’La Spagnola’ by Gina Lollobrigida, 1955. English & Italian subs

’La spagnola’, The Spanish Woman, a popular Italian song, sometimes classified as “Neapolitan bolero“, was written by Italian singer and songwriter Vincenzo Di Chiara in 1906. It immediately gained international popularity, lasting till today. Greatest voices of 20th century opera, like Rosa Ponselle or Beniamino Gigli were among those who recorded this piece. Another type of interpretation, associated with dance, was offered by Italian cinema superstar of the 1950s, Gina Lollobrigida, in the 1955 movie ’La donna più bella del mondo’ (. ’Beautiful but Dangerous’). The movie presents a fictionalized biography of an Italian opera singer Lina Cavalieri, who began her career as an actress in small, cheap theatres, performing in pubs & the like. In her debut performance Lina sings & dances ’La Spagnola’. It’s a fictional element of this biography, for the real Lina Cavalieri in 1906 was already an opera star, but never mind. Lollobrigida’s performance gained huge popularity in the 1950’s and now is considered one of the classic interpretations of the song. Our clip brings back this performance. The video offers two subtitle tracks: the Italian subs just display what the singer sings, the English language track shows a translation found on the Internet (). The viewer can toggle between these tracks or switch the subs off by clicking the ’settings’ button on the bottom bar of the window.