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41-697: EVOC has been on hiatus since 2010 as Kiesewalter started work on a new project he calls Brooklyn Rundfunk Orkestrata (BRO) to cover songs from The Sound of Music with the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. In 2004, EVOC released their first album, La Donna , under the Canal Records label. On this album, Ross and Kiesewalter fuse classic Italian arias and Neapolitan folk songs with "unabashed 70's arena rock , sultry bossa nova , four-on-the-floor disco, and celtic and bluegrass -tinged ambience." It

82-477: A 2009 Grammy nomination for Best Classical Crossover Album. The CD contains the following tracks: EVOC's music has drawn comparisons to other contemporary artists in pop culture including the Trans-Siberian Orchestra , Mannheim Steamroller , or Metallica 's S&M ( Symphony and Metallica ) album. Music of Naples Naples has played an important and vibrant role over

123-750: A maternal orphan is a child whose mother has died, a paternal orphan is a child whose father has died, and a double orphan is a child/teen/infant who has lost both parents. This contrasts with the older use of half-orphan to describe children who had lost only one parent. Orphans are relatively rare in developed countries because most children can expect both of their parents to survive their childhood. Much higher numbers of orphans exist in war-torn nations such as Afghanistan . Famous orphans include world leaders such as Aaron Burr , Andrew Jackson , and Pedro II of Brazil ; writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Leo Tolstoy ; and athletes such as Aaron Hernandez . The American orphan Henry Darger portrayed

164-516: A child who has lost only one parent, as the Hebrew translation, for example, is "fatherless". In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usually relevant (i.e., if the female parent has gone, the offspring is an orphan, regardless of the father's condition). Various groups use different definitions to identify orphans. One legal definition used in

205-488: A permanent multimedia exhibit dedicated to Enrico Caruso . The theater is located, appropriately, in a traditional part of town, Piazza Calenda, at the extreme eastern edge of the old historic center of Naples. These are the websites of some of the places in Naples that host musical activities: Orphan An orphan is a child whose parents have died, are unknown or have permanently abandoned them. It can also refer to

246-508: A rule, many of the plots were flimsy after-the-fact vehicles to promote particular songs. The sceneggiata started shortly after World War I , was extremely popular in the 1920s, then faded, but has been enjoying somewhat of a comeback with newer generations of performers since the 1960s. The most populars performers of the genre are the Neapolitans, Mario Merola , Pino Mauro and Mario Trevi . The most popular sceneggiata ever written

287-454: A wide variety of sources, from American jazz and rock to middle-eastern and African music . One example of African influence is the recent CD Oggi o dimane by the well-known Neapolitan singer and actor Massimo Ranieri . Essentially, it is a collection of well-known Neapolitan songs composed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Marechiaro and Rundinella , backed by north African string and percussion instruments. Also,

328-610: Is Zappatore , (meaning, exactly, "clodbuster," one who works the land and breaks up the soil for farming) written to feature a song of that name in 1929 by Bovio and Albano. It then became a stage production and was even made into a film on various occasions, the first one actually from a film company in Little Italy in New York City . (Literally, "singer-songwriter".) This music has been extremely popular throughout Italy for decades and its popularity continues to grow. As

369-595: Is Piazza Plebiscito, the spacious open square on the west side of the Royal Palace. Other outdoor venues include the Communal Gardens, a half-mile long park along the sea-side. Also, after decades of neglect, the Trianon theater has now reopened as a theater of Neapolitan Song. It has an impressive program of traditional Neapolitan plays and musicals, an art gallery, very good acoustics, and will soon have

410-403: Is known for using protest songs from all over the world and for his skills as a percussionist , flautist and saxophonist . Well-known songs in this genre include Napule è and Terra mia , both by Pino Daniele. Like all popular music—and even classical music (for example, The Silk Road Ensemble of cellist Yo-Yo Ma )—very recent Neapolitan popular music has incorporated influences from

451-453: Is largely anonymous music. It features traditional folk percussion instruments such as the putipù --consisting of a membrane stretched across a resonating chamber, like a drum. A handle attached to the membrane compresses air rhythmically within the chamber; the air then spurts out of the not-quite-hermetic seal that fastens the membrane to the wooden body of the instrument to produce a "burping" sound; Often combining dance, music, and drama,

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492-461: Is tear-shaped with a bowl back and a uniquely cut and shaped front (sounding board); it has eight strings paired into the four violin tunings of g, d', a', and e'. The strings are played with a plectrum, producing the rapid and characteristic tremolo sound as the plectrum moves rapidly over unison strings. In that configuration, the Neapolitan mandolin started to be manufactured widely in Naples in

533-559: Is the local stage musical form called the Sceneggiata . Around the start of the 20th century, they were performed in the U.S. in areas populated by Italian immigrants. The form has been called "a musical soap opera" and generally revolves around domestic grief, the agony of leaving home, personal deceit and treachery, betrayal in love, and life in the world of petty crime. It is always sung and spoken in Neapolitan dialect. Action stops every few minutes for someone to break out in song. As

574-483: Is the most frequent venue several times a year for large visiting orchestras. The nearby Teatro Mercadante, a charming old theater from the late 1790s—and along with San Carlo one of the official royal theaters of the day—has reopened after many decades of sporadic use. With the resurrection of the mammoth overseas fair grounds, the Mostra d'Oltremare (originally built in the 1930s) in the nearby community of Fuorigrotta,

615-571: The United States is a minor bereft through "death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, or separation or loss from, both parents". In everyday use, an orphan does not have any surviving parent to care for them. However, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), and other groups label any child who has lost one parent as an orphan. In this approach,

656-420: The 1950s but was eventually abandoned as well. The period since 1950 has produced such songs as Malafemmena by Totò , Maruzzella by Renato Carosone , Indifferentemente by Mario Trevi and Carmela by Sergio Bruni . Although separated by some decades from the earlier classics of this genre, they have now become "classics" in their own right. (See main article for more information.) By definition, this

697-806: The Alessandro Scarlatti Association, usually staged in the Teatro delle Palme off of Via dei Mille in the Chaia section of Naples. As well, smaller groups and musical productions avail themselves of a half-dozen or so theaters around town that also double as cinemas. Additionally, the Naples music conservatory has recently refurbished and opened an auditorium on the premises and puts on regularly scheduled concerts of various kinds of music, often featuring conservatory students and faculty. The largest public venue for music, parades, political rallies, installation art, New Year's celebrations, etc.

738-639: The English term "musical" (or, occasionally, the Italian commedia musicale —a translation of "musical comedy") has come to be used over the last few decades in Italy, in general, and Naples, in particular, to describe a kind of musical drama not native to Italy, a form that employs the American idiom of jazz-pop-and rock-based music and rhythms to move a story along in a combination of songs and dialogue. Obviously,

779-929: The Netherlands 300,000 in Poland and 200,000 in Yugoslavia, plus many more in the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, China and elsewhere. Orphaned characters are prevalent as literary protagonists, especially in children's and fantasy literature . The lack of parents leaves the characters to pursue more exciting and adventurous lives, by freeing them from familial obligations and controls, and depriving them of more prosaic lives. It creates characters that are self-contained and introspective and who strive for affection. Orphans can metaphorically search for self-understanding by attempting to know their roots. Parents can also be allies and sources of aid for children, and removing

820-1303: The Obscure , Victor Hugo 's Les Misérables , Edgar Rice Burroughs 's Tarzan of the Apes , Rudyard Kipling 's The Jungle Book , and J. R. R. Tolkien 's The Lord of the Rings . More recent authors featuring orphan characters include A. J. Cronin , Lemony Snicket , A. F. Coniglio , Roald Dahl and J. K. Rowling . One recurring storyline has been the relationship that the orphan can have with an adult from outside their immediate family, as seen in Lyle Kessler's play Orphans . Orphans are especially common as characters in comic books. Many popular heroes are orphans, including Superman , Batman , Spider-Man , Robin , The Flash , Captain Marvel , Captain America , and Green Arrow . Orphans are also very common among villains: Bane, Catwoman , and Magneto are examples. Lex Luthor , Deadpool , and Carnage can also be included on this list, though they killed one or both of their parents. Supporting characters befriended by

861-488: The Teatro Mediterraneo on those premises is now, as well, a frequent stage for all types of musical performances. The fair grounds site has the added advantage of containing, as well, the newly reopened outdoor amphitheater, the arena . It hosts summer performances of various kinds, including, most prominently, grand opera such as Verdi 's Aida . There is a large program of chamber music in Naples, hosted by

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902-460: The centuries not just in the music of Italy , but in the general history of western European musical traditions. This influence extends from the early music conservatories in the 16th century through the music of Alessandro Scarlatti during the Baroque period and the comic operas of Pergolesi , Piccinni and, eventually, Rossini and Mozart . The vitality of Neapolitan popular music from

943-479: The finest musical theaters in the world. Under the short French rule of Murat in the early 19th century, the original four conservatories were consolidated into a single institution, which was relocated in 1826 to the premises of the ex-monastery, San Pietro a Maiella . The conservatory still bears the inscription "Royal Academy of Music" over the entrance and is still an important music school in Italy. It houses an impressive library of manuscripts pertaining to

984-813: The following tracks: EVOC's second, self-titled album was released September 27, 2005 on the Decca Records label. The album was produced and recorded by Neil Dorfsman, a Grammy Award winner who has worked with notable artists such as Sting and Paul McCartney , and group acts like Dire Straits . Symphonic portions were performed by the Czech Philharmonic . The CD contains the following tracks: EVOC's latest release, Olde School , debuted in August 2008. Produced, arranged and orchestrated by Peter Kiesewalter and mixed by Neil Dorfsman at Saint Claire Studios near Lexington, Kentucky, Olde School received

1025-651: The heroes are also often orphans, including the Newsboy Legion and Rick Jones . Other famous fictional orphans include Little Orphan Annie , Anakin Skywalker , Luke Skywalker and his sister, Leia Organa , and several main characters in children's shows like Diff'rent Strokes and Punky Brewster . Many religious texts, including the Bible and the Quran , contain the idea that helping and defending orphans

1066-678: The horrible conditions of his orphanage in his artwork. Other notable orphans include entertainment greats such as Louis Armstrong , Marilyn Monroe , Babe Ruth , Ray Charles and Frances McDormand . Wars , epidemics (such as AIDS), pandemics , and poverty have led to many children becoming orphans. The Second World War (1939-1945), with its massive numbers of deaths and vast population movements, left large numbers of orphans in many countries—with estimates for Europe ranging from 1,000,000 to 13,000,000. Judt (2006) estimates there were 9,000 orphaned children in Czechoslovakia, 60,000 in

1107-433: The instrument is commonly used in conjunction with a guitar; the mandolin-guitar duo is the traditional instrumentation for the posteggiatori , the street musicians who wander from restaurant to restaurant and serenade for tips. There is in Naples a mandolin academy that attempts to combat that stereotype by promoting other music, classical and modern, for the instrument Little-known abroad, but extremely popular in Naples,

1148-500: The journey to Naples. It was in Sessa Aurunca that he also composed a part of Symphony number 11. The Neapolitan conservatories enjoyed a considerable reputation throughout Europe as training grounds not only for young children to be trained in church music, but, eventually, as a feeder system into the world of commercial music and opera once those areas opened up in the early 17th century. This primed Naples to become one of

1189-491: The late 19th century has made such songs as 'O Sole mio and Funiculì Funiculà a permanent part of our musical consciousness. In the mid-16th century, the Spanish throne established church-run conservatories in its vice-realm of Naples. These institutions were on the premises of four churches in the city of Naples: Santa Maria di Loreto , Pietà dei Turchini , Sant'Onofrio a Capuana , and I Poveri di Gesù Cristo . At

1230-429: The lives and musical production of the composers who have lived and worked in Naples. Canzone Napoletana is what most people think of when they think of Neapolitan music. It consists of a large body of composed popular music—such songs as 'O sole mio , Torna a Surriento , Funiculì funiculà , etc. The Neapolitan song became a formal institution in the 1830s through the vehicle of an annual song writing competition for

1271-524: The lives of Neapolitan street kids ("Scugnizzi) and Napoli 1799 , about the republican revolution of 1799 that briefly overthrew the Bourbon monarchy. The most famous place, of course, to hear music in Naples is the San Carlo opera house. Lesser-known is the smaller theater in the adjacent Royal Palace, a stage often used by the Neapolitan ballet company. Besides being the home of the opera, San Carlo

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1312-576: The mid-18th century. In spite of the modern vision of the mandolin as a quaint vehicle for older, traditional popular music such as the Canzone Napoletana , the instrument has a classical history. Students of the mandolin at the Naples Conservatory are required to perform selections from a large repertoire of music composed especially for the instrument by, among others, Vivaldi , Beethoven and Paganini . Stereotypically,

1353-557: The most important centers of musical training in Europe. By the 18th century, Naples was nicknamed the "conservatory of Europe" and was home and workshop to composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti , Pergolesi , Niccolò Piccinni , Domenico Cimarosa , Rossini , Bellini , Donizetti , etc. Naples was also the birthplace of the popular Neapolitan opera buffa and the site of the San Carlo Theater, built in 1737 and one of

1394-412: The name implies, this genre involves songwriters who sing their own music, inevitably songs of social protest or, at least, social relevance. Modern Neapolitan performers include Pino Daniele (probably the best-known Neapolitan cantautore , both in Naples and elsewhere), Edoardo Bennato , Nino D'Angelo , Daniele Sepe , Rita Marcotulli , Nando Citarella and Ciro Ricci . Sepe is quite influential and

1435-820: The parents makes the character's difficulties more severe. Parents, furthermore, can be irrelevant to the theme a writer is trying to develop, and orphaning the character frees the writer from depicting such an irrelevant relationship; if one parent-child relationship is important, removing the other parent prevents complicating the necessary relationship. All these characteristics make orphans attractive characters for authors. Orphans are common in fairy tales, such as most variants of Cinderella . Several well-known authors have written books featuring orphans. Examples from classic literature include Charlotte Brontë 's Jane Eyre , Charles Dickens 's Oliver Twist , Mark Twain 's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn , L. M. Montgomery 's Anne of Green Gables , Thomas Hardy 's Jude

1476-438: The soundtrack for Derek Diorio 's 2001 film, The Kiss of Debt . The comedic film stars Ernest Borgnine as the godfather and self-proclaimed opera aficionado, and Tyley Ross , as Tino Moriano, the talented young tenor aspiring to sing with The Continental Opera Company. Ross performs " Panis angelicus " and " Ave Maria ", from La Donna , and the rest of the tracks are background music to the fanciful storyline. The CD contains

1517-430: The subject matter and approach to vocalizing are quite distinct from the composed stylings of the better-known Neapolitan song. There are various kinds of mandolins in use in Italy; they bear the names of cities or regions such as the "Roman", the "Lombard", the "Genovese", and the "Neapolitan" mandolin. (see also: mandolin ). They may differ in size, shape, number of strings and tuning. The traditional Neapolitan mandolin

1558-407: The term is used to refer to original American musicals, but now is used, as well, for original productions in Italian and Neapolitan dialect. The first Italian "musical" was Carosello Napoletano , first a stage production and then a 1953 film directed by Ettore Giannini and featuring a young Sophia Loren in the cast. More recent Neapolitan musicals have been C'era una volta...Scugnizzi , based on

1599-525: The time, these institutions were called "conservatories" because they "conserved"—that is, they sheltered and educated— orphans . Since music was such an integral part of the training of the children, by the early 17th century "conservatory" had come to mean "music school" and became used in that meaning in other European languages. On 11 May 1770 and a fourteen-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart arrived in ancient Suessa and then in Capua to rest in two stages during

1640-546: The yearly Festival of Piedigrotta , dedicated to the Madonna of Piedigrotta, a well-known church in the Mergellina area of Naples. The winner of the first festival was a song entitled Te voglio bene assaie ; it was composed by the prominent opera composer, Gaetano Donizetti . The festival ran regularly until 1950 when it was abandoned. A subsequent Festival of Neapolitan Song on Italian state radio enjoyed some success in

1681-561: Was arranged and produced by Peter Kiesewalter, vocal arrangements by Tyley Ross , mixed by Wayne Bartlett at Bartmart Audio, Ottawa, and mastered by Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound, New York. Behind the duo are over twenty musicians, including guitarist Vernon Reid ( Living Colour ), banjo master Tony Trishka, Blue Man Group music director Byron Estep, and a string ensemble from the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada. La Donna found its launching point as

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#10989