Another event of the interesting literary review “Platealmente” took place at the Karol Theater in Castellammare di Stabia last Monday, February 6th. Starting on January 11th, the event will feature well-known authors presenting their latest literary works.
This time, on the stage of the Karol, the journalist Pierluigi Fiorenza, and the actress Federica Citarella in the role of reader, welcomed the Neapolitan singer Mario Maglione – spiritual heir of Roberto Murolo – and his biography “Vico Gerolomini, 11 where my story begins”, published by Guida Editori.
Title inspired by the street where the latter was born and which represents a true forge of memories, to which the artist is always viscerally tied.
The book is the result of passionate stories by the Neapolitan singer intended for the elaboration and final pen of Professor Vincenzo De Luca, who has faithfully transferred into it the events and emotions belonging to Maglione, authentically translating the artist's soul.
For the author, a lover of art and monuments in particular, Naples has a great privilege: the word is eternalized by music. In this context he considered it important to write the biography of an icon of that Neapolitan, whose voice, among all, knows how to eternalize poetry with innate simplicity, interpreting the thought of Maestro Di Giacomo.
For De Luca, in fact, the classical Neapolitan song is identified with poetry and should be assimilated to a true monument of our culture.
“We have a privilege in Naples: the word eternalized by music. The Neapolitan word becomes song when it is poetry. While elsewhere poetry is written, and remains written, and is memorized in the silence of reading, in Naples it is eternalized through music. There is this rebound of the word that becomes a score.”
This Karol event soon turned into a show, thanks to Maglione who – accompanied on the piano by Maestro Gianlorenzo Scotti – generously reached the audience with the performance of some classic Neapolitan songs such as “Era 'e maggio”, “Fenesta vascia”, “O surdato nnammurato”.
Moments of sublime beauty, in which voice and melody flowed, caressing the admiring glances of those present, and the words – with the artist's dense and rhythmic breathing – came to life and freed the imagination of the audience, enraptured by the seductive force unleashed by such a noble song, a vivid testimony of that eternity described shortly before by De Luca.
Following the brilliant singing performances, the author pleasantly underlined how Maglione's life - trained at the university of the street - was enhanced by his condition as a "scugnizzo" in search of a future and with a dream in his heart: music. His voice, De Luca reiterated: "has brought the highest taste of classic Neapolitan song around the world. Inside his voice there is Naples, the sun, the suffering, the rain, the redemption, the garbage as a contradiction in a city that is noble and that is continuously exploited. His voice is the tip of the iceberg and under that tip there is an enormous magma."
The literary project, born during the lockdown due to the pandemic, a period during which De Luca and Maglione recorded their conversations - and in which the latter, like a river in flood, flooded the former with everything his memories suggested to him - is destined to have a sequel in the theater, where his life and the emotional value of it will be represented. Where beyond the applause and the illustrious acquaintances that have crossed his career, it is evident how beautiful Maglione's life has been.
A clarification following which De Luca, with evident satisfaction, stated: “I invite you to read the book to understand how much life there is in his life.”
And with the same awareness we also suggest you immerse yourself in reading this text that explores the human and professional growth of an artist who never gave up, who from a bar boy took his first steps in the world of music dedicating himself to the drums, but who later gave proof of his abilities as a guitarist, an instrument that he never abandoned and that accompanied him in his artistic ascent, up to the crucial meeting that sealed the birth of a rare and true friendship with Roberto Murolo.
“Roberto Murolo, a star who illuminated Mario Maglione's career, placed the following dedication on the album “Suonno”: This album is an example of precision and interpretation of the classic Neapolitan song, I consider Mario Maglione a worthy continuator of the song of Naples and, in particular, of the interpretation of the songs of my father Ernesto Murolo.”
– from “Vico Gerolomini, 11 where my story begins” by Vincenzo De Luca
Annamaria Cafaro
