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Photo of Diana Rogliani (Rome, Associazione Antonio de Curtis)
Malafemmena, words and music by Totò, score, Naples, Edizioni Musicali La Canzonetta, 1951 (Rome, Associazione de Curtis)
The score for Malafemmena
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Dedicated to Diana Rogliani, Antonio de Curtis’ wife who lived with him from 1931 to 1951, Malafemmena was composed in the year of their separation.
For many years in the world of showbusiness this song was associated with the name of Silvana Pampanini with whom Antonio de Curtis had become infatuated on the set of 47 morto che parla. It was in the year 1950. When Totò revealed his love to the curvaceous Silvana it appears that the reply he received was the following: “I love you too, as if you were my father.”
This is the testimony of Franca Faldini, who was Totò’s companion for fifteen years: “I met Antonio de Curtis in 1952. Every time we entered a club the orchestra would play Malafemmena, as if it were an anthem. One day I asked Antonio if it was true that he’d written this song for Pampanini; his reply was: Silvana is a really decent girl, as if I could ever label her Malafemmena”.
Giacomo Rondinella, who performed the historic 1951 recording, recalled that:
“Shortly after the separation from his wife, Totò said to me: “Giacumì, I’ve written a melodramatic Neapolitan song, but you can dance to it”: it was Malafemmena. He sang it softly to me, like he did for the others, with no accompaniment. I suggested a small change to the first version to adapt it better to my interpretative tones. The short line that I added concerned the end of the chorus and that is the soaring of the voice: Femmena, tu si 'na malafemmena, which Totò completed with Te voglio bene e t'odio / nun te pozzo scurdà. I really want to underline that the song, contrary to what has been sustained by some meddlers, is completely by Totò.
Performed for the first time in 1951 by Giacomo Rondinella with the Gorni Kramer Orchestra at the Teatro Quirino in Roma, Malafemmena was also the first song by Totò to be cut as a 78 rpm disc by Fonit in 1951, with the performance by the same G.Rondinella with Maestro Sciorilli’s Orchestra.
As well as several Neapolitan melodramas, two films have been based on Malafemmena : Totò, Peppino e la Malafemmena (Toto, Peppino, and the Hussy) (1956) by Camillo Mastrocinque and Malafemmena (1957) by Armando Fizzarotti
Vocca a vocca cu’ tte, parole e musica di Totò, spartito. Ancona-Milano, Edizioni Musicali Farfisa (Roma, Associazione Antonio de Curtis)
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Si avisse fatto a n’ato
chello ch’e fatto a mme
c’ommo t’avesse acciso,
tu vuò sape pecchè?
Pecchè ‘ncopp’a sta terra
femmene comme a te
nun ce hanna sta pe’n’ommo
onesto comme a me !
Femmena,
tu si na malafemmena...
Chist’uocchie ‘e fatto chiagnere
Lacreme e ‘nfamità.
Femmena
Si tu peggio ‘e na vipera,
m’e ‘ntussecata l’anema,
nun pozzo cchiù campà.
Femmena,
si ddoce comme ‘o zucchero
però sta faccia d’angelo
te serve pe ‘ngannà
Femmena
tu si’a cchiù bella femmena
te voglio bene e t’odio
nun te pozzo scurdà
Te voglio ancora bene
ma tu nun saie pecchè
pecchè l’unico ammore
si stata tu pe me
E tu pe nu capriccio
tutto’e distrutto , ojnè
Ma Dio nun t’o perdone
chello ch’e fatto a mme! |
If you had done to another
what you did to me
that man would have killed you
do you want to know why?
Because on this earth
women like you
should not be with a man
as honest as me!
Woman
you’re a wicked woman
You’ve made these eyes weep
Tears and disgrace.
Woman
You’re worse than a viper,
you’ve poisoned my soul,
I can’t go on.
Woman
you’re as sweet as sugar
but your angel’s face
you use to deceive
Woman
you’re the most beautiful woman
I love you and I hate you
I can’t forget you
I still love you
but you don’t know why
because my only love
you were to me
And because of your whim
everything is destroyed,
But God, won’t forgive
what you’ve done to me!. |
