Libero Bovio (9 June 1883 – 26 May 1942) was a

Neapolitan Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to: Geography and history * Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city * Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...

lyricist and dialect poet. Bovio was one of those responsible for the rejuvenation of Neapolitan dialect in plays, poetry and song at the beginning of the twentieth century. He took odd jobs at newspapers and then went to work in the export office of the National Museum. He then became director of ''Canzonetta'' a small publishing concern dedicated to the

music of Naples Naples has played an important and vibrant role over the centuries not just in the music of Italy, but in the general history of western European musical traditions. This influence extends from the early music conservatories in the 16th century t ...

. A collection of his dialect comedies appeared in 1923 and his collected poems were published in 1928. He is primarily remembered for his lyrics to some 600

Neapolitan songs Canzone napoletana (), sometimes referred to as Neapolitan song ( nap, canzona napulitana ), is a generic term for a traditional form of music sung in the Neapolitan language, ordinarily for the male voice singing solo, although well represented b ...

, set to the music of prominent Neapolitan songwriters of his day. Among his best remembered lyrics are ''Reginella'',

Passione (song) Passione is a 1934 Neapolitan song with text by Libero Bovio (d.1942) and melody by Ernesto Tagliaferri and Nicola Valente. The song was a standard piece in the repertoire of tenors such as Mario Lanza, Giuseppe di Stefano and Luciano Pavarotti ...

, O paese d' 'o sole'' and, in 1925, ''Lacreme napulitane'', a song that describes the drama of the immigrant Neapolitan in America.

References

1883 births 1942 deaths 20th-century Italian poets {{Italy-poet-stub