Steven Wagner - Stevan Vagner, Podrum COLLEGIUM MELODIUM, World music museum in BELGRADE, Great Tenor from Stocholm Opera JACQUES RADINSON , present, "Funiculì, Funiculà" ,a famous Neapolitan song composed in 1880 by Luigi Denza, with lyrics by Peppino Turco. It was written to commemorate the opening of the first funicular cable car on Mount Vesuvius. It was presented by Turco and Denza at the Piedigrotta festival the same year. The sheet music was published by Ricordi and sold over a million copies within a year. It has been widely adapted and recorded since its publication. Six years after "Funiculì, Funiculà" was composed, German composer Richard Strauss heard the song while on a tour of Italy. Thinking that it was a traditional Neapolitan folk song, he incorporated it into his Aus Italien tone poem. Denza filed a lawsuit against Strauss and won. Strauss was forced to pay him a royalty fee. Russian composer Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov also mistook "Funiculì, Funiculà" for a traditional folk song and used it in his 1907 "Neapolitanskaya pesenka" (Neapolitan Song)] Cornetist Herman Bellstedt used it as the basis for a theme and variations titled Napoli; a transcription for euphonium is also popular among many performers. Modernist composer Arnold Schoenberg arranged a version for ensemble in 1921] which was used in an episode of the TV sitcom Seinfeld.[citation needed]. An instrumental version was also used in the Woody Allen film Broadway Danny Rose, where it is often played as background music.

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