Elisabeth Schwarzkopf: "Signore, ascolta!" from Turandot

Elizabeth Schwarzkopf is unsurpassed! This is by far the most beautiful rendition and interpretation of the famous aria, Signore ascolta! from Pucini's masterpeace TURANDOT, and aria that I could hardly stop listening to it over and over again. True bel-canto, magnifico!!

Elizabeth Schwarzkopf:

More on this aria and Turandot:

Turandot Synopsis 

Signore, ascolta by Renata Tebaldi 

Signore, ascolta by Maria Callas

Renata Tebaldi & Jussi Björling in Turandot

Renata Tebaldi & Jussi Björling in Turandot

Veramour correctly said: "Jussi Björling had no small voice when he sang opposite Renata Tebaldi & Milanov at the Met. His artistry was certainly less histrionic than that of MDM and Corelli. Victoria de los Angeles described her first impression of Bjorling's live voice as speechless awe -- its sound, size and range were to her surreal," so I took the liberty to quote her here.

Enjoy listening Tebaldi & Bjoerling in Turandot.

Grandi Voci: Renata Tebaldi

Signore, ascolta by Renata Tebaldi

Signore, ascolta by Maria Callas

Signore, ascolta! by Renata Tibaldi

Signore, ascolta! by Renata Tibaldi, from Act I of the Italian opera Turandot by Giacomo Puccini

Role: Liú, a slave girl
Voice Part: soprano      
Fach: lyric soprano
Setting: The streets of Peking
Synopsis: Liù, Calaf and Timur are in the midst of a processional to the execution of the Prince of Persia who attempted to win the Princess Turandot by answering three riddles. If he had given the correct answers, he would have married the Princess, but the price for incorrectly answering them was death. During the processional, Calaf catches a glimpse of Turandot, falls in love with her immediately, and decides to attempt to answer the three riddles. Liù sings this aria to beg him not to risk his life for the Princess.

Alla Liù della Tebaldi non manca davvero nulla per giungere alla completa perfezione. Toccante interpretazione, saldezza assoluta nella linea vocale, fluidità senza alcun, seppur minimo, tentennamento, lucentezza timbrica senza eguali, pianissimo che letteralmente tolgono il fiato per il loro nitore e per la loro perfetta proporzione con gli altri volumi della voce. Senza dubbio una Liù senza rivali.

Grande voci, great voices by Renata Tebaldi.

Signore, ascolta! translation is in the blog post with the Maria Callas's Signore, ascolta! version.

Maria Callas: "Signore ascolta!" from Turandot | Lyrics & Translation

Signore, ascolta! by Maria Callas, from Act I of the Italian opera Turandot by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto: Giuseppe Adami

Role: Liú, a slave girl
Voice Part: soprano      
Fach: lyric soprano
Setting: The streets of Peking
Synopsis: Liù, Calaf and Timur are in the midst of a processional to the execution of the Prince of Persia who attempted to win the Princess Turandot by answering three riddles. If he had given the correct answers, he would have married the Princess, but the price for incorrectly answering them was death. During the processional, Calaf catches a glimpse of Turandot, falls in love with her immediately, and decides to attempt to answer the three riddles. Liù sings this aria to beg him not to risk his life for the Princess.

 

Lyrics:

Signore, ascolta! Deh!, signore, acolta!
Liù non regge più!
Si pezza il cuore! Ahimè,
quanto cammino
col tuo nome nell'anima
col nome tuo nell'labbra
Ma se il tuo destino,
doman, sarà deciso,
noi morrem sulla strada dell'esilio.
Ei perderà suo figlio...
io l'ombra d'un sorriso!
Liù non regge più!
ha pietà!

English Translation:

Lord, hear! Ah, sir, listen!
Liu no longer holds, it breaks my heart! 

Alas, what with your name in my way,
with your name on the lips!
But if your fate will be decided tomorrow,
we die on the road of exile.
He would lose his son …

I am the shadow of a smile.
Liu does not hold anymore! 

Ah!

Turandot Synopsis | Giacomo Puccini's Masterpeace

Toward the end of his career, Giacomo Puccini was influenced by the compositions of Rimsky-Korsakov, Strauss, Schoenberg, and Stravinsky, early forerunners of the Impressionistic Music Era. As Impressionistic music diverged from traditional harmonies, Puccini endeavored to assimilate a more contemporary style into the writing of "Turandot," an opera based on Italian dramatist's Carlo Gozzi's play by that name. Puccini's "Turandot" is by far his most grand opera, replete with climaxes, choruses, and full pageantry.

Princess Turandot, according to the fable that served as Gozzi's inspiration, lived in the City of Peking. She was destined to marry but had pledged to thwart any attempts of suitors because of an ancestor's abduction by a prince and resultant death. With each suitor, Turandot posed three riddles. If the suitor answered all three riddles correctly, he won the hand of the princess. If he failed, he lost his head.

TURANDOT by Giacomo Puccini 

ACT I. Peking, legendary times. In a quarter swarming with people near the Forbidden City, a Mandarin reads an edict: any prince seeking to marry Princess Turandot must answer three riddles - and if he fails, he will die. Her latest suitor, the Prince of Persia, is to be executed at the rise of the moon. Bloodthirsty citizens urge the executioner on, and in the tumult a slave girl, Liù, calls out for help when her aged master is pushed to the ground. A handsome youth recognizes him as his long-lost father, Timur, vanquished king of Tartary. When the old man tells his son, Prince Calàf, that only Liù has remained faithful to him, the youth asks her why. She replies it is because once, long ago, Calàf smiled on her. The mob again cries for blood, but the moon emerges, and all fall into sudden, fearful silence. The doomed suitor passes on the way to execution, moving the onlookers to call upon Turandot to spare his life. Turandot appears and, with a contemptuous gesture, bids the execution proceed. The crowd hears a death cry in the distance. Calàf, smitten with the princess' beauty, determines to win her as his bride, striding to the gong that proclaims the arrival of a new suitor. Turandot's ministers Ping, Pang and Pong try to discourage the youth, their warnings supplemented by the entreaties of Timur and the tearful Liù. Despite their pleas, Calàf strikes the fatal gong and calls out Turandot's name.

ACT II. In their quarters, Ping, Pang and Pong lament Turandot's bloody reign, 

praying that love will conquer her icy heart so peace can return. As the populace gathers to hear Turandot question the new challenger, the ministers are called back to harsh reality.

The aged Emperor Altoum, seated on a high throne in the Imperial Palace, asks Calàf to give up his quest, but in vain. Turandot enters and tells the story of her ancestor Princess Lou-Ling, brutally slain by a conquering prince; in revenge Turandot has turned against all men, determining that none shall ever possess her. She poses her first question: what is born each night and dies each dawn? "Hope," Calàf answers correctly. Unnerved, Turandot continues: what flickers red and warm like a flame, yet is not fire? "Blood," replies Calàf after a moment's pause. Shaken, Turandot delivers her third riddle: what is like ice but burns? A tense silence prevails until Calàf triumphantly cries "Turandot!" While the crowd gives thanks, the princess begs her father not to abandon her to a stranger, but to no avail. Calàf generously offers Turandot a riddle of his own: if she can learn his name by dawn, he will forfeit his life.

ACT III. In a palace garden, Calàf hears a proclamation: on pain of death, no one in Peking shall sleep until Turandot learns the stranger's name. The prince muses on his impending joy; but Ping, Pang and Pong try unsuccessfully to bribe him to withdraw. As the fearful mob threatens Calàf with drawn daggers to learn his name, soldiers drag in Liù and Timur. Horrified, Calàf tries to convince the mob that neither knows his secret. When Turandot appears, commanding the dazed Timur to speak, Liù cries out that she alone knows the stranger's identity. Though tortured, she remains silent. Impressed by such endurance, Turandot asks Liù's secret; "Love," the girl replies. When the princess signals the soldiers to intensify the torture, Liù snatches a dagger from one of them and kills herself. The grieving Timur and the crowd follow her body as it is carried away. Turandot remains alone to confront Calàf, who at length takes her in his arms, forcing her to kiss him. Knowing physical passion for the first time, Turandot weeps. The prince, now sure of his victory, tells her his name.

As the people hail the emperor, Turandot approaches his throne, announcing that the stranger's name is - Love.

From the Turandot:

Nessun Dorma by Luciano Pavarotti
Signore, ascolta! by Maria Callas
Signore, ascolta! by Renata Tebaldi

Renata Tebaldi as Tosca: Vissi d'arte (lyrics and translation)

Watch and listen Renata Tebaldi as she sings Vissi d'arte, Tosca's aria from Giacomo Pucini's opera of the same name - Tosca. Comparing Renata Tebaldi and Maria Callas indeed is a dead end.

Different talents, different intellects, different voices. Both brilliant diamonds. So when I offer you Maria Callas's Vissi d'arte I'm not inviting you to compare, no, I offer you different enjoyments and two great singers, real divas...

Dijo Tosacanini de ella: Questa voce me e piu bella...Per me e La Voce dun angelo Y, El Gran Maestro, no se equivovo. Esta- mos ante La Voz En Su Mas Puro Estado De Gracia; Pocas, pero muy pocas, Voces poseyeron Tanta Belleza en Su Mas Pura Genuinidad; Estoy hablando de una voz que tiene el Sonido Mas Puro Que se pueda tener para cantar. Es Una En Un Millon, Que se puedan encontrar, Voces, como Esta De Tebaldi, Y De Tanta Cali- dad.

Vissi d'arte (lyrics and translation)

Maria Callas as Tosca: Vissi d'arte (lyrics and translation)

Maria Callas as Tosca. Watch, listen and enjoy Vissi d'arte from Act II of the Italian opera Tosca by Giacomo Puccini.

Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa

Role: Floria Tosca, a famous singer
Voice Part: soprano Fach: spinto
Setting: Scarpia's study
Synopsis: In the midst of a uncomfortable conversation with Scarpia about the fate of Tosca's lover, Tosca sings of the two great driving forces in her life, love and music.

Vissi d'arte, Tosca's aria from Tosca Lyrics

Vissi d’arte, vissi d’amore,
non feci mai male ad anima viva!

Con man furtiva

quante miserie conobbi aiutai.

Sempre con fè sincera

la mia preghiera

ai santi tabernacoli salì.

Sempre con fè sincera

diedi fiori agl’altar.

Nell’ora del dolore

perchè, perchè, Signore,  

perchè me ne rimuneri così?

Diedi gioielli della Madonna al manto,

e diedi il canto agli astri, al ciel,

che ne ridean più belli.

Nell’ora del dolor

perchè, perchè, Signor,

ah, perchè me ne rimuneri così?

Vissi d'arte, Tosca's aria lyrics English translation 

I lived for my art, I lived for love,
I never did harm to a living soul!
With a secret hand

I relieved as many misfortunes as I knew of.

Always with true faith
my prayer
rose to the holy shrines.

Always with true faith
I gave flowers to the altar.

In the hour of grief
why, why, o Lord,
why do you reward me thus?

I gave jewels for the Madonna’s mantle,
and I gave my song to the stars, to heaven,
which smiled with more beauty.

In the hour of grief
why, why, o Lord,
ah, why do you reward me thus? 

Maria Callas - At Covent Garden 1962 and 1964

Also, check out Vissi d'arte by Renata Tebaldi. 

Sissel: O Mio Babbino Caro | Gianni Schicchi | Giacomo Puccini

"O mio babbino caro" is a soprano aria from the opera Gianni Schicchi (1918), by Giacomo Puccini, to a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is sung by Lauretta after tensions between Schicchi and his prospective in-laws have reached a breaking point that threatens to separate her from Rinuccio, the boy she loves. It provides a contrasting interlude expressing lyrical simplicity and single-hearted love in the atmosphere of hypocrisy, jealousy, double-dealing and feuding in medieval Florence of Puccini's only comedy, and it provides the only set-piece in the through-composed opera.

Enjoy Sissel's version:

O Mio Babbino Caro Lyrics and Translation.

Angela GHEORGHIU: O mio babbino caro | Gianni Schicchi | Giacomo Puccini

"O mio babbino caro" is a soprano aria from the opera Gianni Schicchi (1918), by Giacomo Puccini, to a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is sung by Lauretta after tensions between Schicchi and his prospective in-laws have reached a breaking point that threatens to separate her from Rinuccio, the boy she loves. It provides a contrasting interlude expressing lyrical simplicity and single-hearted love in the atmosphere of hypocrisy, jealousy, double-dealing and feuding in medieval Florence of Puccini's only comedy, and it provides the only set-piece in the through-composed opera.

Enjoy Angela Gheorghiu's version or check out Maria Callas Hommage by Angela!

 

O mio babbino caro lyrics and translation

Maria Callas: O Mio Babbino Caro by Giacomo Puccini

"O mio babbino caro" is a soprano aria from the opera Gianni Schicchi (1918), by Giacomo Puccini, to a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is sung by Lauretta after tensions between Schicchi and his prospective in-laws have reached a breaking point that threatens to separate her from Rinuccio, the boy she loves. It provides a contrasting interlude expressing lyrical simplicity and single-hearted love in the atmosphere of hypocrisy, jealousy, double-dealing and feuding in medieval Florence of Puccini's only comedy, and it provides the only set-piece in the through-composed opera.

Enjoy Maria Callas's version:

Maria Callas Biography

O Mio Babbino Caro Lyrics and Translation.

O Mio Bambino Caro Lyrics & English Translation

O Mio Babbino Caro Italian Original Lyrics

O mio babbino caro,
mi piace, è bello bello,
vo’andare in Porta Rossa
a comperar l’anello!
Si, si, ci voglio andare!
E se l’amassi indarno,
andrei sul Ponte Vecchio
ma per buttarmi in Arno!
Mi struggo e mi tormento,
O Dio! Vorrei morir!
Babbo, pietà, pietà!
Babbo, pietà, pietà!

O Mio Bambino Caro English Translation

Oh my dear father,
I like him, he is very handsome.
I want to go to Porta Rossa
to buy the ring!
Yes, yes, I want to go there!
And if my love were in vain,
I would go to Ponte Vecchio
and throw myself in the Arno!
I am pining and I am tormented,
Oh God! I would want to die!
Daddy, have mercy, have mercy!
Daddy, have mercy, have mercy!

Here you can enjoy some great performances of this popular aria:

Elisabeth Schwarzkopf sings O mio babbino caro

Renata Tebaldi sings O mio babbino caro

Maria Callas sings O mio babbino caro

Maria Callas Biography: After Triumph, Late Years

After Tosca with Gobbi and Cioni (London, 1965)

1965 - May
She undertakes a further series of five performances of Norma in Paris; she feels tired but does not want to cancel. On 29 May she finishes Act II Scene 1 practically in a coma; the final scene is cancelled.

1965 - July
She is scheduled to sing four performances of Tosca at Covent Garden. She is advised on medical grounds to withdraw but she decides to sing just once; she chooses the Royal Gala on 5 July, which turns out to be her final appearance on the operatic stage.

1966
Callas relinquishes her American citizenship and takes Greek nationality, thereby technically annulling her marriage to Meneghini; she expects Onassis to marry her but he does not.

1968 - 20th October
After cooling his relationship with Callas, Onassis marries Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of assassinated US president John F. Kennedy; Callas is devastated.

1969 - June/July
Callas plays Medea in a non-operatic film of the play by Euripides, directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini: it is not a commercial success.

1971-72
Callas gives a series of Master Classes at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. She meets up again with her old colleague, the tenor Giuseppe di Stefano, and the two become close friends.

1973
Di Stefano persuades Callas to undertake an extensive international recital tour with him. The tour, a personal triumph but an artistic failure, begins in Hamburg on 25 October and continues into 1974.

After concert in Paris, December 1973

1974 - 11th November
The final concert of the tour with di Stefano takes place in Sapporo, Japan: this is Callas’s last public performance. The liaison with di Stefano finishes. Onassis tries to rekindle his relationship with Callas but she refuses to have him back while he remains married to Jacqueline.

1975 - 15th March
Onassis dies after an operation on his gall bladder; Callas is by now a virtual recluse in Paris.

1977 - 16th September
Alone in her apartment, Callas dies from natural causes.

Maria Callas Biography: Return and Triumph

1964 - January
Franco Zeffirelli persuades Callas to return to opera at Covent Garden in a memorable new production of Tosca that is highly praised on all counts. 

With Zeffirelli after Tosca (London, 1964)

1964 - May
Callas appears in Paris in Norma, directed by Zeffirelli, in a spectacular staging that is to be her last new production; despite some vocal problems, the performances are successful overall.

Triumph back in Pa

1965 - February
She sings in nine performances of Tosca in Paris.

1965 - March
She makes a triumphant return to the Metropolitan in New York in two performances of Tosca. 

Triumph back in Met

 Maria Callas Biography: After Triumph, Late Years

Maria Callas Biography: A Triumph in Paris and "Onassis Years"

Maria Callas with French President René Coty

1958 - 19th December
Maria Callas makes a sensational début in Paris in a gala concert at the Paris Opéra; celebrities in the audience include Onassis, who begins to take a closer interest in Callas.

1959
By this time Callas has fewer professional engagements. She and Meneghini are invited for a cruise in July on Onassis’s yacht, the Christina, with several other guests including the Churchills; by the end of the cruise Callas and Onassis are lovers and the Meneghini marriage is over. 

1960-63
Callas curtails her stage appearances and devotes herself to the international high life with Onassis; by 1962 she is performing only at a few concerts. It has been alleged that in March 1960 Callas gave birth to a son by Onassis, but the child died the same day.

A life after the tragic loss of her son, Maria Callas Biography: Return and Triumphs

Maria Callas Biography: New York Conquered - Problems in Italy

1956 - 29th October
Maria Callas sings for the first time at the Metropolitan, New York, in Norma, followed by Tosca and Lucia.

 
1957 - September
Elsa Maxwell, the American society hostess, introduces the Meneghinis to the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis at a party in Venice.

1958 - 2nd January
Pleading illness, Callas cancels after the first act of a gala performance of Norma in Rome, attended by the President of Italy and all of Rome society; she is harshly criticised in the media.

1958 - May
At La Scala during performances of Il pirata she quarrels with the general director, Antonio Ghiringhelli, and decides not to appear again at La Scala while he remains in charge.

1958 - 6th November
Rudolf Bing, director of the Metropolitan Opera, fires Callas after failing to reach agreement with her on performances for the next season.

Next: Maria Callas Biography: A Triumph in Paris and the "Onassis Years"

Maria Callas Biography: Triumphant Years of Success

1953 - February
First commercial recording for EMI is Lucia di Lammermoor, recorded in Florence.
Later in the year Callas begins a series of complete opera recordings at La Scala, starting with I puritani and Cavalleria rusticana conducted by Serafin, followed by Tosca conducted by Victor de Sabata.

New Look Era Begins

1954
Callas reduces her weight by 30 kilos and her appearance changes dramatically. She records a further four complete operas at La Scala and her first two recital discs in London.

Maria Callas's new look
in 1954 she has lost 30 kilos.

1954 - November
Maria Callas returns to the USA to sing Norma, La traviata and Lucia di Lammermoor in Chicago.

1954 - December
She opens the season at La Scala in La vestale, working for the first time with theatre and film director Luchino Visconti.

Next: Maria Callas Biography: New York Conquered & the Problems in Italy

Maria Callas Biography: Difficult Years

1946
Maria Callas tries unsuccessfully to find work but continues strenuous vocal practice to perfect her technique; meets agent Eddie Bagarozy. She accepts an engagement to sing in Turandot in Chicago in January 1947 with cast of celebrated European singers in a new company to be founded by Bagarozy and Ottavio Scotto, an Italian impressario.

1947

1947 - January
The Chicago company goes bankrupt a few days before its scheduled opening performance. A member of the company (the Italian bass Nicola Rossi-Lemeni) introduces Callas to Giovanni Zenatello, who is in the USA to find singers for the 1947 Verona Opera Festival; he engages Callas to sing in La Gioconda.

1947 - 27th June
Callas arrives in Naples and goes the next day to Verona to begin rehearsals; in Verona she meets Giovanni Battista Meneghini, a wealthy Italian industrialist and opera lover, 28 years her senior.

1947 - 2nd August
Makes her Italian début in the Arena at Verona in La Gioconda conducted by Tullio Serafin. The performances are successful enough but Callas makes no special impression and the expected offers of further work do not materialise.

La Gioconda (La Scala, 1952)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1947 - 30th December
Maria Callas sings Isolde in Italian under Serafin at La Fenice in Venice; this leads to further engagements in Italy, mainly in Turandot.
 

Maria Callas as Norma

1948 - 30th November
In Florence, Callas sings Norma for the first time: this is the opera she will eventually perform more than any other during her career.

Next: Maria Callas Biography, the Turning Point

Maria Callas Biography: The Turning Point

1949 - 19th January

Having just sung her first Brünnhilde in Die Walküre eleven days earlier, Callas, at the insistence of Serafin, replaces the indisposed Margherita Carosio in the coloratura role of Elvira in I puritani at La Fenice. The operatic world is stunned by her performance. This is the turning point in Callas’s career and the start of her involvement in the rehabilitation of the Italian bel canto repertoire.

Maria Callas as Elvira in
I puritani (Florence, 1952)

 

 

 

1949 - 21st April
Marries Meneghini in Verona and sails that night for Argentina to sing at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. Helped by Meneghini as both husband and manager, Callas develops her career in Italy and abroad during the next two years.

1951 - 7th December
Callas opens the season at La Scala, Milan, in I vespri siciliani to great acclaim; during the next seven years La Scala will be the scene of her greatest triumphs in a wide range of roles.

1952 - 29th July
Callas signs a recording contract with EMI.

Next: Maria Callas Biography - Triumphant Years of Success

Maria Callas Biography: Her Career Starts (1940s)

Callas as Beatrice in Boccaccio

1940 - 21st October
First engagement with the Lyric Theatre company, singing songs in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice at the Royal Theatre in Athens. 

1941 - 21st January
Makes her professional operatic début as Beatrice in Boccaccio at the Palas Cinema, Athens, with the Lyric Theatre company, with whom she will sing in Tosca, Tiefland, Cavalleria rusticana, Fidelio and Der Bettelstudent during the next four years.

Maria Callas's first Tosca

1942 - 27th August
Sings Tosca for the first time in Greek at an open-air performance at the Park Summer Theatre, Klafthmonos Square.

1944
Sings Leonore in Fidelio. The occupying forces lose control over Greece; the British fleet arrives in Piraeus. Maria Kalogeropoulou decides to return to the USA and find her father.

1945 - 3rd August
Gives a ‘farewell’ concert in Athens, her first solo recital, to raise money for her journey to the USA.


1945 - September
Returns to New York and takes up the name of Callas again.

1945 - December
She auditions for the Metropolitan Opera but fails to secure an engagement.

Next: Maria Callas Biography: Difficult Years.

Maria Callas Biography: Early Years

Evangelia, Maria, Jacinthy and George Kalogeropoulos

1923 - 2nd December
Maria Anna Sophia Cecilia Kalogeropoulou is born in New York. Her parents, Evangelia and George Kalogeropoulos, had emigrated from Greece to Long Island, New York, in August 1923.

1929
George Kalogeropoulos sets up a pharmacy in a Greek quarter of Manhattan; he changes the family name to Callas.

1932
Maria is given her first piano lessons; later in life she is able to study all her roles at the piano without the help of a repetiteur.

1937
The Callas parents separate. Evangelia returns to Greece with her two daughters Yacinthy (known as Jackie) and Maria and changes the family name back to Kalogeropoulos.

Maria at 13 with her mother

1938
Maria Kalogeropoulou (Callas) is admitted to the National Conservatory in Athens despite being younger than the minimum age requirement of 16; she begins her studies under Maria Trivella.

1938 - 11th April
Maria Callas appears with fellow students in first public recital.

Maria Callas in 1938

1939 - 2nd April
Maria makes her stage debut as Santuzza in a student production of Cavalleria rusticana and wins the Conservatory’s prize. Elvira de Hidalgo becomes Maria’s teacher and concentrates on coloratura training.

Maria Callas's career starts, Maria Callas Biography Part II

Carmen: Habanera Translation

English Translation:

Love is a rebellious bird
That nothing can tame,
And it is simply in vain to call it
If it is convient for it to refuse.
Nothing will work, threat or pleading,
One speaks, the other stays quiet;
And it's the other that I prefer
He said nothing; but he pleases me.
Love! Love! Love! Love!

Love is the child of the Bohemian,
It has never, never known any law,
If you don't love me, I love you,
If I love you, keep guard of yourself!
If you don't love me,
If you don't love me, I love you!
But, if I love you,
If I love you, keep guard of yourself!
If you don't love me,
If you don't love me, I love you!
But, if I love you,
If I love you, keep guard of yourself!
The bird you thought to surprise
Bat its wing and flew away;
Love is far away, you can wait for it;
If you wait for it no more, it is there!
All around you, quickly, quickly,
It comes, goes, then it comes back!
You think to hold it, it avoids you;
You think to avoid it, it holds you!
Love, love, love, love!

Love is the child of the Bohemian,
It has never, never known any law,
If you don't love me, I love you,
If I love you, keep guard of yourself!
If you don't love me, I love you,
If I love you, keep guard of yourself!
If you don't love me,
If you don't love me, I love you!
But, if I love you,
If I love you, keep guard of yourself!
If you don't love me,
If you don't love me, I love you!
But, if I love you,
If I love you, keep guard of yourself!


Listen to the fantastic rendition of Habanera by Maria Callas! 

Lucia Popp and Placido Domingo - BRINDISI (La traviata)

"Libiamo ne' lieti calici", the famous "Brindisi" or "Drinking Song" from La Traviata de Giussepe Verdi. Arugably one of the most famous operas ever written, story of a fallen Violetta is based on "The Lady of the Camellias" by Alexandre Dumas, son.

More on this opera with "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" translation ("Brindisi" or "Drinking Song" translation here) but in this video below you could enjoy Lucia Popp and Placido Domingo's version of Brindisi, as performed or Queen Elizabeth in London, 1986.

Should you wish to hear Lucia Popp Laudate Dominum by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, just follow the link. 

Also, the Very Best of Placido Domingo could be found here (Amazon affiliate link)
 

Elina Garancha as Carmen: CHANSON BOHÉMIENNE (Gypsy Song) w. Translation

Elina Garancha (or Garanca), as CARMEN in Georges Bizet opera, sings CHANSON BOHÉMIENNE (Gypsy Song) (Translation's below):

CHANSON BOHÉMIENNE (Gypsy Song) w. Translation

Carmen

The sistrums had the clanging sound

That their rods made as they were swaying,

And then with that strange music playing

The Gypsy girls rose to the ground.

The tambourines would race along,

And stubborn hands that kept up with them

Gave their guitars a furious rhythm,

The same refrain, the same old song,

The same refrain, the same old song.

Tra la la la

Tra la la la

Tra la la la

Tra la la la la la la la.

The copper and the silver rings

On swarthy skins were bright and shining;

And skirts with red or orange lining

Would flutter in the wind like wings.

The dance was married to the song,

The dance was married to the song,

At first unsure and hesitating,

Then lively and accelerating…

It all kept rising, rising all along!

The men, with strength as if from hell,

Now beat their instruments to sound them,

And with that dazzling noise around them

The women fell under its spell.

And to the rhythm of the song,

And to the rhythm of the song,

All hot and crazy, fevered, sweating,

Intoxicated, they were letting

The whirlwind carry them along!

Music Reading Made Easy

CHANSON BOHÉMIENNE Lyrics:

Carmen

Les tringles des sistres tintaient

avec un éclat métallique,

et sur cette étrange musique

les zingarellas se levaient.

Tambours de basque allaient leur train,

et les guitares forcenées

grinçaient sous des mains obstinées,

même chanson, même refrain,

même chanson, même refrain.

Tra la la la

tra la la la

tra la la la

tra la la la la la la la.

Les anneaux de cuivre et d’argent

reluisaient sur les peaux bistrées;

d’orange ou de rouge zébrées

les étoffes flottaient au vent.

La danse au chant se mariait,

la danse au chant se mariait;

d’abord indécise et timide,

plus vive ensuite et plus rapide...

cela montait, montait, montait, montait!

Les Bohémiens, à tour de bras,

de leurs instruments faisaient rage,

et cet éblouissant tapage

ensorcelait les zingaras.

Sous le rhythme de la chanson,

sous le rhythme de la chanson,

ardentes, folles, enfiévrées,

elles se laissaient, enivrées,

emporter par le tourbillon!


Elina Garanca: Habanera