Die Zauberflöte, (K. 620) is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue.
Act II Scene 7: A hall in the temple of Ordeal
Tamino and Papageno must again suffer the test of silence, a more difficult variation this time: Pamina enters and tries to speak with Tamino. Since Tamino silently refuses to answer, Pamina believes he no longer loves her. (Aria: “Ach, ich fühl’s, es ist verschwunden”) She leaves in despair.
Ach, ich fühl’s, is considered one of the most beautiful pieces of music in the Magic Flute, and perhaps in all of Mozart Opera. The Orchestral accompaniment presses forward as if desperate heart was beating, and when coupled with the lyric vocal line, shows us Pamina’s pain and longing for Tamino. In the premiere performance of Die Zauberflöte the role of Pamina was sung by the 17-year-old Anna Gottlieb. Gottlieb had previously created the role of Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro
Ach, ich fühl's - Pamina's aria from Die Zauberflöte
Ach, ich fühl's, es ist verschwunden, Ah, I feel it, it has disappeared
Ewig hin der Liebe Glück! Forever gone love's happiness!
Nimmer kommt ihr Wonnestunde Nevermore will come the hour of bliss
Meinem Herzen mehr zurück! Back to my heart!
Sieh', Tamino, diese Tränen, See, Tamino, these tears,
Fließen, Trauter, dir allein! Flowing, beloved, for you alone!
Fühlst du nicht der Liebe Sehnen, If you don't feel the longing of love
So wird Ruh' im Tode sein! Then there will be peace in death!
Liù, Calaf and Timur are in the midst of a processional to the execution of the Prince of Persia who attempted to win the Princess Turandot by answering three riddles. If he had given the correct answers, he would have married the Princess, but the price for incorrectly answering them was death. During the processional, Calaf catches a glimpse of Turandot, falls in love with her immediately, and decides to attempt to answer the three riddles. Liù sings this aria to beg him not to risk his life for the Princess.
Signore, ascolta! Ah, signore, ascolta! Liù non regge più, si spezza il cuor! Ahimè, quanto cammino col tuo nome nell’anima, col nome tuo sulle labbra! Ma se il tuo destino, doman sarà deciso, noi morrem sulla strada dell’esilio. Ei perderà suo figlio… io l’ombra d’un sorriso. Liù non regge più! Ah!
Lord, hear! Ah, sir, listen! Liu no longer holds, it breaks my heart! Alas, what with your name in my way, with your name on the lips! But if your fate will be decided tomorrow, we die on the road of exile. He would lose his son … I am the shadow of a smile. Liu does not hold anymore! Ah!
Giacomo Puccini
Love this man! Puccini *le sigh*
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Though Puccini’s first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller’s adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot by Carlo Gozzi. Turandot was unfinished at the time of Puccini’s death and was later completed by Franco Alfano. The first performance was held at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on April 25, 1926 and conducted by Arturo Toscanini. This performance included only Puccini’s music and not Alfano’s additions. The first performance of the opera, as completed by Alfano, was conducted by Ettore Panizza.
The Duetto buffo di due gatti (“humorous duet for two cats”) is a popular performance piece for sopranos. It is often performed as a concert encore.
While the piece is typically attributed to Gioachino Rossini, it was not actually written by him, but is instead a compilation written in 1825 that draws principally on his 1816 opera, Otello. The compiler was likely the English composer Robert Lucas de Pearsall, who for this purpose used the pseudonym “G. Berthold”.
The music consists, in order of appearance, of:
the “Katte-Cavatine” by the Danish composer C.E.F. Weyse
part of the duet for Otello and Iago in Act 2 of Otello
part of the cabaletta to the aria “Ah, come mai non senti”, sung by Rodrigo in the same act
The lyrics are uncharacteristic, consisting entirely of the repeated word “miau” (“meow”).
The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution (Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L’inutile precauzione) is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto (based on Pierre Beaumarchais’s comedy Le Barbier de Séville) by Cesare Sterbini. The overture, first written for Aureliano in Palmira, is a famous example of Rossini’s characteristic Italian style.
Director
Emilio Sagi
Choreography
Nuria Castejón
Cast
Count Almaviva: Juan Diego Flórez
Doctor Bartolo: Bruno Pratico
Rosina: Maria Bayo
Figaro: Pietro Spagnoli
Basilio: Ruggero Raimondi
Fiorello: Marco Moncloa
Gianluigi Gelmetti (conductor)
Orchestra of the Real Theatre, Madrid
Madrid Symphony Orchesta
Gioachino Rossini’s masterpiece exists in many versions but this new staging from the Real Teatre in Madrid has a lot going for it. First of all there is a star-studded cast including Juan Diego Flórez, Maria Bayo, Pietro Spagnoli and Ruggero Raimondi, four voices which blend beautifully. Then there is the talented artistic director, Emilio Sagi, who takes librettist Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais literally and produces apt and carefully-orchestrated ‘organised madness’ on stage.
The all-white sets offset the local colour in the people of Seville, who are brilliantly choreographed to provide a backdrop to the action. The production is set in the 18th century, towards the end of the ancient regime at the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment. Colour and lighting are used as elements of the drama rather than simply stage design, a dramatic effect in an entirely black and white production where colour is only allowed to infiltrate once the happy ending is assured. And conducted by the great Rossini expert, Gianluigi Gelmetti, this is a feast for all the senses.
The vengeance of Hell boils in my heart,
Death and despair flame about me!
If Sarastro does not through you feel
The pain of death,
Then you will be my daughter nevermore.
Disowned may you be forever,
Abandoned may you be forever,
Destroyed be forever
All the bonds of nature,
If not through you
Sarastro becomes pale! (as death)
Hear, Gods of Revenge,
Hear a mother’s oath!
Che Gelida Manina from La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini
This aria is from Act 1.
La Bohème
Composer: Giacomo Puccini
ACT I. Paris, Christmas Eve, c. 1830. In their Latin Quarter garret, the painter Marcello and poet Rodolfo try to keep warm by burning pages from Rodolfo’s latest drama. They are joined by their comrades — Colline, a young philosopher, and Schaunard, a musician who has landed a job and brings food, fuel and funds. But while they celebrate their unexpected fortune, the landlord, Benoit, arrives to collect the rent. Plying the older man with wine, they urge him to tell of his flirtations, then throw him out in mock indignation. As the friends depart for a celebration at the nearby Café Momus, Rodolfo promises to join them soon, staying behind to finish writing an article. There is another knock: a neighbor, Mimì, says her candle has gone out on the drafty stairs. Offering her wine when she feels faint, Rodolfo relights her candle and helps her to the door. Mimì realizes she has dropped her key, and as the two search for it, both candles are blown out. In the moonlight the poet takes the girl’s shivering hand, telling her his dreams. She then recounts her solitary life, embroidering flowers and waiting for spring. Drawn to each other, Mimì and Rodolfo leave for the café.
Italian Text
Che gelida manina,
se la lasci riscaldar.
Cercar che giova?
Al buio non si trova.
Ma per fortuna
é una notte di luna,
e qui la luna
l?abbiamo vicina.
Aspetti, signorina,
le dirò con due parole
chi son, e che faccio,
come vivo. Vuole?
Chi son? Sono un poeta.
Che cosa faccio? Scrivo.
E come vivo? Vivo.
In povertà mia lieta
scialo da gran signore
rime ed inni d?amore.
Per sogni e per chimere
e per castelli in aria,
l?anima ho milionaria.
Talor dal mio forziere
ruban tutti i gioelli
due ladri, gli occhi belli.
V?entrar con voi pur ora,
ed i miei sogni usati
e i bei sogni miei,
tosto si dileguar!
Ma il furto non m?accora,
poiché, poiché v?ha preso stanza
la speranza!
Or che mi conoscete,
parlate voi, deh! Parlate. Chi siete?
Vi piaccia dir!
English Translation
What a frozen little hand,
let me warm it for you.
What’s the use of looking?
We won’t find it in the dark.
But luckily
it’s a moonlit night,
and the moon
is near us here.
Wait, mademoiselle,
I will tell you in two words,
who I am, what I do,
and how I live. May I?
Who am I? I am a poet.
What do I do? I write.
And how do I live? I live.
In my carefree poverty
I squander rhymes
and love songs like a lord.
When it comes to dreams and visions
and castles in the air,
I’ve the soul of a millionaire.
From time to time two thieves
steal all the jewels
out of my safe, two pretty eyes.
They came in with you just now,
and my customary dreams
my lovely dreams,
melted at once into thin air!
Bu the theft doesn’t anger me,
for their place has been
taken by hope!
Now that you know all about me,
you tell me who you are.
Please do!
Baby Doe sits at a piano, playing and singing for herself. The song she sings sounds like an ordinary song about lost love. However, she is actually singing about her broken marriage with Harvey Doe and how it fell apart.
Baby Doe Tabor
The Ballad of Baby Doe is an opera by the American composer Douglas Moore that uses an English-language libretto by John Latouche. It is Moore’s most famous opera and one of the few American operas to be in the standard repertory (others being Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah and Samuel Barber’s Vanessa). Especially famous are the title heroine’s five arias: “Letter Aria,” “Willow Song,” “I Knew it Was Wrong”, “Gold is a Fine Thing”, and “Always Through the Changing.” Horace Tabor’s “Warm as the Autumn Light” is also frequently heard. Distinguished sopranos who have portrayed Baby Doe include Beverly Sills (Moore’s favorite interpreter of the role), Karan Armstrong and Elizabeth Futral.
The opera’s premiere took place at the Central City Opera in Colorado in 1956. Hanya Holm directed and choreographed the production, and sopranos Dolores Wilson and Leyna Gabriele alternated in the title role. The opera’s New York premiere was presented at the New York City Opera in 1958 in a revised version which added the gambling scene in Act 2 and an additional aria for Baby Doe.
Based on the lives of Horace Tabor, Elizabeth “Baby” Doe Tabor, and Augusta Tabor, the opera tracks their lives from Horace and Baby Doe’s meeting to the death of Horace. “Always Through the Changing” is a postscript ending foretelling Baby’s death.
Monteverdi – “Pur ti miro, pur ti godo” – L’Incoronazione di Poppea
Claudio Monteverdi
L’incoronazione di Poppea (SV 308, The Coronation of Poppea) is an Italian baroque opera comprising a prologue and three acts, first performed in Venice during the 1642–43 carnival season. The music, attributed to Claudio Monteverdi, is a setting of a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello. One of the first operas to use historical events and people rather than classical mythology, it adapts incidents from the writings of Tacitus, Suetonius and others to recount how Poppea, mistress of the Roman emperor Nerone (Nero), is able to achieve her ambition and be crowned empress. The opera was revived in Naples in 1651, but was then neglected until the rediscovery of the score in 1888, after which it became the subject of scholarly attention in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since the 1960s, the opera has been performed and recorded many times.
The original manuscript of the score does not exist; two surviving copies from the 1650s show significant divergences from each other, and each differs to some extent from the libretto. How much of the music is actually Monteverdi’s, and how much the product of others, is a matter of dispute. None of the existing versions of the libretto, printed or manuscript, can be definitively tied to the first performance at the Teatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo, the precise date of which is unknown. Details of the original cast are few, and largely speculative, and there is no record of the opera’s initial public reception. Despite these uncertainties, the work is generally accepted as part of the Monteverdi operatic canon, his last and perhaps his greatest work.
In a departure from traditional literary morality it is the adulterous liaison of Poppea and Nerone which triumphs, although this victory is demonstrated by history to have been transitory and hollow. Moreover, in Busenello’s version of the story all the major characters are morally compromised. Written when the genre of opera was only a few decades old, the music for L’incoronazione di Poppea has been praised for its originality, its melody, and for its reflection of the human attributes of its characters. The work helped to redefine the boundaries of theatrical music, and established Monteverdi as the leading musical dramatist of his time.
This scene come from Act III, Nerone and Poppea sing a rapturous love duet (“I gaze at you, I possess you”) as the opera ends.
Pur ti miro
Pur ti miro,
Pur ti godo,
Pur ti stringo,
Pur t’annodo,
Più non peno,
Più non moro,
O mia vita, o mi tesoro.
Io son tua…
Tuo son io…
Speme mia, dillo, dì,
Tu sei pur, speme mia
L’idol mio, dillo, dì,
Tu sei pur,
Sì, mio ben,
Sì, mio cor, mia vita, sì.
Pur ti miro,
Pur ti godo,
Pur ti stringo,
Pur t’annodo,
Più non peno,
Più non moro,
O mia vita, o mi tesoro.
(Rough English translation)
Simply I aim you,
Simply I enjoy you,
Simply I condense you,
Simply I tie you,
More I do not suffer,
More not dark,
Or my life, or me treasury.
I son yours…
Your son I…
Hope mine, dillo, dì,
You are simply, hope mine
The idol mine, dillo, dì,
You are simply,
Yes, mine quite,
Yes, my cor, my life, yes.
Simply I aim you,
Simply I enjoy you,
Simply I condense you,
Simply I tie you,
More I do not suffer,
More not dark,
Or my life, or me treasury.
