The art of the Neapolitan canzone as a folk traditional song goes back a long way, and took off after the annual songwriting competition for the Piedigrotta Festival in the Naples area of ​​Mergellina was established in 1830. The song that won that historic competition, Te voglio bene assaie, traditionally attributed to Gaetano Donizetti. Little by little, the Neapolitan canzone goes beyond the boundaries of Naples and even the whole of Italy: Italian emigrants spread it throughout Europe and America, and its popularity was boosted by the interpretations of renowned opera artists. In the Neapolitan canzona, the unique recognizable sound of the Neapolitan dialect and the buoyant Mediterranean melody of broad lines are combined, which often brings the interpretation requirements of an opera aria.

He leaves some of the most beautiful examples Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846-1916), who, although a native of central Italy on the Adriatic side, distinguished himself by composing both Neapolitan and salon songs of a lighter genre. From his native Ortona, he goes to the Conservatory in Naples, where, in addition to the excellent craft he studies with the opera composer Saverio Mercadante, he also absorbs the local flavor. He manages to break through by gaining patrons in the circles of the Italian and later the English aristocracy after he moved to London. In 1882, he composed a song based on the text of Carmelo Errico Ideal, an emotional meditation on the ideal love that the poet is looking for. In the song Malìa (Enchantment), from 1887, the poet (Rocco Pagliara) wonders, with a passionate melody accompanied by a shimmering piano accompaniment, what it was about the flower she gave him, what enchanted him and why he felt like he was going to die. In the song The last song a young man says goodbye to his beloved who is getting married tomorrow, singing their old song to her for the last time. It is one of the most beautiful and famous Neapolitan canzones Marechiare, a passionate serenade in the moonlight by the sea, for which, as legend has it, Tosti was inspired by a melody that a flautist kept repeating. The poet Salvatore di Giacomo described the Marechiaro district of Naples, where he had never been, but when he arrived at the inn there years later, it was decorated in every detail as in the poem, and even the innkeeper's name was Carolina, like the girl from the verses. He is one of the famous Neapolitans Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857-1919), today primarily known for his famous realist opera And Pagliacci. Little is known about the rest of his oeuvre, which includes about fifteen operas and operettas and a number of shorter compositions. The exception is famous Morning which he composed for Enrico Caruso in 1904. The text, in contrast to the serenade, talks about the white dawn that is born while the young man sings in vain to the sleeping sweetheart. Vincenzo De Crescenzo (1915-1987) was a Neapolitan poet and musician, whose romance Rondine al nido it talks about lost love: the idyll of spring and the swallow returning to its nest contrasts with the feelings of the poet, whose love will never return. Saint Lucia it is a traditional Neapolitan canzone, which he translated from the dialect into Italian Teodoro Cottrau,  publishing it in 1849, in the midst of the struggle for the unification of Italy, as the first Neapolitan poem with Italian lyrics. In a lovely barcarolle, the poet invites passengers on his barge to admire the beauty of picturesque Santa Lucia in the Bay of Naples. Another famous Neapolitan composer Ernesto de Curtis (1875-1937) is the author of some of the most beautiful and popular canzones, such as Makes Surriento, Sona chitarra!, Canta pe' me, Serenade gelos i dr. Do not forget me (Do not forget me) was created in 1935 for the film of the same name, in which the famous tenor Beniamino Gigli sang the song. After a melancholic minor introduction, a ravishing melody develops in the rhythm of a waltz. The song soon becomes world famous, and it is not far behind Tu, ca non chiagne (You, who don't cry), a passionate song about longing for love, which he composed in 1915 to the dialectal verses of Liber Bovi. Cesare Andrea Bixio (1896-1978) is another Neapolitan composer whose songs are experiencing world fame. He is the author of more than five hundred Neapolitan canzones as well as songs and music for film, theater, radio, television and festivals. In a waltz Venezia mia pays tribute to the beauty of a city created for love. Parla mi d'amore, Mariù it is one of the most famous, and it was first sung by Vittorio de Sica in the film Gli uomini, che mascalzoni... from 1932. Mariù was a nickname for Bixi's wife, to whom the song is dedicated. Song Passion from 1934 is one of the classics of Neapolitan canzone – it is the result of a fruitful collaboration between poets Liber Bovi, representative of the golden epoch of the Neapolitan canzone and two Neapolitan composers, Nicole Valenta i Ernesto Tagliaferri. The Vincenzo D'Annibale collaborates with Bovia on the song 'O paese d' 'o sole, from 1925, in style tarantella, in which the poet sings about returning from a foreign country to Naples, the land of sun and sea. Dicitencello howls (You tell her) is a passionate plea, in which a young man begs his beloved's friend to convey to her his feelings, which are so strong that he can no longer live. But when he sees a tear on the face of the one he's talking to, he admits to her that she's the one he loves. Enzo Fusco the author of the text is a Rodolfo Falvo the music of the song that was created in 1930.

Celebrated tenor Tomislav Male returns to Split with a program of Neapolitan songs. Since last season, he has been re-engaged as a permanent member of the soloist ensemble of one of the most prestigious opera houses in Europe, the Semperoper in Dresden, where he performs a number of roles to which this season he adds the role of Walther von Stolzing in To master singers. Tomislav Mužek has a rich career behind him: a series of roles in the Italian repertoire, from Nemorino to Love potion and Rodolfo u La bohème, in which he is remembered by the Split opera audience, to roles such as Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Alfredo (The Traviata), Tamino (The magic flute), Pollione (Norma), Lohengrin, etc. With a series of Wagnerian roles, he conquers the most important Wagner stage, the one in Bayreuth. He was born in Siegen and studied, among other things, at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In 1999, he won the first prize in the competition Ferruccio Tagliavini and then became the youngest soloist of the Vienna State Opera. Performances take him to opera houses such as the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the State Opera in Berlin Unter den Linden, German Opera in Berlin, State Opera in Hamburg, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Bolshoi Theatre, Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, Vienna Volksoper, Teatro Communale in Florence and Bologna, Teatro Real in Madrid, Operas in Nice, Marseille, Avignon, Bordeaux , the New National Theater in Tokyo, etc., as well as the National Theater in Zagreb and Split. Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, Daniele Gatti, Gustavo Dudamel, Gianandrea Noseda, Riccardo Muti, Myun Whun Chung, Vjekoslav Šutej, Christian Thielemann, Andris Nelsons and Ivan Repušić are just some of the conductors with whom he collaborated.

Pianist and composer Darko Domitrović regularly performs at concerts as a soloist and accompanist for singers and violinists. After graduating from the Vatroslav Lisinski School of Music in Zagreb, he continued his education at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and the College of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He won a number of competitions, among which the Citta di Senigallia International Piano Competition in Italy stands out. Since 1990, he has been employed at the Academy of Music in Zagreb. He gives concerts all over the world, and behind him is an enviable series of recordings and discography releases. He is the author of the musical Byron with which he won the award of the Croatian Theater in the category of operetta and musical in 2018, as well as compositions for piano (cycle Pianobook...), cycle of songs based on verses by Cervantes and Lorca, and several popular compositions. He is a member of the Croatian Society of Composers and the Croatian Society of Music Artists.

FP Tosti: Ideals

FP Tosti: Malìa

FP Tosti: L'ultima canzone

FP Tosti: Marechiare

R. Leoncavallo: Mattinata

V. De Crescenzo: Rondine al nido

T. Cottrau: Santa Lucia

*****

E. De Curtis: Non ti scordar di me

E. De Curtis: Tu, ca nun chiagne

CA Bixio: Venezia mia

CA Bixio: Parlami d'amore Mariù

N. Valento/E. Tagliaferri : Passione

RV D'annibale: 'O paese d' 'o sole

R. Falvo: Dicitencello howls