I arrived late on Sunday evening ready for rehearsals to start at Scottish Opera for my teams leg of the Pop Up Opera tour this summer. In June the company returned to live outdoor performance for the first time in nine months. We are due to pop up in Perth, Dundee, and Forfar throughout July and August as part of a Gilbert & Sullivan-inspired tour.
I am in 30-minute open-air shows with condensed versions of The Pirates of Penzance and HMS Pinafore in a specially adapted trailer for family audiences. Attracting expected audiences of over 12,000, assuming seating in bubbles, with plans to be on the road by 8 June subject to Scottish Government guidelines the audience will be safely socially distanced in their household bubbles. In total Scottish Opera are offering over 200 performances. Returning to live performance is such a relief. I’ll tell you more about this and the ‘Bubble McBea’ Primary school tour as the weeks develop.
In the meantime, I’ve put together a few slides to tell you more about O Luce di Quest’Anima which is track 17 on Songs from our Balcony. I learned this stunning aria for my BMus undergraduate final recital at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and I have worked on it every year since 2016 when I graduated. The aria is from the opera Linda di Chamounix by Gaetano Donizetti.
| Recitative: Ah! tardai troppo, e al nostro favorito convegno io non trovai il mio diletto Carlo; e chi sa mai quanto egli avrà sofferto! Ma non al par di me! Pegno d’amore questi fior mi lasciò! tenero core! E per quel core io l’amo, unico di lui bene. Poveri entrambi siamo, viviam d’amor, di speme; pittore ignoto ancora egli s’innalzerà coi suoi talenti!Sarà mio sposo allora. Oh noi contenti! Aria: O luce di quest’anima, delizia, amore e vita, la nostra sorte unita, in terra, in ciel sarà. Deh, vieni a me, riposati su questo cor che t’ama, che te sospira e brama, che per te sol vivrà. |
| Translation of O Luce di Quest’Anima (Word for Word) Ah I delayed too long, And at our favourite meeting place I do not find my beloved Carlo And who knows ever how much he will have suffered! But not on par with me! Token of love these flowers for me he left! Tender Heart! And for that heart I love him, only of him wealth Poor both we are, we live on love, on hope. Painter unknown as yet he will lift himself up with his talents! He will be my husband then. Oh we contented ones! Oh light of this soul, delight, love and life, Our fate united, on earth, in heave will be. Ah, come to me, rest yourself upon this heart that loves you. That for you longs and desires, That for you only will live. (Poetic – my version) Ah, I am too late I can not find my beloved Carlo at our favourite meeting spot. And who will ever know how much he suffered! But not as much as I. He left these flowers for me as a token of love! Tender Heart! And I love him for his heart, which is his only possession. We are both poor, we live on love and hope. As yet he is an unknown artist, but he will make himself known through his talent! He will be my husband. Oh, how happy we will be! Oh light of this soul, delight, love and life, Our fate united, on earth, in heaven we will be. Ah, come to me, rest yourself upon this heart that loves you. That for you longs and desires, that lives only for you. |