Shine, Lights of Heaven, Guardians immortal, Shine on my true love, Waking or sleeping, Sun, moon and starlight, Comfort her woe.
O nimble breezes, O stately waters,
Obey a lover, Proclaim her beauty And sing her praises Where'er you go.
(da capo) When grief beclouds her, I walk in shadow, My thoughts are with her, Waking or sleeping; Sun, moon and starlight, Comfort her woe.
2,) Pamina's Aria in Die Zauberflote, Act II
Ach, ich fuhl's, es ist verschwunden
Ewig hin, mein ganzes Gluck, der Liebe Gliick.
Nimmer hommt ihr, Wonne-stunden
Nleinem Herzen mehr zuriick.
Sieh, Tamino
Diese Tranen fliessen, Trauter, dir allein, dir allein.
Fiihlst du nicht der Liebe Sehnen, Liebe Sehnen,
So ivird Ruhe im Tode sein.
Fiihlst du nicht der Liebe Sehnen,
Fiihlst du nicht der Liebe Sehnen,
So wird Ruhe im Tode sein,
Im Tode sein.
(Ah, I feel it / it has vanished / for ever away / the joy of love. Never will you come / hours of wonder / back to my heart / See, Tamino / these tears flowing, beloved, for you alone / If you do not feel the sighs of love / then there will be peace in death.)
The aria contains a number of high notes, long runs and phrases which repeat like an echo. Any English version, therefore, must provide open vowels for the high notes and runs, and phrases which can sound like echoes. There is a certain kind of English poetry which is based upon the
repetition of a word or words in slightly different context, for instance, Donne's "The Expiation."
Go, go, and if that word hath not quite killed thee,
Ease me with death by bidding me go too,
Or, if it have, let my word work on me
And a just office on a murderer do;
Except it be too late to kill me so,
Being double dead, going and bidding go.
Given Pamina's situation it seemed to us that we might make use of this style and build our lyric round the words silent and grief.
Hearts may break though grief be silent, True hearts make their love their lives, Silence love with ended lives; Love that dies in one false lover Kills the heart where love survives.
O Tamino, see the silence Of my tears betray my grief, Faithful grief.
If you flee my love in silence, In faithless silence, Let my sorrow die with me. If you can betray Pamina, If you love me not, Tamino, Let my sorrow die with me And silent be.
3) Donna Anna's last aria in Don Giovanni. This consists of an orchestral recitative, a cavatina and a caba- letta.
recit: Crudele? Ah no, mia hene. Troppo mi
spiace
allontanarti un hen che lungamente la nostra
alma desia . . . Ma, il mondo . . . O DioI. . . Ahhastanza
per te mi parla amore. Non sedur la con-
stanza del sensibil mio coreI
CAVATiNA: Non mi dir, bell'idol mio, Che son io crudel con te; Tu ben sai quant'io t'amai, Tu conosci la mia fe, Tu conosci la mia fe. Calma, calm'il tuo tormento, Se di duol non vuoi ch'io mora, Non vuoi ch'io mora Non mi dir, bell'idol mio, Che son io crudel con te; Calma, calm'il, etc. . . .
cabaletta: forse, forse un giorn'il cielo Sentira pieta di me.
(Cruel? O no, my dear. Too much it grieves me to withhold from you a joy that for a long time our soul desires. But, the world . . . O God! Do not weaken the constancy of my suffering heart. Sufficiently for you Love speaks to me.
Do not tell me, my dearest dear,
That I am cruel to you;
You know well how much I love you,
You know my fidelity,
Calm your torment
If you do not wish me to die of grief.
Perhaps, one day, Heaven Will take pity on me.
The aria is one of the most beautiful which Mozart ever wrote, but the words are of an appalling banality and make Donna Anna very unsympathetic, now leading poor Don Ottavio on, now repulsing him. We felt, therefore, that we must forget the orginal text entirely and write something quite new. In a coloratura aria of this kind, it is wise to start with translating or reinventing the cabaletta which, like a cadenza, is written to provide the singer with the opportunity to display her vocal virtuosity in runs and range of pitch. This means that, whatever lines one writes, the key syllables must contain long open vowels, preferably a, ex and ae. Accordingly, the first line of the aria we composed was the last, after taking a hint from the cielo in the preceding line.
On my dark His light shall break.
We then wrote a line to precede it and complete the cabaletta:
God will surely wipe away thy tears, my daughter, On thy (my) dark His light shall break.
These lines suggested the idea that they might be some kind of message from Heaven, so that some lines, at least, of the cavatina would be concerned with where the message was coming from. We then remembered that, in the graveyard scene which immediately precedes it, Don Giovanni mentions that it is a cloudless night with a full moon, and that the supper scene which immediately follows it opens with the Don's hired musicians playing suitable supper music. These two facts suggested two ideas: a) that Donna Anna might be gazing at the full moon, from which, so to speak, the message of her cabaletta would emanate and b) effective use might be made of the Neoplatonic contrast between the music of the spheres which her "spiritual" ear catches from the moon and the carnal music of this world as represented by the supper music. The stage direction in the piano score we were using says A darkened chamber, but there seems to be nothing about the action which makes this necessary. WTiy shouldn't the chamber have an uncurtained open window through which the moon could be seen? Accordingly, we changed the stage direction and wrote the aria as follows:
recit: Disdain you, Hear me, my dearest! None
can foretell what the rising sun may bring, a day of sorrow or a day of rejoicing. But, hear me! Remember, when the jealous
misgivings of a lover beset you, all the stars shall fall down 'ere I forget you!
cavatina: Let yonder moon, chaste eye of heaven Cool desire and calm your soul; May the bright stars their patience lend you As their constellations roll, Turn, turn, turn about the Pole. Far, too far they seem from our dying, Cold we call them to our sighing; We, too, proud, too evil-minded, By sin are blinded.
See, how bright the moon shines yonder, Silent witness to all our wrong: Ah! but hearken! O blessed wonder! Out of silence comes a music, And I can hear her song.
cabaletta: "God will surely, surely, wipe away thy tears, my daughter, On thy dark His light shall break. God is watching thee, hath not forgotten thee,
On thy dark His light shall break." God will heed me, sustain me, console me. On my dark His light shall break.