Last updated: 15 June 2009
Programme notes for the 2009 91ȱ Cardiff Singer of the World final.
Eri Nakamura - Japan (soprano)
Conductor: Paul Daniel
Je veux vivre (Roméo et Juliette) - Gounod
Juliette is at a masked ball at her family's house, and her beauty has been much admired. In this graceful aria, often known as Juliette's Waltz Song, the young, high-spirited girl declares herself uninterested in marriage, saying she wants to live in a world of dreams.
Eccomi in lieta vesta - Oh! quante volte (I Capuleti e i Montecchi) - Bellini
Giulietta loves Romeo, but is being forced to marry Tebaldo. In her beautiful wedding dress, she feels like a sacrificial victim ready to be led to the altar, and would prefer to be sacrificed than married to a man she does not love. She longs for Romeo to come to her aid.
Tu che di gel sei cinta (Turandot) - Puccini
Princess Turandot is torturing the servant girl, Liù, to force her to reveal her master's name - if she does not, Turandot will be forced to marry him at dawn. Liù tells her that she finds her courage through love and that she will die rather than reveal the secret. As the aria ends, she stabs herself.
Cäcilie (Songs Op 27 No 2) - Richard Strauss
"If you knew what it is like to dream of burning kisses ... if you knew what it is like to live enveloped in the breath of God ... you would live with me!" says the poet to his beloved in this passionate song of courtship and yearning. Strauss composed the song the day before his wedding to the singer Pauline von Ahna. The text is by Heinrich Hart and is dedicated to his wife, Cäcilie.
Giordano Lucà - Italy (tenor)
Conductor: Paul Daniel
Una furtiva lagrima (L'Elisir d'amore) - Donizetti
Nemorino is a poor boy who loves a rich girl, Adina. But he is awkward and shy in his courting and has taken a so-called love potion to make himself attractive to her. Actually it is only cheap red wine, which makes him lose his inhibitions and just serves to make Adina think that he no longer loves her. In 'A furtive tear', Nemorino has noticed a tear in Adina's eye, making him realise that she loves him after all. He is so happy, he could die of love.
La donna è mobile (Rigoletto) - Verdi
The ruthless and heartless Duke of Mantua sings this cynical aria while drinking and playing cards in the inn. Woman is fickle, he sings, changing her voice, her mind and her thoughts. Any man who trusts a woman will be miserable. However, it is actually he who is the fickle one in his attitude to women, as he has boasted in his introductory aria 'Questa o quella' - 'This one or that one, it's the same to me'.
Che gelida manina (La bohème) - Puccini
On Christmas Eve, Mimì, a seamstress, has come upstairs to Rodolfo's garret, looking for a light for her candle. She drops her key in the dark; Rodolfo finds it and as their hands touch, he notices how icily cold her little hand is. They fall in love.
O figli, o figli miei ... A la paterna mano (Macbeth) - Verdi
Macduff has learned that Macbeth, in his continuing quest to consolidate his power, has slaughtered his wife and children. He laments his loss, agonising that he was not there to prevent their murder, and swears revenge.
Addio, fiorito asil (Madama Butterfly) - Puccini
After an absence of three years, Pinkerton has returned to Nagasaki, where he had lived with Butterfly, his Japanese wife. In the intervening time, he has returned home to America and married again and is now in Japan to claim his son. When he sees evidence of Butterfly's loyalty, he realises how cruel he has been. Unable to stay there any longer, he sings a heartfelt farewell to the house where he was so happy. He knows he is a coward, but cannot bear to stay.
Jan Martiník - Czech Republic (bass)
Conductor: Lawrence Foster
Bĕda, Bĕda, ubohá Rusalko bledá (Rusalka) - Dvořák
Rusalka, a water nymph, is the daughter of the Spirit of the Lake. She is in love with a prince, and wants to become human to be with him. At their wedding ball, the prince's attention has already wandered, in the direction of a foreign princess. The Spirit of the Lake comes out of the fountain and sings a lament, unhappy at the fate of his daughter.
La calunnia (Il barbiere di Siviglia) - Rossini
Dr Bartolo is Rosina's guardian, and would like to become her husband. He is in cahoots with Don Basilio, Rosina's music master, who suspects that Rosina and the handsome young Count Almaviva are in love. Here, Don Basilio advises Dr Bartolo to discredit the Count by spreading a rumour about him. In a witty 'patter' song, he describes how calumny can start as a breath of wind and end as a storm of scandal.
Ella giammai m'amò! ... Dormirò sol nel manto mio regal (Don Carlo) - Verdi
King Philip II of Spain's new queen is the Frenchwoman Elisabeth de Valois, a political match to enable peace between the two countries. Elisabeth was once engaged to Philip's son, Carlo, and although she resigns herself to do her duty to her people, she remains in love with him. As dawn breaks, Philip sings of his failure to win her heart, and reflects sadly that he is destined to sleep alone.
Yuriy Mynenko - Ukraine (counter-tenor)
Conductor: Paul Daniel
Ombra fedele anch'io (Idaspe) - Broschi
Riccardo Broschi's 1730 opera was first performed in Venice. Broschi was the brother of the famous castrato, Farinelli, and is best known for the virtuoso arias, like this one, that he composed for him. In this piece, Dario is suffering. He will follow his beloved to the river Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. Only there will he find respite from his anguish.
Crude furie degl'orridi abissi (Serse) - Handel
Serse (Xerxes), the king, is in love with Romilda, Romilda loves Serse's brother, Arsamenes, who loves her back. Romilda's sister Atalanta also loves Arsamenes, so wants Serse to marry her sister, freeing up Arsamenes to marry her. Meanwhile, Serse is betrothed to Amastris, who is disguised as a soldier to keep tabs on him. Much confusion ensues, and despite Serse's best efforts, Romilda and Arsamenes have married, so Serse vents his frustration in this virtuoso aria. He calls on the Furies from Hades - his anger should cause earthquakes and an eclipse of the sun.
Oh patria! ... Di tanti palpiti (Tancredi) - Rossini
Tancredi is in exile from Sicily and falls in love with Amenaide, another Sicilian exile. Although Amenaide's mother decreed on her deathbed that they should marry, her father has (unbeknownst to her) offered her to Orbazzano as a conciliatory gesture to bring peace between their warring families - which will also involve putting Tancredi to death. Tancredi is blissfully unaware of this and arrives back in Sicily in secret. He sings that it is his destiny to be with his beloved again and begs for forgiveness for the pain he has caused her.
Ekaterina Shcherbachenko - Russia (soprano)
Conductor: Lawrence Foster
Je voudrais bien savoir ... Ah! je ris (Faust) - Gounod
Marguérite has found a casket of jewels, which has been left on her doorstep by Méphistophélès to tempt her. Singing the Jewel Song, she tries them on and admires herself in the mirror - their beauty makes her as lovely as a princess.
Signore, ascolta! (Turandot) - Puccini
Calaf is one of many men to fall in love with the beautiful princess, Turandot. Suitors for her hand must correctly answer three riddles, or be put to death. The slave girl, Liù, is in love with Calaf, and begs him not to put his life at risk.
No word from Tom (The Rake's Progress) - Stravinsky
Anne Trulove is waiting anxiously for her beloved Tom to return from the city. He went off with a man called Nick Shadow and she has not heard from him since. Cruelly torn between her duty to her ailing father and her love for Tom, she finally decides she must go and search for him. Stravinsky wrote this opera to be sung in English with libretto by WH Auden and Chester Kallman based on the story in Hogarth's famous paintings and engravings with the same title.
