Music: Groaning Gondolier

'Bruno Quirinetta is an Italian Bing Crosby, Phil Harris and Spike Jones all rolled into one. Recording with his seven-piece Orchestra Quirinetta, he is one of Italy's biggest-selling popular artists. Wherever he plays at fashionable clubs in Rome, Milan, Florence or Rapallo, Italians surrender in droves to his particular brand of gaiety—an infectious mixture of nonsense and nostalgia.

Bruno was not releasing any figures on his income last week—he did not care to let the tax collectors in on anything so personal—but he was as close to a rage as any pop musician can get in a land of opera lovers.

Gurgling Florentine....

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