Vocalist.org archive


From:  Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
Date:  Wed Jan 30, 2002  11:44 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Need some quick help...

On Wed, 30 Jan 2002, Laura Ruiz wrote:

> 1. "Oh, qual pallor!" the duet from La Traviata
> I have a translation, and I vaguely know the opera, so if I absolutely
> have to I could probably come up with something myself, but I don't know
> the opera THAT well.

"O qual pallor" is actually the lead-up to the duet that's much better
known as "Un di felice...eterea". Alfredo Germont is a young man from
Provence who has been sowing his wild oats in Paris for a few months. He
is attending his first party at the home of Violetta Valery, a famous
courtesan, with whom he falls in love at first sight. This scena and
duetto take place after Violetta has left the room after suffering a
"spell" (coughing and faintness, brought on by her case of terminal
tuberculosis). Alfredo, having noticed her departure, follows her, and the
"O qual pallor" is his observation on seeing how pale she appears (she's
just recovered from coughing up blood into her hankie). She is surprised
that he - a stranger - should be so concerned for her when none of her
alleged friends are. This is when he confesses that today is the happiest
day of his life because he has met and fallen in love with her. Her
riposte is lighthearted, telling him how love is a game, not to be taken
at all seriously, etc. Only later, when he leaves the party, does she
reflect on his confession in the very famous scena/aria "Ah, fors e
lui...Sempre libera".

>
> 2. "Steal Me Sweet Thief" from The Old Maid & The Thief
> Again, I have the words, and I've seen the opera once, but don't feel
> entirely comfortable with writing a brief synopsis of what's going on
> here.


Laetitia is the housemaid to Miss Todd, an elderly spinster. Laetitia is
no spring chicken herself - a woman in her mid '30s in the late 1930s.
Basically, "on the shelf". Miss Todd and Laetitia have taken in a
charming though indigent stranger, Bob, as a temporary lodger, although
they increasingly come to suspect that he may be the mysterious person
responsible for a number of house robberies in their small town. Laetitia,
fed up with living a spinster's life waiting on an even more confirmed
spinster, sees Bob as her last chance at escaping her dreary life into a
life of love and romance. "Steal me, sweet thief" is the expression of her
dreamy longing for him to execute this rescue mission. She sings it a week
after Miss Todd is informed by Miss Pinkerton, another town spinster, that
a man of Bob's description has been doing the local robberies; Miss Todd
and Laetitia have agreed not to let on to Bob that they suspect him. Just
after this aria, Bob sings HIS aria expressing that he's getting antsy
sitting around the house all day, and is eager to be on his way back to
his idealistic vagabond existence ("When the air sings of summer"). He
tells Laetitia of his plans to leave when she discovers him packing his
bag. The only thing that will induce him to stay is if Miss Todd will buy
him some liquor. Hilarity ensues when Miss Todd, who is so obsessed with
her IMAGE in town as an upright, churchgoing lady, realizes she cannot
POSSIBLY be seen purchasing a bottle of booze. So she hatches a plan,
instead, to surreptitiously break into and raid the liquor store under
cover of darkness at night. Anyway - that all happens after Laetitia's
aria, so I hope the above is enough background.



>
> I did try aria-database.com, but the script doesn't seem to be working.
> I get errors everytime I initiate a search. Very frustrating. It's
> such a great resource, I hope it can be fixed sometime soon.


It's amazing how many times I've emailed Robbie Glaubitz about the
numerous technical (not content) problems with his database. You'd think
he'd at least pay a little attention to my complaints given he's my old
voice teacher's son! Ah, well - you're not the only one who has struggled
with the Aria Database. Great information, but unfortunately rather
amateurish Web-interface-to-Database software coding, which is the reason
for all those errors.

I'll send Robbie another email, with your observation attached. Maybe one
of these days he'll get sick of hearing from me about it and just fix the
problem.

Karen Mercedes
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
***************************************
What lies behind us, and what lies before us
are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson




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