# Una Furtiva Lagrima



## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Every time I hear this song I wonder what DONIZETTI was thinking.

It just doesn't fit.

The words are happy words, but the music is so sad. The words say oh she loves me, finally, now I can tell. Now I see. The music tells a very different story.

For myself, I can't hear the music without thinking of an enormous Roman arch, the signature of empire, off in an empty wilderness, maybe buried deep in a Central American jungle or a Canadian marsh. One lonely Roman persisting, working in the sun and the rain to build it up, adding bricks at the bottom, and the wind laughing above, as it takes the top of the arch off in dust at precisely the same rate as the worker builds it up at the bottom. To me, the music is perfect for that setting. Not for a happy now she loves me song!

The context is all very different music, too. The rest of the opera is one long patter song in duet and trio and quartet, voices mixing in harmony, never just one person saying now this is my opera. Well, you all know individuals have their single songs early on, but they're not really showpieces.

But it works, doesn't it? It's a purely musical coup de theatre. It's as though there's a second drama that resides solely in the music, a very different drama from the one in the libretto. Maybe WAGNER was a genius, eh?


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

guythegreg said:


> Every time I hear this song I wonder what Rossini was thinking.


Rossini was thinking: _"Gosh darn, that Donizetti fellow wrote a heck of an aria!" _


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Cavaradossi said:


> Rossini was thinking: _"Gosh darn, that Donizetti fellow wrote a heck of an aria!" _


Ah, ya got me! Ah well ...


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

Hehe... but you do make a good point. Though, at this point in the story Nemorio still has reason to be melancholy. After all, as far as he knows Adina is still going to marry Belcore and he has just conscripted himself into Belcore's regiment in his desperation buy the second dose of "elixir".

I just found this little tidbit on Wikipedia which might explain the especially poignant spin Donizetti put on it:
_There is also personal history in the this opera. Donizetti's military service was bought by a rich woman, so that, unlike his brother Giuseppe (also a well known composer) he did not have to serve in the Austrian army._


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## Bardamu (Dec 12, 2011)

"Un furtiva lagrima" describes Nemorino realizing that Adina might indeed love him.
He isn't sure yet so all he got is trepidation and hope.


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

(reply to Cav post) That's true - didn't think of that. He's sad because he's signed up to the army just when his ladylove came around ... it would help if there were something about that in the lyrics, tho! 

That is an interesting little fact, about Giuseppe, too. One escaped and one did not ... although, again according to Wiki, his brother had been in charge of music at the Sublime Porte for four years at the time Elisir was first composed, so he was no longer in danger of his life in the army. Interesting. To me. lol


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## LouisMasterMusic (Aug 28, 2013)

I've tried reading the story of L'Elisir many times, and I've listened to "Una Furtiva Lagrima" a lot as well. I do not understand how this is a happy aria, and how this fits into a comedy.


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## dionisio (Jul 30, 2012)

Doesn't Nemorino stand in D-Flat major when he realises that Adina loves him (_M'ama, si m'ama_)? That's his certainty after his moment of reflexion in the beginning of the aria, when his doubts are sung in a minor chord, isn't it? In fact, the moment he realises she loves him, i think this cannot be sung without a big smile in his face.

The purest and "truest" (does this word exist in english?) of comedies are the ones that give even to the most pathetic characters human feelings. Perhaps this aria is the most human moment of the whole opera. And here Nemorino is human and not just some silly character.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

This is basically my reading of the aria too. Nemorino is finally sure that Adina has fallen in love with him.

The harp and the bassoon introduce the aria in a minor key, this is related to Amina's sentiments, that are appreciated by Nemorino. But later Donizetti moves to a very bright major key, "M'ama!". We are moving slowly, and we are returning to the minor key. But then Nemorino explodes, we got from the composer an even brighter passage, and at the closing of the aria the character is just plain happy. This is the way I see the music (and Romani's text). In a rendition of the aria, you need to provide two outburst of joys, in my view. The second, and final, a little more "explosive" than the first, if possible. The melancholy in the minor key is preparing the ground for that, and gives the romanza the contrast that is a big part of its everlasting success.

Let's listen to this early recording by Enrico Caruso:


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Huh - so the minor key is to provide a ground for the leap into joy, eh? An interesting take. But the words are entirely happy. Well, who knows. God knows it works, whatever he meant by it.


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## katdad (Jan 1, 2009)

If it weren't for that aria, what would movie mafia godfathers listen to while in the bathtub (and smoking a cigar) during a hit scene on his rivals?


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Oh, I dunno - vesti la giubba, maybe?


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## dionisio (Jul 30, 2012)

katdad, here is:


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## Notung (Jun 12, 2013)

I personally think that this piece could be one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever composed (no joke).


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

Nigel Douglas, in his documentary Three Legendary Tenors, goes over Caruso's 1907 version of UFL almost line by line, demonstrating how Caruso musically and dramatically reveals Nemorino's emotional state as he sings the aria.


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## JCarmel (Feb 3, 2013)

The point of the aria is to establish & reveal in musical terms, the sensitivity of Nemorino's nature and of his capacity for deep love. That despite his lowly stature, he loves with the requisite tender passion of the Romantic hero.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

JCarmel said:


> The point of the aria is to establish & reveal in musical terms, the sensitivity of Nemorino's nature and of his capacity for deep love. That despite his lowly stature, he loves with the requisite tender passion of the Romantic hero.


Nailed it!

(Nothing more to add than these 25-odd letters.)


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## JCarmel (Feb 3, 2013)

Thank you, Cavara-D!


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Well, Placido Domingo doesn't think the aria is actually melancholy:


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## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

Revenant said:


> Nigel Douglas, in his documentary Three Legendary Tenors, goes over Caruso's 1907 version of UFL almost line by line, demonstrating how Caruso musically and dramatically reveals Nemorino's emotional state as he sings the aria.
> 
> View attachment 24493


Thanks for the recommendation. It's going on the list!


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

guythegreg said:


> Thanks for the recommendation. It's going on the list!


You're very welcome It's a very amiable introduction to the original three tenors, with the engaging Douglas - a former singer himself - as the host and narrator. The dvd sound comes out very clear and crisp in my system. A Kultur label (what else?).


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