Luciano Pavarotti sings “Caruso”, a song written by Italian singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla (4 March 1943 – 1 March 2012). The song is about the last days of the great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso. Orchestre de Paris conducted by James Levine. Recorded live in Paris.
Lucio Dalla (4 March 1943 – 1 March 2012) composed this beautiful song dedicated to legendary Italian tenor Enrico Caruso in 1986. The version sung by Pavarotti sold over 9 million copies, and another version was a track on Andrea Bocelli‘s first international album, Romanza, which sold over 20 million copies worldwide.
This song is most probably a way of romanticizing Enrico Caruso’s last days in Sorrento and Naples.
Lucio Dalla was a popular Italian singer-songwriter, musician, and actor. He also played clarinet and keyboards.
The story of the song “Caruso”
Lucio Dalla once visited the Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria in Sorrento, where the great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso spent the last two months of his life and where he kept intact his books, his photographs, and his piano. A guy named Angelo, who had a bar in the port, told this story to him:
Caruso was ill with throat cancer and he knew those were his last days… but that didn’t prevent him from giving singing lessons to a young girl with whom he loved. It was a hot night and he would not give up singing for her looking at him with admiration, so he brought the piano to the terrace overlooking the port and began to sing a passionate declaration of love and suffering.
His voice was strong and the fishermen, hearing, returned to port and remained anchored on the terrace. The lights of the boats were so many that looked like stars … Caruso did not lose strength and continued singing sinking in the most beautiful green eyes of the girl leaning against the piano. That night his condition worsened. Two days later, on August 2, 1921, Caruso died in Naples.
The song “Caruso” song narrates the drama of that night, with lights and shadows of the past… with death and life… a sick man who looks in the eyes of the girl a future that no longer exists… a testament of love, a declaration of love… This was his last concert, and had the most exceptional public … the sea, the stars in the sky, fishermen, the lights of the boats, and his beloved girl… “
Related: Pavarotti sings Una furtiva lagrima
“Caruso” Lyrics
Italian
Qui dove il mare luccica
E tira forte il vento
Sulla vecchia terazza
Davanti al golfo di surriento
Un uomo abbraccia una ragazza
Dopo che aveva pianto
Poi si sciarisce la voce
E ricomincia il canto
Te voglio bene assai
Ma tanto tanto bene sai
E una cantena ormai
Che sciogliei sangue dint’e vene sai
Vide le luci in mezzo al mare
Pens alle notti l in America
Ma erano solo le lampare
E la bianca scia di un’elica
Sent il dolore nella musical
E si alz dal pianoforte ma quando vide uscire
La luna da una nuvola
Gli sembro pi dolce anche la morte
Guardo negli occhi la ragazza
Quegli occhi verdi come il mare
Poi all’improvisso usci una lacrima
E lui credette di affogare
Te voglio bene assai
Ma tanto tanto bene sai
E una cantena ormai
Che sciogliei sangue dint’e vene sai
Potenza della lirica
Dove ogni dramma un falso
Che con un po’di trucco e con la mimica
Puoi diventare un altro
Ma due occhi che ti guardano
Cos vicini e veri
Ti fan scordare le parole
Confondono I pensieri
Cos diventa tutto piccolo
Anche le notti l in America
Ti volti e vedi la tua vita
Dietro la scia di un’elica
Ma si la vita che finisce
E non ci penso poi tanto
Anzi si sentiva gi felice
E ricomincio il suo canto
Te voglio bene assai
Ma tanto tanto bene sai
E una cantena ormai
Che sciogliei sangue dint’e vene sai
English Translation
Here, where the sea shines and where the wind howls,
on the old terrace in front of the Gulf of Sorrento,
a man embraces a girl after she has cried
then he clears his voice and continues the song:
I love you very much,
very, very much, you know
it is a chain by now
that melts the blood inside the veins, you know
He saw the lights in the middle of the sea, thought of the nights there in America,
but they were only the fishermen lamps and the white wake of a propeller (stern)
He felt the pain in the music and got up from the piano,
but when he saw the moon emerging from a cloud
also, the death seemed sweeter to him.
He looked in girls eyes, those eyes as green as the sea,
then suddenly a tear fell and he believed he was drowning.
I love you very much,
very, very much, you know,
it is a chain by now
that melts the blood inside the vein you know
The power of lyric, where every drama is fake
with a little make-up and with mime you can become someone else.
But two eyes that look at you so close and real
makes you forget the words and confuse the thoughts
So everything became small, even the nights in America
You turn and you see your life as a wake of a propeller (stern)
Yeah, it’s a life that ends, but he didn’t think too much about it
on the opposite, he felt already happy and began again to sing
I love you very much
very very much, you know
it’s become a chain
that melts the blood inside the veins, you know
