I have a Puccini CD. I listen to the first cut going to work. I have discovered that it takes exactly the length of that aria to get me from my front door to the hospital parking lot. It is a beautiful piece and as usual in opera one must willingly suspend disbelief to get to the end of the story as follows:
Nessun dorma (None Shall Sleep) is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot and is one of the best known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf (The unknown prince). In the previous act, Calaf has correctly answered the three riddles put to all of Princess Turandot's prospective suitors. Nevertheless, she recoils at the thought of marriage to him. Calaf offers her another chance by challenging her to guess his name by dawn. If she does so, she can execute him, but if she does not, she will have to marry him. The cruel and emotionally cold princess then decrees that none of her subjects is to sleep that night until his name is discovered. If they fail, all will be killed.
As the final act opens, it is now night. Calaf is alone in the moonlit palace gardens. In the distance he hears Turandot's heralds proclaiming her command. His aria begins with an echo of their cry and a reflection on Princess Turandot:
"Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma! Tu pure, o Principessa, nella tua fredda stanza, guardi le stelle che tremano d'amore, e di speranza!"
(English translation: "None shall sleep! None shall sleep! Even you, o Princess, in your cold room watch the stars that tremble with love and with hope")
"Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me; il nome mio nessun saprà! No, No! Sulla tua bocca lo dirò quando la luce splenderà!"
(English translation: "But my secret is closed in me; none will know my name! No, no! On your mouth I will say it when the light shines!")
Just before the climactic end of the aria, a chorus of women is heard singing in the distance:
"Il nome suo nessun saprà... E noi dovrem, ahimè, morir, morir!"
(English translation: "No one will know his name... and we must, alas, die, die!")
Calaf, now certain of victory, sings:
"Dilegua, o notte! Tramontate, stelle! Tramontate, stelle! All'alba vincerò! Vincerò! Vincerò!"
(English translation: "Vanish, o night! Set, stars! Set, stars! At daybreak I shall win! I shall win! I shall win!")
Pavarotti sings this for me and I get goose bumps by the time I park. What a way to start the day.
4 comments:
Have you looked for a you tube to post, that would be cool? I would lokve to hear it, perhaps I will look.
Very very nice.
I used to time my commute while listening to the long version of In the Goda da Vida, it that the same?
um Opera can get a bit screechy just like (and I had to google this) Inna Godda Davida all 17 minutes and 10 seconds by Iron Butterfly.
Post a Comment