Dove sono
"Dove sono" | |
---|---|
Aria by Le nozze di Figaro | |
Text | Lorenzo Da Ponte |
Language | Italian |
Composed | 1786 |
"Dove sono" (Where are [those happy moments])
Context
Mozart composed
Alone on stage, the Countess regrets in the recitative that her husband, Count Almaviva, who had wooed her energetically (see: Beaumarchais' The Barber of Seville) and loved her ardently, has become an indiscriminate, overbearing philanderer;[4] and that she must rely on assistance from her domestic staff in order to manipulate him. In the aria, she misses the tender moments of love that she remembers, and finally hopes that her persistence and fidelity may make him love her again.[2][5]: 266
In Mozart's score, the aria follows the sextet in act 3 where Figaro and his enemies (Dr. Bartolo and Marcellina) learn that he is actually their long-lost son ("Riconosci in questo amplesso"). In some performances (e.g. Gardiner 1993),[6] it precedes the sextet and follows the Count's aria "Vedro mentr'io sospiro". Moberly and Raeburn argued in 1965 that this is a more logical order, and that the order in the score was necessary so that the singer who doubled in the roles of Bartolo and Antonio in the premiere, Francesco Bussani , could change clothes.[2] Ian Woodfield cites Alan Tyson's inspection[7] of the autograph retrieved in 1977 from the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków which found no hint of such a reshuffle, but concedes that the hypothesis by Moberly and Raeburn was not disproved, only uncorroborated.[8]
Music
The recitative is
The melody of the aria, "Dove sono i bei momenti di dolcezza e di piacer" (Where are those happy moments of sweetness and pleasure?)
Text
Recitative
E Susanna non vien! Sono ansiosa
di saper come il Conte
accolse la proposta: alquanto ardito
il progetto mi par, e ad uno sposo
sì vivace e geloso...
Ma che mal c'è? Cangiando i miei vestiti
con quelli di Susanna e i suoi co' miei...
al favor della notte... Oh cielo, a qual
umil stato fatale io son ridotta
da un consorte crudel che, dopo avermi
con un misto inaudito
d'infedeltà, di gelosia, di sdegni
prima amata, indi offesa e alfin tradita,
fammi or cercar da una mia serva aita!
Aria
Dove sono i bei momenti
di dolcezza e di piacer,
dove andaro i giuramenti
di quel labbro menzogner?
Perché mai se in pianti e in pene
per me tutto si cangiò,
la memoria di quel bene
dal mio sen non trapassò?
Ah se almen la mia costanza,
nel languire amando ognor,
mi portasse una speranza
di cangiar l'ingrato cor!
And Susanna doesn't come! I'm anxious
to know how the Count
took the proposal. The scheme seems
too bold to me, and to a husband
so wild and jealous...
But what harm is there? Changing my clothes
with those of Susanna and hers with mine...
shielded by the night... oh heavens, to what
humble and dangerous state am I reduced
by a cruel husband, who, after marrying me
with an unheard of mixture
of infidelity, jealousy and disdain
first loved, then offended and at last betrayed me,
now makes me seek my maid for help!
Where are the beautiful moments
of sweetness and pleasure,
where are the promises gone
of that deceitful tongue?
Why has everything changed
into tears and pain for me,
why has the memory of that happiness
never left my breast?
Ah! If only my devotion
in longing for his love
could give me some hope
of changing that ungrateful heart!
Usage
The journalist Bruce Scott considers that "Dove sono" is one of the best known and most loved arias in the operatic repertoire.[4] Beyond performances of the opera, it is frequently performed in recitals[3] and featured in anthologies of vocal music for lyric soprano, often with the preceding recitative.[11][12][13][14][15]
References
- ^ a b c d "E Susanna non vien." opera-arias.com. 2022. Archived from the original on 10 February 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
- ^ JSTOR 732624.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8014-9428-4. Archivedfrom the original on 28 April 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
- ^ a b Scott, Bruce (18 March 2011). "First-Time Perfection: Mozart's Marriage of Figaro". NPR. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-816443-2. Archivedfrom the original on 28 April 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
- ^ "Le nozze di Figaro (Terfel, Hagley, Gilfry – Gardiner)" (review), El Patio de Butacas, 17 April 2010 (in Spanish)
- ^ Tyson, Alan (July 1981). "Le nozze di Figaro: Lessons from the Autograph Score". The Musical Times. 122 (1661): 456–461.
- .
- ISBN 978-0-19-936193-9. Archivedfrom the original on 28 April 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
- ^ a b c "Analysis of Two Arias from Mozart's Le Nozze Di Figaro" lizhogg.com (2013)
- OCLC 5791146
- OCLC 24151184.
- OCLC 1259547087
- OCLC 1040943934
- OCLC 890581572
Further reading
- JSTOR 766259. (discusses alternative versions of "Dove sono", probably made for the Vienna premiere; pp. 124–128.)
External links
- "E Susanna non vien!": Score in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
- "E Susanna non vien! ... Dove sono i bei momenti", libretto critical edition, recordings; Digital Mozart Edition
- Details, range, tessitura, Italian and English text, aria-database.com
- "Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro: Sleepless in Sevilla" by Rhiannon Giddens, Cori Ellison, Susanna Phillips, Dan Savage, Met Aria Code (podcast and transcript), via WNYC, 5 December 2019
- "Mozart: Dove Sono from The Marriage of Figaro", Howard Goodall and Suzy Klein, The Story of Music in Fifty Pieces, BBC Radio 3, 27 March 2014
- Video, without the recitative on YouTube, Dorothea Röschmann at The Royal Opera(2006)
- "E Susanna non vien! ... Dove sono" (2016 concert performance) on YouTube, Olga Mykytenko, Orchestra of the National Opera of Ukraine, Alla Kulbaba (conductor)