Whatever happened to that feisty coloratura Rosina in The Barber of Seville? The same character who seemed so in control and so in love at the end of that part of the operatic trilogy featuring the characters first penned by Beaumarchais only a few years later in The Marriage of Figaro is wallowing in depression and despair over the loss of her husband’s affections.
Compare the first aria we hear the character sings in Barber, Una voce poco fa, with it’s coloratura fireworks to Porgi amor in Figaro. The musical universe Rosina now lives in is full of melancholy. Long, sad, languid lines are the order of the day in this aria. All she wants is for her husband to once more be the man she fell in love with and to give her the affection and love she craves and desires. If he will not, then all she wants is death. A little extreme perhaps, but to the Countess Almaviva, it is very natural feeling given her situation.
The aria is very short and contains only 4 lines which are repeated, yet it completely sets the mood and shows the internal struggle the Countess is dealing with:
Porgi, amor, qualche ristoro, the Countess's aria from Le Nozze di Figaro
Porgi, amor, qualche ristoro, O Love, give me some remedy
Al mio duolo, a'miei sospir! For my sorrow, for my sighs!
O mi rendi il mio tesoro, Either give me back my darling
O mi lascia almen morir. Or at least let me die.
(Word-by-word translation by Jane Bishop, bishopj@citadel.edu)
All the the sopranos here all exhibit the attributes of a great Countess: a beautiful countenance, a nobility of character, a beautiful lush voice, and long languid phrasing of the aria.
Some things to listen for: the ascending line on "o mi lascia almen morir" and then the faster ascending line on the same words later in the aria, and then the last two lines "o mi rendi il mio tesoro, o mi lascia almen morir" .
The modern school of Mozartian singing is very different from the way this music was sung in the 1800s and early 1900s. I have included in this group of singers Dame Nellie Melba, surely one of the greatest sopranos of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In contrast with our other singers, Melba’s recording from 1904 exhibits a darker color and a much freer style, changing a note’s pitch, stretching phrases (listen to the end of her rendition of the aria in particular), and going into an extended chest voice for the last morir.
For our mid 20th century singers, listen to the lush voice and outpouring of emotion by Eleanor Steber, Sena Jurinac, de los Angeles, and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf. Jurinac, and Schwarzkopf had a nobility about them that few have had since.
More modern singers like Fleming, te Kanawa, and Popp deliver equally exquisite vocal accounts of the aria with Fleming’s and te Kanawa’s burnished tones and Popp’s crystaline ones equally engaging . Add to this the physical beauty each of these sopranos bring to the stage, and you can see why any of them would be a perfect Countess Almaviva.
-Alan Fischer
Vocal Music Department Chair, The Governor's School for the Arts
Compare the first aria we hear the character sings in Barber, Una voce poco fa, with it’s coloratura fireworks to Porgi amor in Figaro. The musical universe Rosina now lives in is full of melancholy. Long, sad, languid lines are the order of the day in this aria. All she wants is for her husband to once more be the man she fell in love with and to give her the affection and love she craves and desires. If he will not, then all she wants is death. A little extreme perhaps, but to the Countess Almaviva, it is very natural feeling given her situation.
The aria is very short and contains only 4 lines which are repeated, yet it completely sets the mood and shows the internal struggle the Countess is dealing with:
Porgi, amor, qualche ristoro, the Countess's aria from Le Nozze di Figaro
Porgi, amor, qualche ristoro, O Love, give me some remedy
Al mio duolo, a'miei sospir! For my sorrow, for my sighs!
O mi rendi il mio tesoro, Either give me back my darling
O mi lascia almen morir. Or at least let me die.
(Word-by-word translation by Jane Bishop, bishopj@citadel.edu)
All the the sopranos here all exhibit the attributes of a great Countess: a beautiful countenance, a nobility of character, a beautiful lush voice, and long languid phrasing of the aria.
Some things to listen for: the ascending line on "o mi lascia almen morir" and then the faster ascending line on the same words later in the aria, and then the last two lines "o mi rendi il mio tesoro, o mi lascia almen morir" .
The modern school of Mozartian singing is very different from the way this music was sung in the 1800s and early 1900s. I have included in this group of singers Dame Nellie Melba, surely one of the greatest sopranos of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
In contrast with our other singers, Melba’s recording from 1904 exhibits a darker color and a much freer style, changing a note’s pitch, stretching phrases (listen to the end of her rendition of the aria in particular), and going into an extended chest voice for the last morir.
For our mid 20th century singers, listen to the lush voice and outpouring of emotion by Eleanor Steber, Sena Jurinac, de los Angeles, and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf. Jurinac, and Schwarzkopf had a nobility about them that few have had since.
More modern singers like Fleming, te Kanawa, and Popp deliver equally exquisite vocal accounts of the aria with Fleming’s and te Kanawa’s burnished tones and Popp’s crystaline ones equally engaging . Add to this the physical beauty each of these sopranos bring to the stage, and you can see why any of them would be a perfect Countess Almaviva.
-Alan Fischer
Vocal Music Department Chair, The Governor's School for the Arts
Tell us which rendition of Porgi Amor is your favorite, and come see our own Countess, Stephanie Marx, interpret this lovely work of art!
Check back next month for a behind-the-scenes post from the set of The Marriage of Figaro.
Check back next month for a behind-the-scenes post from the set of The Marriage of Figaro.
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