Hilton Head Island: four Carusos and a Modigliani

Four Carusos may be far more than you want.  One might be more than you want.  But I like variations on a theme and after YouTube presented me with a duet by Luciano Pavarotti and Lucio Dalla one led to another.

I had not known of Lucio Dalla before seeing that video and thought:  what audacity to go mano a mano with Pavarotti, and what’s more bring it off.  As is sometimes the case, once I learned more it was not audacious at all.  It is Lucio Dalla’s song.  He wrote it and he knew what he could do and he had been famous in Italy for a long time.

Here is that duet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxeL8wpyy2w

I wondered about the lyrics.  I think they are very good.

Here is a video of Pavarotti solo with English captions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDEdZfnULIg

I found a Wikipedia article which explains the origins of the song.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caruso_(song)

Here is a video of Dalla shot partially in the Caruso Suite at the Excelsior Vittoria Hotel in Sorrento, Italy, where Caruso spent some of the final weeks of his life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqtSuL3H2xs&list=RDJqtSuL3H2xs&start_radio=1

And if you can stand one more, here is a different visual interpretation in a recording by Julio Iglesias.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9LcB8o17so

From the duet of Pavarotti and Dalla, YouTube took me to a video ‘Modigliani’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-GMYDoTfI0

This seemed to come from a movie and I discovered it does, MODIGLIANI, a 2004 film starring Andy Garcia as the title character.  It begins with the statement that the film is a work of fiction based loosely on the characters.  I watched it on Amazon Prime Video, but it is also available for rent elsewhere.  I enjoyed the film, which mostly concerns Modigliani’s rivalry with Picasso and his last love affair, and afterwards wondered how much of it is true.  Again Wikipedia provides the answer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amedeo_Modigliani

From photographs Modigliani was a handsome man.  He was also only 5’ 3” tall and was loved by a woman who literally could not live without him.

Although the movie is in English, I recommend that you turn on the subtitles, which identify many of the other artists who have entered the tribal consciousness.

This is my last day in the now hot marsh for two months.  I fly to Chicago and Carol tomorrow.  Heat Index numbers next week will be between 100-110F/38-43C, but I won’t be here.  I have already made my dawn walk from the next-door grounds of Civil War Fort Mitchell to the end of A Dock and back.  Reluctantly, because I like to wake and get a glass of grapefruit juice and a cup of coffee and return to bed to read online what folly the world has gotten up to, I must admit that these early walks and bike rides are a very good way to start the day.  They change the day in a very positive way.

I am writing by our bedroom window.  I look up.  I will not miss the heat, but I will miss this beauty:  the live oaks, the Spanish moss, the spartina, Skull Creek, the marina, the birds, even the squirrels.  And I look forward to being back.