An interpretive guide to operatic arias : a handbook for singers, coaches, teachers, and students.

A premier singer and master teacher here tells other singers how to get the most from 151 famous arias, selected for their popularity or their greatness, from 66 operas, ranging in time and style from Christopher Gluck to Carlisle Floyd, from Mozart to Menotti. "The most memorable thrills in an opera singer's life," according to the author's Introduction, "may easily derive from the great arias in his or her repertoire."This book continues the work Martial Singher has done, in performances, in concerts, and in master classes and lessons, by drawing attention "not only to precise features of text, notes, and markings but also to psychological motivations and emotional impulses, to laughter and tears, to technical skills, to strokes of genius, and even here and there to variations from the original works that have proved to be fortunate." For each aria, the author gives the dramatic and musical context, advice about interpretation, and the lyric-with the original language (if it is not English) and an idiomatic American English translation, in parallel columns. The major operatic traditions-French, German, Italian, Russian, and American-are represented, as are the major voice types-soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, bass-baritone, and bass. The dramatic context is not a mere summary of the plot but is a penetrating and often witty personality sketch of an operatic character in the midst of a situation. The musical context is presented with the dramatic situation in a cleverly integrated way. Suggestions about interpretation, often illustrated with musical notation and phonetic symbols, are interspersed among the author's explication of the music and the action. An overview of Martial Singher's approach-based on fifty years of experience on stage in a hundred roles and in class at four leading conservatories-is presented in his Introduction. As the reader approaches each opera discussed in this book, he or she experiences the feeling of participation in a rehearsal on stage under an urbane though demanding coach and director. The Interpretive Guide will be of value to professional singers as a source of reference or renewed inspiration and a memory refresher, to coaches for checking and broadening personal impressions, to young singers and students for learning, to teachers who have enjoyed less than a half century of experience, and to opera broadcast listeners and telecast viewers who want to understand what goes into the sounds and sights that delight them

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- Recommendations -- Beethoven -- Fidelio -- Abscheulicher, wo eilst du hin?: soprano -- Bellini -- Norma -- Casta Diva: soprano -- Bizet -- Carmen -- Habanera: mezzo-soprano -- Séguédille: mezzo-soprano -- Couplets of Escamillo: baritone -- La fleur que tu m'avais jetée: tenor -- Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante: soprano -- Air des cartes: mezzo-soprano -- Les Pêcheurs de Perles -- O Nadir, tendre ami -- Charpentier -- Depuis le jour -- Debussy -- Air de Lia -- Delibes -- Où va la jeune Indoue -- Donizetti -- Bella siccome un angelo

Quel guardo il cavaliere -- L'Elisir d'amore -- Una furtiva lagrima -- Floyd -- Ain't it a pretty night -- Giordano -- Nemico della patria -- La mamma morta -- Come un bel dì di maggio -- Gluck -- Divinités du Styx -- Iphigénie en Tauride -- O toi, qui prolongeas mes jours -- Unis dès la plus tendre enfance -- Orfeo ed Euridice -- Che farò senza Euridice -- Gounod -- Avant de quitter ces lieux -- Le Veau d'Or -- Salut, demeure chaste et pure -- Le Roi de Thulé / Air des bijoux -- Mephisto's Serenade -- Roméo et Juliette -- Ballade de la Reine Mab -- Je veux vivre (Juliette's Waltz)

Ah! Lève-toi, soleil (Cavatine) -- Que fais-tu, blanche tourterelle -- Leoncavallo -- Il Prologo -- Ballatella -- Recitar -- Mascagni -- Voi lo sapete, o mamma -- Massenet -- Pleurez, mes yeux -- Hérodiade -- Il est doux, il est bon -- Vision fugitive -- Manon -- Adieu, notre petite table -- En fermant les yeux -- Cours-la-reine / Gavotte -- Ah fuyez, douce image -- Thaïs -- O mon miroir fidèle -- Werther -- Air des lettres -- Va, laisse couler mes larmes -- Pourquoi me réveiller -- Menotti -- Papers, papers -- The Medium -- Monica's Waltz -- The Old Maid and the Thief -- Steal me, sweet thief

Meyerbeer -- O paradis -- Mozart -- Smanie implacabili -- In uomini, in soldati -- Come scoglio -- Donne mie, la fate a tanti -- Don Giovanni -- Madamina -- Or sai chi l'onore -- Batti, batti -- Deh vieni alla finestra -- Il mio tesoro -- Mi tradì -- Die Entführung aus dem Serail -- Wer ein Liebchen hat gefunden -- O wie ängstlich -- Durch Zärtlichkeit und Schmeicheln -- Le Nozze di Figaro -- Se vuol ballare -- Non so più cosa son -- Voi, che sapete -- Vedrò mentr'io sospiro (Count's Aria) -- Dove sono i bei momenti -- Aprite un po'quegl'occhi -- Deh vieni, non tardar -- Die Zauberflöte

Dies Bildnis -- O zittre nicht -- Ach, ich fühl's -- Musorgski -- I have attained the power -- Nicolai -- Nun eilt herbei -- Offenbach -- Les oiseaux dans la charmille -- Scintille, diamant -- O Dieu, de quelle ivresse -- Elle a fui, la tourterelle -- Ponchielli -- Voce di donna -- Cielo e mar -- Puccini -- Che gelida manina -- Mi chiamano Mimí -- Quando m'en vo -- Donde lieta uscí -- Vecchia zimarra, senti -- Gianni Schicchi -- Oh! mio babbino caro -- Madama Butterfly -- Un bel dì vedremo -- Manon Lescaut -- Donna non vidi mai -- In quelle trine morbide -- Sola, perduta, abbandonata

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