Funiculì, Funiculà 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.

English Translation.

Do you know where I got on, yesterday evening, baby?
Where this ungrateful heart can't be spiteful to me more!
Where the fire burns, but if you
run away it let you go!
And it doesn't run after you,
doesn't tire you, looking at sky!...
Let go on, let go, let go,
funiculi', funicula'!

We go from the ground to the
mountain, baby! Without walking!
You can see France, Procida and
Spain...
I see you!
Pulled by a rope, no sooner said
than done, we go to the skies..
We go like the wind all of a sudden, go up, go up!
Let go on, let go, let go,
funiculi', funicula'!

The head has already got on,
baby, got on!
It has gone, then returned, then
come...
It is still here!
The head turns, turns, around,
around,
around you!
This heart always sings one of these days Get married to me, baby!
Let go on, let go, let go,
funiculi', funicula'!

Interesting Fact..

Six years after Funiculì, Funiculà was composed, German composer Richard Strauss heard the song while on a tour of Italy. Thinking that it was a traditional Italian folk song, he later incorporated it into his Aus Italien symphony. To his great embarrassment, Strauss later realised his mistake.

This one always makes me feel Happy and I just can't help singing along.
Enjoy.

Nessun Dorma achieved pop status after it was used by the BBC for their TV coverage of the 1990 Football World Cup, See the video link below. It's as good now as it ever was. Luciano's signature rendition and the best...The title translates from Italian to "No one will sleep",
English Translation.
The Prince:

No one shall sleep! ... No one shall sleep!
Even you, O Princess, in your cold room, watch the stars, that tremble with love and with hope.
But my secret is hidden within me, my name no one shall know ...
No! ... No!... On your mouth I will tell it when the light shines.
And my kiss will dissolve the silence that makes you mine! ...

The Chorus of women:

No one will know his name and we must, alas, die.

The Prince:

Vanish, O night! Set, stars! Set, stars!
At dawn, I will win!
I will win! I will win!

The story concerns and relates to Carmen, a beautiful gypsy with a fiery temper. Not careful with her love, she is responsible for the downfall of many men.
The opera was premiered at the Opéra Comique of Paris on March 3, 1875

This song was inspired by a man. In September 1902 the president Giuseppe Zanardelli went to an official visit to Sorrento. He took up lodgings in to hotel in which worked Giambattista De Curtis as a decorator. In those days Sorrento town was a failure, The roads were terrible and the local services did not work and houses were not done well. To get president Zanardelli to do something as soon as possible he wrote him this song. . The words of this song invited the president to return to Sorrento to look at all its beauty. From then on this Neapolitan song is one of its most famous in the world.
The song was written in a very
short time and yet it will stay
with us forever...
as will the Pavarotti renditions.
God Bless Luciano.

Sunlight dances on the sea
Tender thoughts occur to me
I have often seen your eyes
In the nighttime when I dream

When I pass a garden fair
And the scent is in the air
In my mind a dream awakes
And my heart begins to break

But you said goodbye to me
Now all I can do is grieve
Can it be that you forgot?
Darling forget me not!

Please don't say farewell
And leave this heart that's broken
Come back to Sorrento
So I can mend

"This is one of seven poems from Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake which Schubert set to music in 1825. Translation
Hail Mary, maiden of heaven, sovereign of grace and Pious Mother accept every hour a fervent prayer.

Do not deny to my lost heart to tremble in its pain.

Lost, my soul turns to you and full of hope it prostrates itself at your feet.

It invokes and awaits for the beautiful peace that only You can give it.

Hail Mary, full of grace, Mary, full of grace x 2. Hail mother of the Lord.

The Lord be with thee. Thou [art] blessed amongst all women and blessed [are] men.And blessed is the fruit of the womb,of thy womb Jesus. Hail Mary!

"O sole mio" is a globally famous Neapolitan song written in 1898.
A famous tale surrounding the song is its playing in the 1920 Olympic Games, in Antwerp, Belgium, when the music to the Italian national anthem could not be found

The Pope sent a telegram of condolence, which was read out at the start of the service. He said Pavarotti had "honored the divine gift of music through his extraordinary interpretative talent". Bravo...Luciano

Rest in Peace, Luciano,

" The world will always hear your voice"