Capri bids farewell to Peppino di Capri: the island honors the 'dreamer' who reshaped Italian music over seven decades
The coffin of the singer who spent nearly seven decades reshaping Italian music was carried into Santo Stefano church on 12 July, accompanied by Bach and a crowd that overflowed into the piazzetta of his native Capri.
Funeral in the former cathedral
The light-wood coffin of Peppino di Capri, covered with yellow roses and a portrait of the singer, was carried into the former cathedral of Santo Stefano on Capri at 5 PM on Sunday 12 July. Bach's "Air on the Fourth String" played as his sons Igor, Edoardo and Dario accompanied the bier. Outside, a giant screen mounted in the Piazzetta allowed hundreds who could not enter the packed church to follow the rite. The island declared city mourning from 5 PM. As the ceremony ended, the opening of "Il sognatore" filled the air and the crowd broke into applause.
Peppino had a great love and this great love he sang and it was music, he gave voice to pure love.
Seven decades of Italian music
Giuseppe Faiella, universally known as Peppino di Capri, died on Saturday 11 July at 86, just over two weeks short of his 87th birthday on 27 July. A child prodigy who already enchanted American soldiers at the piano at age four in post-war Capri, he built a career that touched seven decades. He won the Sanremo Festival twice in a record 15 appearances and received the Ariston prize in 2023. The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles paid tribute to his influence. His 1962 single "Let's twist again" held the top of the Italian chart for 32 weeks, making it his biggest-selling record. In 1965 Italian promoters wrote his name in large letters on posters to boost ticket sales when the Beatles toured Italy. He also revived traditional Neapolitan song, winning the final edition of the historic Festival di Napoli in 1970 with "Me chiamme ammore". His "Saint Tropez" featured in Dino Risi's classic film "Il Sorpasso". Last summer, already weakened by a long illness, he sang "Champagne" one last time from the audience at the Certosa di San Giacomo.
He is someone who perhaps redesigned the way of making music in Italy in the 1950s and 1960s. I believe the judgment is unanimous that he was among the founding fathers of those who then revolutionised the sound, importing sonorities from America and fusing them with Neapolitan music and Italian music.
Family, island and the dreamer
Son Edoardo said his father's favourite song was "Il sognatore", a melancholic and elegant piece that now reads to him as an autobiography. The former wife Roberta Stoppa was present, as were the mayor of Capri, Paolo Falco, and the parish priest, Don Pasquale Irolla. Falco called the singer "an icon of Italian and international music" who never broke his bond with the island, and an emblem of post-war Italy's ability to rebuild.
Peppino di Capri leaves a great example, the example of an Italy that in the post-war period was able to rise again, and he leaves an example for young people and all of us of how from a small island like Capri you can achieve world success by making art and leaving your art imprinted.
Dignitaries and a Napoli anthem
Among the notable figures who traveled to Capri were Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis, prefect Michele di Bari and businessman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo. De Laurentiis told the congregation that Peppino had composed a Napoli anthem in the 1980s and that he plans to resurrect it for the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona when the football season resumes. The funeral ended with a final ovation as "Il sognatore" echoed through the ancient church.
