andolin player and Italian composer. By 1900 he wrote his first song: “Cara Mamma”, which was published to great acclaim.

That was the beginning of a long and oustanding activity as composer with an output of around two thousand songs in fifty years. Some of them reached international fame like “Santa María Luntana”, “La Leggenda del Piave”, “Vi Prego”, “Vipera”, “Io, na Chitarra E 'a Luna”, and “Comme se Canta a Napule”, which was recorded by Carlos Gardel.

When he died the military paid homage to him and was accompanied to his grave by a band playing his “Leggenda del Piave” that he had composed in a postal wagon one June night of 1918 when he returned from the warfront.

Mario was born in Naples on May 5, 1884 and there he died on June 24, 1961.