For one of the few times in his life, Franco Trincale was speechless. The man who had spent some 60 years belting out song after song about the exploitation of workers, sundry social injustices and Italy’s political and criminal travails during decades of social upheaval could barely speak above a whisper.

“I’ve lost my voice,” he croaked to the room full of well-wishers who had gathered in the town hall of Militello, his hometown in southeastern Sicily, to honor their compatriot who — like thousands of other Sicilians — had emigrated to northern Italy during the postwar boom and made good.