stabia and met with huge success. It was presented by Turco and Denza at the Piedigrotta festival during the same year. Edward Oxenford, an English songwriter and translator of libretti, published a version which became somewhat traditional in English-speaking countries.
Although the song was a popular hit performed by Mario Lanza in the 1950's, it is nowadays more associated with the late great Luciano Pavarotti.

This video was made on a D-type Wurlitzer, believed to be the first one to be imported into the UK in 1925. After being used in the "Picture House" Walsall for several years, it was then installed in the Congregational Church at Beer, a delightful little fishing village situated in South Devon UK, where it still remains. http://www.beer-congregational-church.org.uk