This book reviews the period from the unification of Italy to the fascist era through significant Neapolitan performers such as Gilda Mignonette and Enrico Caruso. It traces the transformation of a popular tradition written in dialect into a popular tradition, written in Italian, that contributed to the production of "American" identity.

"Frasca combines all her talents in this thorough history and criticism of the role the Neapolitan song has played in shaping Italian and American cultures. She has done some great work digging up the facts and stories behind the songs we all know and love. But more than reveal the lives of those who composed, performed, produced and distributed such classics as 'O Sole Mio' and 'Core 'ngrato,' Frasca provides keen interpretations of the music's form and content. Illustrated with period photos, historical portraits, lyrics, playbills and posters, Birds of Passage, brings new insights of the Neapolitan song and will no doubt be the basis for future studies and analyses of this phenomenon." - Fred L. Gardaphé, Distinguished Professor of Italian American Studies, Queens College, CUNY, USA

'In this fascinating study of the transatlantic migration of Neapolitan song moving back and forth between Naples and New York in the early part of the twentieth century we hear histories and cultures sustained in sound. In a Neapolitan voice in lower Manhattan, in a tune sustained in a transatlantic passage, we catch the complex and popular fashioning of modern metropolitan life. Here music transports and translates seemingly separate historical and cultural localities into a shared and richly differentiated soundscape.' - Iain Chambers, Professor of Cultural, Postcolonial, and Mediterranean Studies, University of Naples, 'L'Orientale", Italy, and author of Migrancy, Culture, Identity (1994) and Mediterranean Crossings: The Politics of an Interrupted Modernity (2008)

Autorentext
Simona Frasca is a lecturer on early sound reproduction and Italian migration, and a freelance music journalist. She hold a doctorate in History and Analysis of Musical Culture from La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy, and is the author of Norah Jones, Piano Girl (2004).

Inhalt
Introduction to the American Edition PART I: CULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE ITALIAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY IN NEW YORK IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY 1.1 The Italian Populations in the Neighborhoods of New York 1.2 Publishing Activity and Religious Holidays 1.3 Musical Venues: 1.3.1 Theaters, Concert Halls, and Schools 1.3.2 Radio Broadcasts PART II: ENRICO CARUSO: THE FIRST NEAPOLITAN STAR 2.1 «La Follia di New York» 2.2. Enrico Caruso's Recording Career with the Victor Talking Machine Company 2.3 The Neapolitan Recordings of Caruso in America 2.4 Caruso and Armstrong: the Italian-American and the African-American, Comparing Ethnicities PART III: THE MUSIC OF THE IMMIGRANT TAKES ON MASS APPEAL 3.1 From Opera to Vaudeville: The Comedians, Writers, and Singers of Caruso's Era 3.2 Eduardo Migliaccio and Tony Ferrazzano 3.3 Giuseppe De Laurentiis 3.4 Armando Cennerazzo 3.5 Raffaele Balsamo 3.6 Giuseppe Milano 3.7 Joe Masiello PART IV: BIRDS OF PASSAGE, THE IMMIGRANTS RETURN HOME 4.1 Dan Caslar 4.2 Glimpses on the Spread of American Music in Naples: From 'O Sole Mio to the Foxtrot 4.3 Two Border Authors: E.A. Mario and Gaetano Lama PART V: MUSIC IS WOMAN 5.1 From the Theaters of Naples to the Stages of New York 5.2 Mimì Aguglia 5.3 Gilda Mignonette 5.4 Teresa De Matienzo 5.5 The Other Women Performers: Ada Bruges, Amelia Bruno, Stella Bruno, Silvia Coruzzolo, Clara Stella, Rosina De Stefano, Ria Rosa, Nina de Charny, Gina Santelia PART VI: THE RECORD LABELS, THE PRODUCERS AND THE ORCHESTRA DIRECTORS 6.1 Italian-American Recording Labels 6.2 Alfredo Cibelli 6.3 The Major American Labels Record Ethnic Music 6.4 Rosario Bourdon 6.5 Nathaniel Schilkret Conclusion History Bibliography