Saturdee Opry links is/are posted. Quite an array. Mozartean daffiness, Mozartean poignancy, forgotten tenors, little-known sopranos, and, well. . .the devil, you say! Yes, indeed. This and that, I guess you'd say. Whether you Lakme or not. Plus: four arias from three different "Manons," and not-so-subtle commentary along the way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz-g4Iu_gGw


Saturdee Opry Links Overture.
What? A three-act opera at age 16? Mozart, of course. Overture, "Lucio Silla."
1.
A jaunty Mozart overture seems a good excuse to begin with a jaunty Mozart excerpt. Here is "Wie Wie Wie," (That's "Vee Vee Vee," no reference to Bobby intended), the quintet from "The Magic Flute"--specifically, the Ingmar Bergman film version. . .In the second act of this nutty Masonic-influenced fable, Tamino and Papageno The Bird-Catcher are led by two priests for the first of three trials. The purpose of the trials? To find enlightenment---you know, the same reason people follow Saturdee Opry Links. The two priests advise Tamino and Papageno of the dangers ahead, specifically of wiley women(!) who might persuade them away from the straight-and-narrow. They are sworn to silence. Well, wouldn't you know it?  Three ladies (attendants of the Queen of the Night!) magically appear, and try to scare Tamino and Papageno into speaking. Those wiley, wiley women! The quintet, "Wie, wie, wie" (or "How, how how") ensues. Papageno, being highly strung, cannot resist answering, but Tamino remains aloof, angrily instructing Papageno not to listen to the harridans! Seeing that Tamino will not speak, les dames withdraw in confusion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsD2j_tZ8nA

2.
Once upon a time there was a schoolteacher in Austria. He had a son who became a schoolteacher in Austria. And the son of the schoolteacher had a son who. . .became a schoolteacher in Austria. The son of the son of the schoolteacher became a. . .tenor. You knew something had to go wrong eventually! This was now forgotten Julius Patzak, yet another opera singer who allegedly took no lessons. (Maybe the schoolteacher gene enabled him to teach himself.) In any event Julius became a great exponent of Mozart (and Beethoven---annnnnd. . .70 roles ranging from operetta to the lighter Wagner roles (are there such things?), Richard Strauss, Verdi, Puccini and Mussorgsky.) His heyday* was in the '40's, '50's, and early 60's, before he retired to become a. . .can you guess?. . .drumroll. . .teacher.  Here is his lovely voice with another "Magic Flute" excerpt, the lilting aria, "Dies Bildnis ist Bezaubernd schön" ("The likeness is enchantingly lovely.")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgRrPY-IZ1Y
Synopsis:
In act one, the three magic ladies come by and take Papageno The Birdcatcher away, giving Prince Tamino a portrait of Princess Pamina. He is smitten by her beauty.
Translation:
http://www.aria-database.com/search.php?individualAria=196

*"Heyday" comes from the old Germanic word "heida" meaning "hurrah!" In its earliest appearances in English, in the 16th century, "heyday" was used as an interjection that expressed elation or wonder (similar to the English word hey, from which it derives). It eventually came to refer to the most productive period in one's (usually early) life. Not that you asked.
 

Well, the jailer, Rocco, in Beethoven's "Fidelio" isn't the Gazpacho Police, not even a Nacho Nazi. He's a buffoon---you know, like Marjorie Greene. Here he gives a little marital advice to a woman disguised as a man, who he thinks is going to marry his daughter (making him even more of a buffoon.) The advice? Perfect for the corporate commercial horror that is Valentine's Day---no, not "love, love, love," as The Beatles sang, but "gold, gold, gold." Right, our national (international) anthem. The basso, Rolf Wollrad, passed away a few days ago at 84. No reason you should have heard of him, or heard him, as he spent most of his career in Europe. This is just to impotently acknowledge the departure of another human being who dedicated the entirety of life to art. A sort of redoubtable bass voice, good for all occasions. Here is the late Herr Wollrad is with "Hat man nicht auch Gold beineben" ("If you don't have gold close by. . .") Words to live by, as Jeff Bezos will attest. Yes, there's gold in them-thar ills!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gqDuLWJQ80
Synopsis:
Fidelio (who is really Leonora in disguise) has done a job for Rocco the Jailer. Rocco promises that he will reward Fidelio by allowing him to marry his daughter, Marzelline. He warns, however, that a happy marriage needs more than love. Gold, he insists, is the key to connubial bliss. Who, he asks, can be happy if you are hungry all the time?
http://www.aria-database.com/translations/fidelio04_gold.txt


4.
Hear the sledges with the bells—
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells— Sylvia Voinea was one of the greatest coloratura sopranos in the world, from the late 60's to the end of the 20th Century, and you've likely never heard of her. She is proof that one need never sing in the USA in order to achieve greatness in opera, having spent most of her career in her native Romania, and Europe. She is still with us, having been professor of bel canto at the National University of Music in Bucharest since 1990. Here she is at her peak, with the spritely vocal athleticism of the whimsical "Bell Song," from "Lakme," by Leo Delibes, in a delightful old clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exe6PxfE6q4
Synopsis : Ordered by her father, Lakmé sings the legend of the pariah's daughter. This is the tale of a girl walking through the forest at night, who comes upon a stranger who has been attacked by wild animals. The girl valiantly rings a magic bell on a wand and saves the man. Lucky thing, too. The man turns out to be Visnhu, the son of Brahma the Creator, and as a reward, whisks her up to Facebook, I'm sorry, I mean paradise. Can't imagine how I got the two confused.  
Translation:
http://www.aria-database.com/translations/lakme02_bell.txt
About Ms. Voinea:
https://festivaluldearte.com/2020/11/10/soprano-associate-prof-univ-dr-silvia-voinea/


Saturdee Opry Links will be back after this important message. Okay, gassed up with Vietnamese Iced Coffee, so ready to continue. . .This one goes out to Vlad "the Impaler" Putin. Yes, this is for you, Vladdy. SOL will be thinking of you as you blow up innocent Ukrainians in the next day or so (and possibly innocent Estonians, Poles, later on, right?) From Boito's "Mefistofele," this is "Son lo Spirito," yes, the devil's own solo turn. The bass is Ildar Abdrazakov, just to add that touch of Rusky to the proceedings. Is there anything quite as sinister as the devil whistling?

I am the Spirit
that eternally denies everything:
the star, the flower.
My mocking laughter and my quarrelling
disturb the Creator's rest.

Setting: Faust's study, Frankfurt, Germany, medieval times.
Synopsis: Mefistofele reveals his true nature to Faust, singing a little paean to, oh, evil.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJeyQupAfro
Translation:
https://opera-cat.livejournal.com/tag/composer:%20boito.arrigo?utm_medium=endless_scroll Here is a tribute to the great Joseph Schmidt, seeing as his birthday is March 4 (when this SOL was done). The "pocket Caruso," this terrific, first-tier tenor was denied an opera career because of his height (about 4' 11"), believe it or not. And as I have often noted on SOL, Schmidt, a Jew, was a casualty of Hitler---dying in a Swiss refugee camp while fleeing Der Fuhrer. This special website includes a full-length movie in which he starred.
https://basiaconfuoco.com/2022/02/11/ein-stern-fallt-vom-himmel-the-short-life-of-joseph-schmidt/


6.

Perhaps one day, SOL will get ambitious enough to devote an entire edition to the three operas about Manon---the femme fatale central character of the 1731 novel "L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut" by Abbé Prévost. But for today, SOL will focus on one aria from each opera. First is what is commonly known as "La Reve" ("The Dream"), or "En fermant les yeux," a work that is fairly limp with lovesickness, from "Manon," by Massenet. This is an especially gentle reading of the aria, by forgotten tenor Julius Patzak (see post # 2), in German instead of original French.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYiUyFCUjp8
Setting: Apartment of Chevalier Des Grieux, Paris, France, 18th century.
Synopsis: In order to cheer Manon up, Des Grieux relates to her a dream that he has had. He has dreamed that someday he will own a house surrounded by beautiful flowers and singing birds. However, he realizes that his dream was still drear because it lacks one thing : Manon.
Translation:
https://www.opera-arias.com/massenet/manon/en-fermant-les-yeux/

WHOOPS!
Oh, wait---I already did! The least known of the three operas about Manon Lescaut, is by Daniel Auber. Who is also the least known of the three "Manon" composers. Auber was chiefly a master of French opera comique (you might have heard of his "Fra Diavolo," which spawned a sort of bastardized film version with Laurel and Hardy.) Thirty-five of his 39 operatic works were operettas. His three-act "Manon Lescaut," from 1856, was written 28 years before Massenet's and 37 before Puccini's. Here is an aria that is coquettishness-as-music, " "C'est l'histoire amoureuse," or "The Laughing Song," as sung by the French coloratura, Elizabeth Vidal (whose career seems to have been overshadowed by the success of her compatriot, Natalie Dessay.) Annnnd, just for fun, here is the antic Sumi Jo with the same aria. (Start around the 2:00 mark.) Translation:
It-is the-story love,
as fabulous as
as-it-is fantastic,
(however incredible,)
of a proud gallant in arms!
Ah ah ah ah...
Of a tender commissioner
thought to be severe
and who was not
Ah ah ah ah.
He loved a beautiful, ah ah!
He wanted some, but she, ah ah,
from him did not want!
Ah ah ah ah.
But do you want to learn
the name of this Léandre,
traitor like Judas!
Her name? You will laugh.
I'm going to tell you
very low... very low...
No, no, I will not say it!
La la la la...
French:
C'est l'histoire amoureuse
autant que fabuleuse,
as-it-is fantastic,
d'un galant fier à bras!
ah ah ah ah...
D'un tendre commissaire
que l'on croyait sévère
et qui ne l'était pas
Ah ah ah ah.
Il aimait une belle, ah ah!
Il en voulait, mais elle, ah ah,
de lui ne voulait pas!
Ah ah ah ah.
Or, voulez-vous apprendre
le nom de ce Léandre,
traître comme Judas!
Son nom? Vous allez rire.
Je m'en vais vous le dire
bien bas... tout bas...
Non, non, je ne le dirai pas!
La la la la...

  Let's just say that Puccini's Manon Lescaut was, as the psychobabble term has it, "conflicted." That's the word frequently used to describe the most banal sort of character deficiency. In this case, Manon could not choose between love and sparkly jewels. First she tried love, with the student Des Grieux, and she rather liked it. But as we know, students are idealistic and poor (unless they are legacy admissions), and emotional young women need to eat. So she left Des Grieux for an old, plump Parisian sugar daddy, Geronte, who decorated her like a Christmas tree with diamonds, rubies, and other things that crows like. She loved it! But. . .well, Des Grieux came to visit here while the cat was away, and yes, the mice did play. The "conflicted" Manon decided to junk the jewelry and rejoin the student body. Yet as they stole away, she dashed back into Geronte's salon to grab a few necklaces---only to be captured, and sentenced to exile in America. Des Grieux valiantly accompanied her, and thanks to Puccini concocting a desert in Louisiana, she died there of thirst and starvation (while attempting to reach a British settlement.) Here is her wrenching farewell, "Sola, perduta, abbandonata," as sung by Kristina Opalais (with Jonas Kaufmann as Des Grieux.) "Alone, lost, abandoned."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keHgz1Ra8Kk
Translation (scroll down):   Okay, one more for Manon. . .
Puccini was warned, when he undertook writing "Manon Lescaut," that Massenet had already written it ten years earlier. He was undeterred, perhaps not surprisingly. and said, with characteristic bravado: "Manon is a heroine I believe in and therefore she cannot fail to win the hearts of the public. Why shouldn't there be two operas about Manon? A woman like Manon can have more than one lover. Massenet feels it as a Frenchman, with powder and minuets. I shall feel it as an Italian, with a desperate passion!" Well. Here is an aria from Puccini's "Manon Lescaut" that conveys nothing if not desperate passion. When Des Grieux first spots Manon on the arm of Geronte, arriving at an inn near the gates of Paris, he is gobsmacked, smitten, and otherwise deranged with hormones. After Manon leaves, he sings to his fellow student-friends, "Donna non vidi mai" ("Never have I seen such a woman"). One of the great Puccini tenor arias, but of course. . .Here is tenor Mario del Monaco, live on stage in 1951, stretching the high note to three times its written length. He knew what opera was for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad4TKiuAiCs
Translation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_non_vidi_mai

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmJqJOVV3z0
Translation:
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/lascia-chio-pianga-leave-me-so-i-may-cry.html