Since the 1880s, Neapolitan Song entered a new phase of popularity that further amplified its impact. Neapolitan songs were eagerly listened to, played and recorded worldwide, by following what many thought was then an irresistible musical ‘fashion’.
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In Performing Naples Goffredo Plastino explores for the first time the visual evidence of this global phenomenon: the photographs depicting itinerant musicians published in Europe as picture postcards. Self-produced by the bands for their promotion, printed by the venues or distributed during large-scale events, the photographs testified to the thriving vitality of a substantial music market. These fragile and rare ephemera embodied a figurative tradition shared between the singers, the players and their audiences, related to a well-established European ideal representation of the Neapolitans dating back to the 18th century. Unknown and startling, the images collected in this unique volume reveal to our gaze a performance culture long gone and all but forgotten, attesting to the essential role of photography in music iconography.