Sunday Concert: Godfathers of Soul & Opera

The late, great Godfathers of Soul and Opera,
James Brown and Luciano Pavarotti,
once shared a stage and a song.
It's a Man's World.

Sunday Concert: Jussi Bjorling sings Mattinata

The world lost this wonderful voice in 1960, when he was only 49 years old. While you are at it, listen to his Nessun Dorma.

Sunday Concert: The Girl is Mine!

Perhaps the most beautiful aria ever written, sung by Domingo, Carreras, and Pavarotti ...

Lyn wondered at the meaning of the words. Nessun Dorma is an aria from Puccini's last (and unfinished) opera, "Turandot". If I understand correctly it has, like much of opera, a ridiculous plot. Basically the prince wants the love of the princess but must hide his name from her until dawn - if he succeeds he wins her hand: if he fails he dies. Sort of an even more cruel version of Rumplestiltskin.

Il Principe:
Nessun dorma!... Nessun dorma!...
Tu pure, o Principessa,
nella tua fredda stanza
guardi le stelle che tremano
d'amore e di speranza!
Ma il mio mistero
è chiuso in me,
il nome mio nessun saprà!
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo dirò,
quando la luce splenderà!
Ed il mio bacio scoglierà
il silenzio che ti fa mia!

Coro donne:
Il nome suo nessun saprà...
E noi dovrem ahimè, morir, morir!...

Il Principe:
Dilegua, o notte! tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle! All'alba vincerò!
Vincerò! Vincerò!


And here's the English translation.

The Prince:
No one sleeps!... No one sleeps!... *)
Nor do you, o princess
in your cold room
Look the stars that tremble
with love and hope!
But my mystery
it is locked in me,
my name no one will know!
No, no, only on your mouth I will reveal it,
when dawn's light will shine!
My kiss will break the silence
and make you mine!

Female choir:
His name no one will know...
And we shall have, alas, to die, to die...!

The Prince:
Disperse, o night! Set, you stars!
Set, you stars! With the dawn I will win!
I'll win! I'll win!
------
Previous Sunday Concerts:
Amazing Grace

Jamie Barton - Wow!

Photo Courtesy of Indiana University.
Copyright Holder: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera.

Jamie Barton, our Armuchee girl, has made it bigtime in opera this year. We have known Jamie since she was a young teen. She is one of the finest, most unassuming kids ever - unbelievable pipes but definitely not the stereotypical prima donna. Today NPR broadcast the finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Jamie's two arias were outstanding, as I knew they would be. She sang the witch's aria from Hansel und Gretel with great skill and humor. And our local kid was one of six Grand Prize winners! Congratulations, Jamie!

Here is her journal of the competition from the Indiana University website.
Here is the story of her win from the same website.

The Flitter Mouse

I certainly felt like a flittering little mouse. Desperately flipping the pages of the score, peering through my bifocals with my head tilted backwards, frantically trying to keep my eyes, my tongue, my tones in place as the pros around me sang precisely and with vivid expression and confident volume, and I sang a beat late, a half-step high or low, and mangled the words. Strauss is spinning in his tomb as I post. I have agreed to a small part in Die Fledermaus. I will be Dr. Blind, the stuttering, incompetent lawyer. I stuttered but my stutters were not in the right places. I am certifiably incompetent, however, and not only in the law. I have surely lost my mind.

Not me.

I will be sixty years old in a couple of months and yesterday I attended my first opera - actually two short operas by Puccini. Shock! I really enjoyed them. I thought that before I performed in an operetta, I should, at least have seen and heard an opera in person. I admit to secretly listening to a few arias from the operatic literature in recent years, and I even asked my voice teacher to help me learn to sing my favorite, Puccini's Nessun Dorma. But I never expected to be asked to perform in an opera - actually an operetta, but it's close enough for me.

So, y'all come. March 8 & 9, 7:30 p.m., Rome City Auditorium. I'm gonna work really hard to avoid making a complete fool of myself.

Please leave your tomatoes at home.