Core 'ngrato

Core 'ngrato (Ungrateful Heart), also known by the first words Catarì, Catarì (short and dialectal form for Caterina, a female first name), is a 1911 Neapolitan song by emigrant American composer Salvatore Cardillo with lyrics by Riccardo Cordiferro (real name Alessandro Sisca).

It was adopted by Enrico Caruso but it is not known whether he commissioned Cardillo and Sisca to write it.^[1] It is the only well-known standard Neapolitan song to have been written in America.^[2]

In the song, Catarì's lover reproaches the girl for thoughtlessly and heartlessly rejecting his abiding love for her; he implores her not to forget that he has given her his heart and that his soul is in torment; and he says he has confessed his feelings to a priest, who advised him to let her go.

The song's title comes from the heartfelt passage, Core, core 'ngrato, Te haie pigliato 'a vita mia, Tutt' è passato, E nun nce pienze cchiù! (which approximates in English to, Ungrateful heart, you have stolen my life. It's all over and you no longer think about us!)

Notable interpreters aside from Caruso himself include Giuseppe di Stefano,^[3] Beniamino Gigli, Mario Lanza,^[4] Dominic Chianese,^[5] and Luciano Pavarotti^[6]

References