Core 'ngrato


"Core 'ngrato", also known by the first words "Catarì, Catarì", is a 1911 Neapolitan song by emigrant American composer Salvatore Cardillo with lyrics by Riccardo Cordiferro.
It was adopted by Enrico Caruso but it is not known whether he commissioned Cardillo and Sisca to write it. It is the only well-known standard Neapolitan song to have been written in America.
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 don't think about it any more!".
The song was sung in the season three finale of The Sopranos by Dominic Chianese in character as Corrado "Junior" Soprano Jr.

The Caruso Recording

The second stanza in the recording by Enrico Caruso presents a variant to the text. Caruso's own copy of the sheet music is in his archives, held in the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University. The variant is found written in Caruso's hand. The digitized score is accessible at https://peabody.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16613coll8/id/304/rec/47
E l'aggio ditto ca pe stu dulure Catarì, vurria muri'.
Catarì, sto a suffri' nun 'nze po credere,
Sto a suffri' tutte li pene,
E c'una fede che na cosa santa
Aspetta chesta grazia o sta cundanna.

Covers