Friday 6 February 2009 at 7.30pm
Ben Heppner tenor
Thomas Muraco piano
Schubert
Dem Unendlichen
Im Abendrot
Gott im Frühling
Die Allmacht
Richard Strauss
Befreit
Das Rosenband
Du meines Herzens Krönelein
Zueignung
INTERVAL 20 minutes
Britten
The Holy Sonnets of John Donne – Batter my Heart
Winter Words – The Choirmaster’s Burial; Proud
Songsters
Duparc
Extase
Chanson triste
Le manoir de Rosemonde
Phidylé
Bellini
Dolente immagine di Fille mia
Donizetti
Su l’onda tremola
Verdi
Brindisi
Puccini
Canto d’anime
Please restrict applause to the end of each group of songs.
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Notes
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
Dem Unendlichen, D291 (1815)
Im Abendrot, D799 (1825)
Gott im Frühling, D448 (1816)
Die Allmacht, D852 (1825)
Whatever Schubert’s religious beliefs – long a matter for
conjecture and controversy – there is surely little room for
doubt that the perception of God in nature was a potent
source of inspiration for him. He was by no means
reluctant to write for the Church but it would be difficult to
find in his six Latin Masses anything as sublime as his
setting of, say, Goethe’s Ganymed, which so
passionately confirms his allegiance to his favourite
poet’s pantheistic convictions. Although it took some
years for an instinct to develop into a conscious
awareness and to find a distinctive reflection in his music,
it was there from an early stage.
Schubert was only 18 when he completed his Klopstock
setting, Dem Unendlichen, which is not so much a song
as a recitative and aria, the lyrical section beginning
where, to the sound of harps and trumpets, nature joins
in praising God. Ten years later, in Im Abendrot, far from
calling on the oratorio tradition to support him, he
2
expresses his love of God’s creation in apparently
artless, effortlessly beautiful, almost hymn-like terms. In
Gott im Frühling, written just a year after Dem
Unendlichen, he was moved to a clearly spontaneous
expression of the joys of spring sent by the ‘Father of all
nature’.
So this group of Schubert Lieder is not the most likely
place to find a setting of verse by a high-ranking
churchman. But the composer’s meeting with Johann
Ladislaus Pryker, Patriarch of Venice, no less, at Gastein
in 1825 was, according to a friend, ‘one of the most
inspiring of his life’. It was then that, to 13 hexameters
extracted from Pryker’s Die Perlen der heiligen Vorzeit,
he wrote Die Allmacht, a monument to pantheism in
music. More a tone-poem than a song and sustained by
throbbing piano triplets throughout, it is the mature
composer’s harmonically liberated fulfilment of the
prophecy represented by the youthful Dem Unendlichen.
Notes
Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
Befreit, Op. 39 No. 4 (1898)
Das Rosenband, Op. 36 No. 1 (1897)
Du meines Herzens Krönelein, Op. 21 No. 2 (1888)
Zueignung, Op. 10 No. 1 (1885)
The Strauss group reverts to a more familiar area of the
repertoire and to a source of inspiration which the vast
majority of songs have in common. These four Lieder
are not, however, uniformly rapturous in their celebration
of love. Though the repeated exclamations of ‘O Glück!’
at the end of each stanza in Befreit might superficially
appear to be joyous, it is only on the last occasion
that it is not negated by the minor harmonies natural
to a setting of words addressed, according to the poet,
by a husband to his dying wife. Apparently Dehmel
would have preferred a rather more ironic treatment
of his verse – but that did not stop Strauss, proudly
rather than apologetically, quoting the melodic
phrase accompanying ‘O Glück’ in his tone-poem
Ein Heldenleben.
In spite of all the blissful detail in the setting, not least in
the lovely cantilena of the closing bars, Das Rosenband
is not without its dark side either: Klopstock’s poem
was written in memory of his short-lived wife, the poet
Meta Moller.
Du meines Herzens Krönelein, on the other hand, is as
uncomplicatedly lyrical as it seems, the less melodious
material being reserved for those poor mortals whose
shortcomings serve to offset the loved one’s perfection.
Although the lovers are separated in Zueignung, there is
no limit to its rapture. It may have been Strauss’s first
published song but, with its surging vocal melody, it’s
highly characteristic and deservedly popular.
INTERVAL 20 minutes
Benjamin Britten (1913–76)
The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, Op. 35 – Batter my Heart (1945)
Winter Words, Op. 52 – The Choirmaster’s Burial; Proud Songsters (1953)
Unlike Schubert and Strauss, Britten exercised strict
quality control when it came to choosing texts for his
songs. His taste in this respect, though determined
ultimately by his own emotional and creative concerns,
was no doubt influenced by his early friendship with
W. H. Auden, whose verse inspired the earliest of his
eight one-poet song cycles with piano, Our Hunting
Fathers. Certainly, it was Auden who persuaded Britten
to take John Donne seriously. Although, according to
Peter Pears, the composer had been planning a Donne
cycle for some time, he actually got to work on the Holy
Sonnets just two days after his return from a harrowing
concert tour he and Yehudi Menuhin had undertaken for
survivors of the recently liberated German concentration
camps. The experience, though not directly related to the
subject matter of the sonnets, seems to be reflected in the
3
Notes
uncompromising manner of some of the settings, not
least in the unremittingly percussive piano ostinato and
occasionally tortured vocal line of ‘Batter my Heart’.
Britten’s next song cycle after The Holy Sonnets of John
Donne was Winter Words, on verse by Thomas Hardy,
the choice of texts in this case having much to do with the
evocative musical echoes in the poems. The cleverly
characterised ‘The Choirmaster’s Burial’ (or ‘The Tenor
Man’s Story’) enshrines a fantasy on the hymn-tune
‘Mount Ephraim’, while ‘Proud Songsters’, the next
song (both here and in the cycle itself) celebrates in
its exuberant bird-song imagery nature’s abundant
self-renewal.
Henri Duparc (1848–1933)
Extase (c1875)
Chanson triste (c1868)
Le manoir de Rosemonde (c1879)
Phidylé (c1882)
It was Duparc’s firm belief that ‘there is some perfect
poetry which is so complete in itself that music – even the
most beautiful music, even that music which I am
incapable of writing – can only diminish it’. Henri Cazalis,
a minor Parnassien who wrote under the name Jean
Lahor, was not the most distinguished of Duparc’s chosen
poets but the composer did identify closely with the
sentiments expressed in poems such as Extase and
Chanson triste. Languishing in a Tristanesque erotic
trance, his setting of Extase transforms five lines of
Lahor’s verse into poetry of a different order. Perhaps as
long as seven years earlier, before his nervous illness
overwhelmed him, Duparc must have found the escapist
sentiment of Chanson triste particularly appealing.
Certainly, the setting adds a personal dimension to the
4
text, converting undistinguished words into sounds of
much beauty.
Like most French composers of his generation, Duparc
was torn between a love of German music on the one
hand and a patriotic resistance to German domination
on the other. His allegiance to the Lied is particularly
clear in his setting of a poem by his friend Robert de
Bonnières, Le manoir de Rosemonde, with its galloping
Erlkönig rhythms and its little piano postlude in the
manner of Schumann’s ‘Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet’
(Dichterliebe). On the other hand, Phidylé is a remarkably
free and apparently spontaneous reaction to a fondly
amorous text by Leconte de Lisle, belonging exclusively to
the tradition of the mélodie.
Notes
Vincenzo Bellini (1801–35)
Dolente immagine di Fille mia (c1824)
Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848)
Su l’onda tremola (c1825)
Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901)
Brindisi (1834–45)
Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924)
Canto d’anime (1904)
As far as the serious interpretation of poetry is
concerned, 19th-century Italian song cannot begin to
compare with either French mélodie from Gounod
onwards or, still less, German Lied. Bellini’s major
concern in song, like that of most of his Italian
contemporaries, was to flatter the voice with a seductive
melodic line accompanied by a minimally intrusive
piano. The poignant Dolente immagine di Fille mia is a
particularly appealing example and, at the same time, a
clear stylistic indication that, for Bellini at least, the lirico
da camera was, in effect, a minor offshoot of opera.
So it was for Donizetti who, however, in his extensive
output for voice and piano – he once claimed that he
could write 12 canzonette ‘while the rice was cooking’ –
also came close to the Italian popular song of the day.
His Su l’onda tremola is a charming compromise
between the two styles.
Verdi’s first published work was a volume of Sei
Romanze which appeared in Milan in 1838, when he still
occupied the humble post of maestro di musica in
Busseto. He had not yet written his first opera – Oberto
was to be performed at La Scala the following year – but
it is clear from these six early songs in which direction his
ambitions lay. He had actually tried his hand at the
drinking song or brindisi – a staple of the operatic art –
as early as 1835. This extravagantly colourful example
which we hear this evening was then moderated before
publication, in his second collection of Romanze, 10
years later.
Written between Tosca and Madama Butterfly to a text
by Luigi Illica, his favourite librettist at the time, Puccini’s
Canto d’anime reverberates, inevitably, with operatic
associations. The thrilling use of the voice, the expressive
turn of phrase, the emotional pressure of the harmonies
– all these qualities are unmistakable features of the
Puccini we know best. Canto d’anime is not, however, an
aria but pure song and perhaps even, in its match of
stirring melody and devout poetic sentiment, the best of
the mere dozen or so examples he found time to write.
Programme notes © Gerald Larner
5
Texts and translations
FRANZ SCHUBERT
Dem Undenlichen, D291b
Wie erhebt sich das Herz, wenn es dich,
Unendlicher, denkt! wie sinkt es,
Wenn’s auf sich herunterschaut!
Elend schaut’s wehklagend dann und Nacht und Tod!
To the Infinite One
How does the heart soar, when it thinks of you,
Infinite One! How it sinks
when it looks down on itself!
Wretched, it laments as it sees only night and death!
Allein du rufst mich aus meiner Nacht,
der im Elend, der im Tode hilft!
Dann denk’ ich es ganz, dass du ewig mich schufst,
Herrlicher, den kein Preis, unten am Grab, oben am Thron,
Herr Gott, den, dankend entflammt, kein Jubel genug besingt!
Alone, you call me from my night,
that helps Misery and Death!
Then I realise that you have made me eternal,
Lord, whom no praise above the grave or by the throne,
Lord God, no grateful glow, no jubilation, can be sufficient!
Weht, Bäume des Lebens, ins Harfengetön!
Rausche mit ihnen ins Harfengetön, kristallner Strom!
Ihr lispelt und rauscht, und, Harfen, ihr tönt
Nie es ganz! Gott ist es, den ihr preist!
Blow, trees of life, in the echoing tones of harps!
Rustle with the sound of harps, crystal stream!
You whisper and rustle, and, harps, you resound
but never fully! It is God whom you praise!
Donnert, Welten,
In feierlichem Gang, in der Posaunen Chor!
Tönt, all’ ihr Sonnen auf der Strasse voll Glanz,
In der Posaunen Chor!
Thunder, worlds,
in solemn course, to the chorus of trombones!
Resound, all you suns, upon the shining streets,
to the chorus of the trombones!
Ihr Welten, donnert,
Du, der Posaunen Chor, hallest
Nie es ganz: Gott – nie es ganz: Gott,
Gott, Gott ist es, den ihr preist!
You worlds, thunder,
and you, chorus of trombones, echo
but never fully: God – never fully: God,
God it is whom you praise!
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
Im Abendrot, D799
O wie schön ist deine Welt,
Vater, wenn sie golden strahlet!
Wenn dein Glanz hernieder fällt,
Und den Staub mit Schimmer malet,
Wenn das Rot, das in der Wolke blinkt,
In mein stilles Fenster sinkt!
In the evening glow
O how beautiful is your world,
Father, when it shines golden!
When your radiance descends,
making lustrous the dust,
and the red, gleaming in the cloud,
sinks into my quiet window!
Könnt’ ich klagen, könnt’ ich zagen?
Irre sein an dir und mir?
Nein, ich will im Busen tragen
Deinen Himmel schon allhier,
Und dies Herz, eh’ es zusammembricht,
Trinkt noch Glut und schlürft noch Licht.
Could I complain, lose heart,
doubt you, and myself?
No, your Heaven will I carry
here, in my bosom.
And this heart, ere it fail,
shall still drink glow and light.
Carl Lappe
Translation © 1976 George Bird and Richard Stokes
6
Texts and translations
Gott im Frühling, D448
In seinem schimmernden Gewand
Hast du den Frühling uns gesandt,
Und Rosen um sein Haupt gewunden.
Holdlächelnd kömmt er schon!
Es führen ihn die Stunden,
O Gott, auf seinem Blumenthron.
God in Spring Time
In his gleaming robe
you have sent spring to us,
and bound roses around his head.
Sweetly smiling, here he comes!
The Hours attend him,
O God, on his flowery throne.
Er geht in Büschen, und sie blühn;
Den Fluren kommt ihr frisches Grün,
Und Wäldern wächst ihr Schatten wieder,
Der West liebkosend schwingt
Sein tauendes Gefieder,
Und jeder frohe Vogel singt.
He goes to the groves, and they blossom;
to the meadows returns the fresh green,
and in the woods spread the shadows once more,
the west wind, softly murmuring, swings
his dewy wings,
and every happy bird sings.
Mit eurer Lieder süssem Klang,
Ihr Vögel, soll auch mein Gesang
Zum Vater der Natur sich schwingen.
Entzückung reisst mich hin!
Ich will dem Herrn lobsingen,
Durch den ich wurde, was ich bin!
With your sweet-sounding song,
ye birds, my song will also
soar to the Father of all nature.
Rapture transports me!
I will sing praises to the Lord
to whom I owe my being!
Johann Peter Uz
Translation © Carl Johengen
Die Allmacht, D852
Gross ist Jehova, der Herr! Denn Himmel
Und Erde verkünden seine Macht.
Du hörst sie im brausenden Sturm,
In des Waldstroms laut aufrauschendem Ruf;
Du hörst sie im grünenden Waldes Gesäusel;
Siehst sie in wogender Saaten Gold,
In lieblicher Blumen glühendem Schmelz,
Im Glanz des sternebesäten Himmels!
Furchtbar tönt sie im Donnergeroll
Und flammt in des Blitzes schnell hinzuckendem Flug.
Doch kündet das pochende Herz dir fühlbarer noch
Jehovas Macht, des ewigen Gottes,
Blickst du flehend empor und hoffst auf Huld und Erbarmen.
Omnipotence
Great is Jehovah the Lord! For heaven
and earth proclaim his might.
You hear it in the roaring storm,
in the loud rushing call of the forest stream;
you hear it in the greenwood’s murmur,
behold it in the glow of waving corn,
in the glow of delightful flowers,
in the star-strewn heavens’ gleam!
Awful it sounds in the roll of thunder
and it flames in the lightning’s swift jagged flight.
But more palpably to you will the beating heart proclaim
the might of Jehovah, God Eternal,
if, beseeching, up you gaze, hoping for grace and pity.
Johann Ladislaus Pyrker
Please turn page quietly
7
Texts and translations
RICHARD STRAUSS
Befreit, Op. 39 No. 4
Du wirst nicht weinen.
Leise wirst du lächeln und wie zur Reise
Geb’ ich dir Blick und Ku‚ zurück.
Unsre lieben vier Wände, du hast sie bereitet,
Ich habe sie dir zur Welt geweitet;
O Glück!
Freed
You will not weep.
Gently you will smile, and as before a journey,
I will return your gaze and your kiss.
Our dear four walls you have helped build;
and I have now widened them for you into the world.
O joy!
Dann wirst du hei‚ meine Hände fassen
Und wirst mir deine Seele lassen,
Lä‚t unsern Kindern mich zurück.
Du schenktest mir dein ganzes Leben,
Ich will es ihnen wieder geben;
O Glück!
Then you will warmly seize my hands
and you will leave me your soul,
leaving me behind for our children.
You gave me your entire life,
so I will give it again to them.
O joy!
Es wird sehr bald sein, wir wissen’s beide,
Wir haben einander befreit vom Leide,
So gab ich dich der Welt zurück!
Dann wirst du mir nur noch im Traum erscheinen
Und mich segnen und mit mir weinen;
O Glück!
It will be very soon, as we both know –
but we have freed each other from sorrow.
And so I return you to the world!
You will then appear to me only in dreams,
and bless me and weep with me.
O joy!
Richard Fedor Leopold Dehmel
Das Rosenband, Op. 36 No. 1
Im Frühlingsschatten fand ich sie,
Da band ich sie mit Rosenbändern:
Sie fühlt’ es nicht und schlummerte.
The band of roses
In spring shade I found her,
there I bound her with bands of roses:
she didn’t feel it, and slept.
Ich sah sie an; mein Leben hing
Mit diesem Blick an ihrem Leben:
Ich fühlt’ es wohl und wusst’ es nicht.
I looked at her; with this look
my life hung on hers:
I felt it, but didn’t know it.
Doch lispelt ich ihr sprachlos zu
Und rauschte mit den Rosenbändern:
Da wachte sie vom Schlummer auf.
I whispered to her wordlessly
and rustled the bands of roses,
then she awoke from her slumber.
Sie sah mich an; ihr Leben hing
Mit diesem Blick an meinem Leben:
Und um uns ward’s Elysium.
She looked at me; with this look
her life hung on mine:
and Paradise surrounded us.
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock
Translation by Janet Gillespie © 1999 Columbia Artists
Management, Inc.
INTERVAL 20 minutes
8
Texts and translations
Du meines Herzens Krönelein, Op. 21 No. 2
Du meines Herzens Krönelein,
Du bist von lautrem Golde,
Wenn andere daneben sein,
Dann bist du noch viel holde.
You the coronet of my heart
You the coronet of my heart,
of pure gold you are,
and when others stand beside you,
then you are more charming still.
Die andern tun so gern gescheit,
Du bist gar sanft und stille,
Dass jedes Herz sich dein erfreut,
Dein Glück ist’s, nicht dein Wille.
The others like to seem clever,
gentle and quiet you are,
that in you every heart rejoices,
is your happiness, not your will.
Die andern suchen Lieb und Gunst
Mit tausend falschen Worten,
Du ohne Mund und Augenkunst
Bist wert an allen Orten.
The others seek love and favour
with a thousand false words;
you, with no art of tongue, of eyes,
are esteemed in every place.
Du bist als wie die Ros’ im Wald,
Sie weiss nichts von ihrer Blüte,
Doch jedem, der vorüberwallt,
Erfreut sie das Gemüte.
You are like the rose in the forest,
knowing nothing of its bloom,
but of everyone who passes,
gladdening the mind.
Julius Dahn
Zueignung, Op. 10 No. 1
Ja, du weisst es, teure Seele,
dass ich fern von dir mich quäle,
liebe macht die Herzen krank,
habe Dank.
Dedication
Yes , you know it, dear soul,
That far from you I languish,
Love causes hearts to ache –
To you my thanks!
Einst hielt ich, der Freiheit Zecher,
hoch den Amethysten-Becher
und du segnetest den Trank,
habe Dank.
Once I, drinker of freedom,
Held high the amethyst beaker,
And you blessed the drink,
Have thanks.
Und beschworst darin die Bösen,
bis ich, was ich nie gewesen,
heilig, heilig an’s Herz dir sank,
habe Dank!
You exorcised the evil spirits in it,
So that I, as never before,
Cleansed and freed, sank upon your breast.
To you my thanks!
Hermann von Gilm
Translation by Jerry Hadley © 2001 Columbia Artists
Management Inc.
Please turn page quietly
9
Texts
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
Batter my Heart
Batter my heart, three person’d God; for you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt towne, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend
But is captiv’d, and proves weake or untrue.
Yet dearely I love you and would be loved faine,
But am betroth’d unto your enemie:
Divorce mee, untie, or breake that knot againe,
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you enthrall mee never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish mee.
John Donne
The Choirmaster’s Burial
He often would ask us
That, when he died,
After playing so many
To their last rest,
If out of us any
Should here abide,
And it would not task us,
We would with our lutes
Play over him
By his grave-brim
The psalm he liked best –
The one whose sense suits
‘Mount Ephraim’ –
And perhaps we should seem
To him, in Death’s dream,
Like the seraphim.
As soon as I knew
That his spirit was gone
I thought this his due,
And spoke thereupon.
‘I think,’ said the vicar,
‘A read service quicker
Than viols out-of-doors
In these frosts and hoars.
That old-fashioned way
10
Requires a fine day,
And it seems to me
It had better not be.’
Hence, that afternoon,
Though never knew he
That his wish could not be,
To get through it faster
They buried the master
Without any tune.
But ‘twas said that, when
At the dead of next night
The vicar looked out,
There struck on his ken
Thronged roundabout,
Where the frost was graying
The headstoned grass,
A band all in white
Like the saints in church-glass,
Singing and playing
The ancient stave
By the choirmaster’s grave.
Such the tenor man told
When he had grown old.
Proud Songsters
The thrushes sing as the sun is going,
And the finches whistle in ones and pairs,
And as it gets dark loud nightingales
In bushes
Pipe, as they can when April wears,
As if all Time were theirs.
These are brand new birds of twelvemonths’ growing,
Which a year ago, or less than twain,
No finches were, nor nightingales,
Nor thrushes,
But only particles of grain,
And earth and air and rain.
Thomas Hardy
Texts and translations
HENRI DUPARC
Extase
Sur un lys pâle mon coeur dort
D’un sommeil doux comme la mort …
Ecstasy
On a pale lily my heart sleeps
a sleep sweet as death …
Mort exquise, mort parfumée
Du souffle de la bien aimée …
Exquisite death, death perfumed
by the breath of the beloved …
Sur ton sein pâle mon coeur dort
D’un sommeil doux comme la mort …
On your pale breast my heart sleeps
a sleep sweet as death …
Jean Lahor
Translation © Winifred Radford
Chanson triste
Dans ton coeur dort un clair de lune,
Un doux clair de lune d’été,
Et pour fuir la vie importune
Je me noierai dans ta clarté.
Sorrowful song
In your heart moonlight sleeps,
gentle summer moonlight,
and to escape from the stress of life
I will drown myself in your radiance.
J’oublierai les douleurs passées,
Mon amour, quand tu berceras
Mon triste coeur et mes pensées,
Dans le calme aimant de tes bras.
I will forget past sorrows,
my love, when you cradle
my sad heart and my thoughts
in the loving peacefulness of your arms.
Tu prendras ma tête malade
Oh! quelquefois sur tes genoux,
Et lui diras une ballade,
Qui semblera parler de nous.
You will take my aching head
Oh! sometimes upon your knee,
and will relate a ballad
that seems to speak of ourselves.
Et dans tes yeux pleins de tristesses,
Dans tes yeux alors je boirai
Tant de baisers et de tendresses
Que, peut-être, je guérirai …
And in your eyes full of sorrows,
in your eyes then I will drink
so deeply of kisses and of tenderness
that, perhaps, I shall be healed …
Jean Lahor
Le manoir de Rosamonde
De sa dent soudaine et vorace,
Comme un chien, l’amour m’a mordu.
En suivant mon sang répandu,
Va, tu pourras suivre ma trace.
The manor of Rosamonde
With its sudden and voracious fang,
Like a dog, love has bitten me.
By following the blood I have shed,
Go, you will be able to follow my trail.
Prends un cheval de bonne race,
Pars, et suis mon chemin ardu,
Fondrière ou sentier perdu,
Si la course ne te harasse!
Take a thoroughbred horse,
set out, and follow my arduous way,
bog or hidden path,
if the ride does not exhaust you!
Please turn page quietly
11
Texts and translations
En passant par où j’ai passé,
Tu verras que seul et blessé
J’ai parcouru ce triste monde,
Et qu’ainsi je m’en fus mourir
Bien loin, bien loin, sans découvrir
Le bleu manoir de Rosamonde.
In passing where I have passed,
you will see that alone and wounded,
I have ranged this sad world,
and that thus I went to die
far away, far away, without discovering
the blue manor of Rosamonde.
R. de Bonnières
Phidylé
L’herbe est molle au sommeil sous les frais peupliers,
Aux pentes des sources moussues,
Qui, dans les prés en fleurs germant par mille issues,
Se perdent sous les noirs halliers.
Phidylé
The grass is soft for sleeping under the fresh poplars,
on the slopes by the mossy springs,
which in the flowery meadows arise in a thousand rills,
to be lost under dark thickets.
Repose, ô Phidylé! Midi sur les feuillages
Rayonne, et t’invite au sommeil!
Par le trèfle et le thym, seules, en plain soleil
Chantent les abeilles volages;
Rest, O Phidylé! the midday sun on the leaves
is shining and invites you to sleep!
In the clover and the thyme, alone, in full sunlight
the hovering bees are humming;
Un chaud parfum circule aux détours des sentiers,
La rouge fleur des blés s’incline,
Et les oiseaux, rasant de l’aile la colline,
Cherchent l’ombre des églantiers.
A warm fragrance haunts the winding paths,
the red poppy of the cornfield droops,
and the birds, skimming the hill on the wing,
seek the shade of the sweet briar.
Mais quand l’Astre, incliné sur sa courbe éclatante,
Verra ses ardeurs s’apaiser,
Que ton plus beau sourire et ton meilleur baiser
Me récompensent de l’attente!
But when the sun, sinking lower on its resplendent orbit,
finds its fire abated,
let your loveliest smile and your most ardent kiss
reward me for my waiting!
Leconte de Lisle
VINCENZO BELLINI
Dolente immagine
Dolente immagine di Fille mia,
Perchè sì squallida
mi siedi accanto?
Che più desideri?
Dirotto pianto
Io sul tuo cenere versai finor.
Oh sorrowing vision
Oh sorrowing vision of my Phillida,
Why are you so pale and wan,
seated beside me?
What would you have of me?
Tears in abundance
Upon your sepulchre already I’ve shed.
Temmi che immemore de’
sacri giuri
Io possa accendermi
ad altra face?
You fear that, mindless
of our solemn promises,
I might take fire again
with love for another?
12
Texts and translations
Ombra di Fillide,
riopose in pace;È
inestinguibile
l’antico amor.
Spirit of Phillida,
let peace be upon you;
for all eternity
the old love burns bright.
Anonymous
GAETANO DONIZETTI
Su l’onda tremola
Su l’onda tremola,
Ride la luna,
Regna il silenzio
Sulla laguna.
On the trembling wave
On the trembling wave
the moon smiles,
silence reigns
on the lagoon.
Bice, t’aspetta
La mia barchetta,
Ma perché palpiti?
Di che temer?
Beatrice, there awaits you
my little boat,
but why do you tremble?
What do you fear?
Ci saprà reggere
Da gondoliere
Questo naviglio
Di Cipria il figlio.
He knows how to row
as a gondolier
this boat,
the son of Cyprus.
Vieni, già l’anima
Gioia m’inonda
Non vo’ piú riedere,
Bice, alla sponda.
Come, already joy
fills my soul,
I want no more to return
to the shore, Beatrice.
Non voglio un trono
Se teco io sono,
Vieni, io dimentico
Sul mar tra i venti,
I do not want a throne,
if I am with you,
come, I forget
on the sea, amid the winds,
Che i soavissimi
Tuoi giuramenti
Sono piú instabili
Di vento e mar.
That your sweetest
oaths
are more changeable
than wind and sea.
Bice, la luna
Ride su l’onda
Ci saprà reggere
Di Cipria il figlio.
Beatrice, the moon
smiles on the wave
he knows how to row,
the son of Cyprus.
Anonymous
Please turn page quietly
13
Texts and translations
GIUSEPPE VERDI
Brindisi
Mescetemi il vino! Tu solo, o bicchiero,
Fra gaudi terreni non sei menzognero,
Tu, vita de’ sensi, dolcezza del cor.
Amai; m’infiammaro due sguardi fatali;
Credei l’amicizia fanciulla senz’ ali,
Follia de’prim’anni, fantasma illusor.
A Toast
Pour me some wine! You alone, O goblet,
among earthly joys are not false,
you, life of the senses, sweetness of the heart.
I loved; two fatal glances shall inflame me;
I believed in the friendship of a girl without wings,
folly of my early years, deceiving spectre.
Mescetemi il vino, dolcezza del cor.
Pour me some wine, sweetness of the heart.
L’amico, l’amante col tempo ne fugge;
Ma tu non paventi chi tutto distrugge;
L’età non t’offende,t’accresce virtù.
Sfiorito l’aprile, cadute le rose,
Tu sei che n’allegri le cure noiose;
Sei tu che ne torni la gioia che fu.
Friends and lovers, in time, flee from us;
but you do not fear, who consume all;
age does not vex you, you increase in merit.
When April withers and the rose falls,
you are what merrily heals our tedious cares;
it is you that return us to the joy that was.
Chi meglio risana del cor le ferite?
Se te non ci desse la provvida vite,
Sarebbe immortale l’umano dolor.
Mescentemi il vino! Tu solo, o bicchiero,
Fra gauditerreni non sei menzognero,
Tu, vita de’ sensi, letizia del cor.
Who better cures the wounds of the heart?
If you yourself did not provide for us,
human sorrow would be immortal.
Pour me some wine! You alone, O goblet,
among earth joys are not false,
you, life of the senses, joy of the heart.
Andrea Maffei
GIACOMO PUCCINI
Canto d’anime
Fuggon gli anni gli inganni e le chimere
Cadon recisi i fiori e le speranze
In vane e tormentose disianze
Svaniscon le mie brevi primavere.
Song of the Soul
The years, the deceptions, and the illusions all flee;
Flowers and hopes are cut down.
In vain and tormented yearnings
My brief springs vanish.
Ma vive e canta ancora forte e solo
Nelle notti del cuore un ideale
Siccome in alta notte siderale
Inneggia solitario l’usignolo.
But in the nights of the heart,
An ideal still lives, and still sings loudly and alone
As the solitary nightingale sings forth
In the depth of the starry night.
Canta, canta ideal tu solo forte
E dalle brume audace eleva il vol lassù,
A sfidar l’oblio l’odio la morte
Dove non son tenèbre e tutto è sol!
Tutto è sol! Tutto è sol!
So sing, sing loudly, my one ideal,
And from the mist, intrepidly soar on high
To defy oblivion, hatred, death
Where there are no shadows, and everything is light!
Everything is light! Everything is light!
Luigi Illica
14
About the performers
Sebastian Hänel/DG
Ben Heppner
tenor
Thomas Muraco
piano
Ben Heppner is recognised as
as one of the world’s finest
dramatic tenors, particularly
sought-after in roles such as
Wagner’s Tristan and
Lohengrin, Verdi’s Otello and
Berlioz’s Aeneas.
This season began with a
recital tour of Northern
Canada, and he returned to
the Metropolitan Opera,
New York, for the role of Herman in Tchaikovsky’s The
Queen of Spades. In March he will participate in its
125th anniversary gala evening. He also gives recitals
throughout Europe. He sings the title-role in Siegfried
under Sir Simon Rattle at the Salzburg Easter Festival,
and gives his first performances of Siegfried in
Götterdämmerung at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.
Highlights of last season included a North American tour
with the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra under
Riccardo Chailly, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius under
Sir Colin Davis, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the
Berlin Philharmonic and the title-role in Tristan und
Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera under James Levine.
Ben Heppner has long enjoyed a close relationship with
the Metropolitan Opera, including new productions of
Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Fidelio,
Les Troyens and Rusalka. His orchestral repertoire
includes Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Schoenberg’s
Gurrelieder, Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricus and Britten’s
War Requiem. Conductors with whom he has worked
include Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Andrew
Davis, Valery Gergiev, Lorin Maazel, Sir Charles
Mackerras, Seiji Ozawa, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Wolfgang
Sawallisch, Georg Solti and Christian Thielemann.
His discography includes several solo recital discs and
complete recordings of Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger,
Der fliegende Holländer, Turandot, Fidelio, Rusalka,
Hérodiade, Oberon, Die Frau ohne Schatten and
Ariadne auf Naxos.
The pianist and conductor
Thomas Muraco is in demand
throughout the USA, Canada,
Europe and Asia, with a
repertoire which embraces
Mozart through to William
Schuman and George Perle.
He has partnered singers such
as Adele Addison, John Aler,
Martina Arroyo, Arleen Auger,
John Cheek, Phyllis Curtin,
Mary Dunleavy, Faith Esham, Maureen Forrester, Denyce
Graves, Ben Heppner, Henry Herford, Ying Huang,
Sumi Jo, Chris Merritt, Roberta Peters, Hermann Prey,
Twyla Robinson, Jennie Tourel, Benita Valente and
Dolora Zajick, the instrumentalists John Graham, Robert
Mann, Arnold Steinhardt, Zara Nelsova, Ransom
Wilson, Peter Winograd, and the American and
Shanghai Quartets. Highlights of his career include
appearances at the White House and the Library of
Congress, and the Aspen, Banff, Bermuda, Casals,
Cincinnati and Ravinia festivals, and participation in
recital series at New York’s major concert halls and at
museums, universities and cultural centres throughout the
USA, Europe and Asia.
His most recent recordings are a programme of viola
music with John Graham and a disc of Brahms Lieder
with Maureen Forrester.
In addition to his busy performing schedule, he has
taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the State
University of New York at Stony Brook, and is presently
on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music.
Among the operas which he has conducted are Lakmé,
La bohème, La traviata, La Cenerentola, The Magic
Flute, Idomeneo, Madama Butterfly, Don Giovanni,
Dialogues des Carmélites, Il tabarro, Gianni Schicchi,
Nabucco and Albéniz’s Merlin. He is also chairman of
the jury of the vocal competition De Vive Voix, held
annually in Vivonne, France.
15
Barbican Centre Board
Chairman
Jeremy Mayhew MBA
Deputy Chairman
John Barker OBE
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Roly Keating
Maureen Kellett
Lesley King-Lewis
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John Owen-Ward
Andrew Parmley
Sue Robertston
John Robins
Keith Salway
John Tomlinson
Clerk to the Board
Stuart Pick
Finance and Strategic
Planning Director
Sandeep Dwesar
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Mark Taylor
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Barbara Davidson
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Ali Ribchester
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Robert van Leer
Executive Producer
Barbican Directorate
Managing Director
Sir Nicholas Kenyon
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Graham Sheffield
Vicky Cheetham
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Gijs Elsen
Bryn Ormrod
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