Vincenzo Russo, the mayor’s yes (whom we thank) to the path of love
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the appeal accepted
NoonFebruary 22, 2023 – 08:19
Of Maurice de Giovanni
When you write a story in a newspaper, for readers who follow the world every day through its pages or website, you contract an obligation: if that story has updates, or surges, or evolutions, you have to account for these. Even running the risk that someone doesn’t remember the topic, so it’s right to make a small summary of the previous episode.
We told you about Vincenzo Russo, an unforgettable poet who lived, very little, between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the following century. He died before he was twenty-eight, in 1904, and in his short life he wrote the lyrics to songs such as Come back May, Maria Mari’ And I’ te vurria vasa’, texts all animated by a single feeling of love for a young lady who lived opposite him and to whom, unfortunately, he could never speak due to the rigid social conventions of the time, which imposed barriers between different social conditions. Vincenzo was very poor, a worker in a glove factory who had managed to acquire the tools to express his lofty art only with evening school; the lung disease got the better of his immense poet’s heart before realizing the dream of speaking at least with Enrichetta, who instead seems to have been waiting for him in sweet and passionate silence.
The songs and story of Vincenzino and Enrichetta are part of a show called Passion and that the undersigned, together with three wonderful musicians (Marco Zurzolo, Marco De Tilla and Carlo Fimiani) and a singer who has the voice of an angel (Marianita Carfora), carries around the theatres: the intent, noble and desperate , to make people remember that behind this splendid soundtrack of our culture to which we have become somewhat accustomed there are stories of people and feelings worthy of being kept in memory. Following the representation in Benevento, we recounted in the previous article, the mayor Mastella and the councilor for culture Tartaglia Polcini with moved determination decided to bring to the city council, obtaining its approval, the proposal to name a street after Vincenzo Russo: an opportunity that the poet had not had in the city where he was born.
And here is the novelty which we must happily inform you of: the mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, has informed the director of this newspaper of the indication given to the toponymy commission to also find a street in Naples that can be called via Vincenzo Russo. We could not have had equal joy if they had told us they wanted to name a street after a next of kin. Vincenzo Russo and his great love deserve perennial memory, much more than many others who have the same honor and who, instead of splendid songs, were the creators of deaths and wars; for this we sincerely thank the mayor of Naples, as we did for the mayor of Benevento before him. Finally, we would like to make a small suggestion to the toponymy commission: why not consider giving the poet’s name to vico delle Ferze al Lavinaio, the narrow street near piazza Mercato where that love and those two lives breathed? It would be even more beautiful if the spirit of that feeling came back to consume the stones of that street, as the song says. After all, places still have a soul.
February 22, 2023 | 08:19
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