In a message dated 11/12/2001 8:25:54 AM Central Standard Time,
ODivaTina@a... writes:
ODivaTina@a... writes:
<< Hi Chris
Since we're the same fach, I am interested in this piece. Can you tell me
something about it? Thanks!
TinaO >>
It sits kind of low, actually, but it's really beautiful. It opens with a
piano part that is supposed to reproduce a violin solo from a silent movie
soundtrack - very fluid, very romantic sounding. The character is Nazimova,
the aging silent movie actress who championed Valentino as an actor and (in
the opera) ultimately ruined his career by putting him at odds with the Mogul
and in bad movies where he didn't come off as masculine. It's part of a
dream sequence in which Valentino is looking back at his life and where it's
taken him, and suddenly Nazimova and his two ex-wives (both lesbians, as was
Nazimova) show up. If you do this for a recital, the two ex-wives (one
mezzo, one soprano) sing a rather haunting few lines before the aria and at
the end with Nazimova.
Nazimova sings this wonderful text:
"Into my reveries you came, a glorious phantom dream.
Into the sunset of my day, you came arresting time.
You were a glorious phantom dream.
You were a face to complement my own.
So young, such beauty in your youth,
Such ardor in your eyes, in your lips.
And in a flash, I bloomed, I bloomed again,
Years fell away.
I was once more an iris -
bending in a summer dream.
It was a phantom dream - a phantom dream."
It's quite melodic. You need a good pianist. The photocopy I have is from
the pre-published score, since I was the Woman in Red in the world premiere
production with Washington Opera. Joyce Castle created the role of Nazimova,
and she is a lyric mezzo - some of her current roles include Augusta and
Orlofsky, the Old Woman in Candide, etc.
Christine Thomas
Wauwatosa, WI
<A HREF="http://hometown.aol.com/mezzoid/myhomepage/profile.html">
http://hometown.aol.com/mezzoid/myhomepage/profile.html</A>
"Pace, mio Dio, pace, mio Dio."
-- La forza del destino, Giuseppe Verdi
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