FRENCH & ITALIAN ARIAS BIZETI SAINT-SAËNS GLUCK VERDI THOMAS DONZETTI ROSSINI Elms West Australian Symphony Orchestra Sydney Symphony Orchestra
FRENCH & ITALIAN ARIAS GEORGES BIZET 1838-1875 1 L amour est un oiseau (Love is a disobedient bird) (Habañera) from Carmen 3 44 CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS 1835-1921 2 Printemps qui commence (Spring is returning) from Samson et Dalila 6 00 3 Amour! Viens aider ma faiblesse! (Love! Come to my aid) from Samson et Dalila 4 15 4 Mon coeur s ouvre à ta voix (Softly awakes my heart) from Samson et Dalila 5 36 AMBROISE THOMAS 1811-1896 5 Connais-tu le pays? (Know st thou the land?) from Mignon 6 20 6 Rondo-Gavotte from Mignon 2 33 CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK 1714-1787 7 Che faro senza Euridice (What shall I do without my Euridice?) from Orfeo ed Euridice 3 52 GAETANO DONIZETTI 1797-1848 8 O mio Fernando (O my Fernando) from La favorita 7 04 GIUSEPPE VERDI 1813-1901 9 Stride la vampa (Flames are roaring) from Il trovatore 2 53 0 Condotta ell era in ceppi (In chains they dragged her) from Il trovatore 4 56! Nei giardin del bello (In those fair gardens) from Don Carlo 4 56 GIOACHINO ROSSINI 1792-1868 @ Una voce poco fa (A voice can bring) from Il Barbiere di Siviglia 6 02 Total Playing Time 59 14 Lauris Elms mezzo-soprano West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Geoffrey Arnold conductor 1-9, @ Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Narelle Davidson soprano, Eric Clapham conductor 0-! 2
While opera lovers may not wholeheartedly agree, extravagance and eccentricity are blood-brothers when it comes to this art form. In fact, these qualities, to which one might add a dash of megalomania and temper tantrums, are often the stuff of which venerated sopranos and tenors are made. The writer Peter Sainthill amusingly addresses the case of the heroine, often a soprano, who usually dies a few seconds before the final curtain either by jumping off a rampart or from conspicuous consumption. The mezzo-soprano, he feels, represents opera s unsung heroine, generally the saner of the two women, and unlike her rather more volatile and fatalistic companion, the survivor, who is always there holding the hand of the baritone, who also is a survivor. The acerbic Sir Thomas Beecham found a counterpart for the mezzo-soprano in the world of instrumental music by turning to the strings and picking on the viola, whom he dubbed the hermaphrodite of the string family. No generalisation is correct, and, if anything, Lauris Elms collection of operatic arias is an outstanding exception to this notion. Moreover, given her sheer vocal range, sense of colour and ability to identify so readily with the characters she here represents, this CD encompasses arias sung by both mezzo- soprano and soprano (and in one case, counter-tenor). Carmen is a creature of untamed passion, and in her Act I Habañera she makes flirtatious gestures towards Don José, the first of a number of attempts to bewitch and allure him. With Saint-Saëns Samson et Dalila we move from profane to sacred, with this French composer s adaptation of a biblical tale drawn from the Book of Judges. While, in essence, perhaps, it is a tale of brute strength succumbing to feminine charm, it gives its composer (and likewise, its performers) the opportunity to paint some alluring mood-pictures, not the least of them being Dalila s invocation to the return of spring (Printemps qui commence). In the opera, her aria is accompanied by a group of barefoot Ouled Naïl dancers. Celebrating incongruities, Saint-Saëns writes some of the most charming music in Amour! viens aider ma faiblesse. Dalila s plea to Love to come to her aid so that she might overpower the man who is the leader of the hateful Israelites. Later in the second act, she proceeds to serenade Samson 3
with an aria that has achieved something of a cult status. Mon coeur s ouvre à ta voix Softly awakes my heart sings Dalila to an accompanying web of delicacy and sensuousness, whose deeper layers of intrigue are of course intended to elude, and eventually ensnare the hero. Like Carmen, Mignon too is a gipsy. And, as was a custom with some 19th-century opera the principle of happily ever after is transferred to the end of some operas, regardless of what has gone before Ambroise Thomas Mignon has little of the cynicism encapsulated by Goethe in his novel Wilhelm Meister Lehrjahre. Mignon describes the land of her birth from whence she was abducted by gypsies. An orchestral interlude in the original production of this opera, Thomas added words to the Rondo-Gavotte for the famous contralto Zelia Trebelli when she sang the role of Frédéric in the London premiere in 1870. The Orpheus and Eurydice legend has been immortalised by many: Monteverdi, Gluck and even Offenbach have all cast the tale as an opera, and the very first opera known to have been composed (by Peri), was based on this legend. What is life without my Euridice? laments Orfeo when he realises that he has lost his beloved forever. Unrequited love, a notion that one could tattoo onto several 19th-century operas isn t quite what happens at the end of Gluck s Orfeo: touched by his lament, Che farò, the goddess Amor restores Euridice to life and she is reunited with Orfeo. A less believable, more convoluted plot is the premise of Donizetti s La favorita. Leonora, the king s mistress, has been excommunicated by the Pope and is in love with Fernando, a novice monk. He asks for her hand in marriage, but discovering that she was once the king s mistress, returns in depression to the monastery. Nothing however, can take away from the music of Leonora s marvellous tribute to her beloved, O mio Fernando sung before Fernando finds out the truth. It is gypsies to whom we return for Verdi s blood and thunder opera ll trovatore. Azucena has stolen the infant brother of Count di Luna with the intention of burning the child to death. Accidentally, it is her own child she consigns to the flames and the surviving child, Manrico (the troubadour), she raises as her own. 4
In her Act ll aria, Stride la vampa! Azucena, in dark, flashing mood, tells of how in the bitter past her mother had been burned as a witch. Later, in Condotta ell era in ceppi she recalls, in Manrico s presence, both the abduction of Count di Luna s brother and the immolation of her own child. Act ll of Don Carlo finds the Princess Eboli in her garden together with Tebaldo, the page. As they await the arrival from church of the new queen, Elisabeth de Valois, they while away their time with the so-called Song of the Veil. It is accompanied by a brisk Aragonaise rhythm in the orchestra and is richly adorned with oriental-flavoured cadenzas. To conclude Lauris Elms recital of great mezzo-soprano arias we move from turbulence to farce (Il barbiere di Siviglia), and undoubtedly, one of the best known of all coloratura arias. Count Almaviva is in love with Rosina, who is jealously guarded by Doctor Bartolo with the aid of Don Basilio, a corrupt priest. With the help of a barber and general factotum, Figaro, the Count disguises himself as a student and calls himself Lindoro. In Una voce poco fa Rosina muses upon a letter sent to her by the lovelorn Lindoro. Her cavatina is followed by a virtuoso cabaletta: so long as things go her way she is happy to be as sweet as sugar, but if anyone should choose to tangle with her, he had better watch his step. Replete with vocal trapeze acts, it calls upon its executant to negotiate fearsome coloratura territory, and in doing so, to fly dangerously close to the sun. Cyrus Meher-Homji 5
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