Un amore così grande

Guido Maria Ferilli composed Un amore così grande in 1975 at the request of the arranger Detto Mariano, with words by Antonella Maggio, and Mario Del Monaco recorded it that year — one of the last records the tenor made before retiring. The song was written deliberately in the register and phrasing of opera rather than of popular music, and that calculation is what carried it: it passed to Claudio Villa and then into the repertoire of tenors generally. Ferilli, from Salento, has written for both fields throughout his career.