# Most italianate arias



## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

If you were to put together a mix cd of the most definitively Italian numbers, what would be included? I'm talking about arias (and duets, etc) that are just pure Italian in feel and mood through and through.
Right now the only pieces I'm certain I want to include are: 
Un di Felice
O Mio Babbino Caro


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

Casta diva!

any mad scene

all belcanto and most Verdi


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

That is a really difficult undertaking...

I would restrict myself to soprano arias from the Giovane Scuola (aka verismo composers). This is a nice CD: 

Ah il suo nome - Lodoletta - Fleming - 



Amor celeste ebrezza - Lorelely - Chiara - 



Dio Pietoso - Risurrezione - Olivero - 



Dir che ci sono al mondo - Zazà - Muzio - 



Dove son? - Lorelely - Mazzoleni - 



Ebben?... Ne andrò lontana - La Wally - Freni - 



Esser madre è un inferno - L'Arlesiana - Tassinari - 



Ier dalla fabbrica a Triana - Conchita - Stella - 



io son l'umile ancella - Adriana Lecouvreur - Callas - 



La mamma morta - Andrea Chenier - Raisa - 



L'altra notte - Mefistofele - Caballé - 



Paolo, datemi pace - Francesca da Rimini - Adami - 



Per amor di Gesù - Cecilia - Tebaldi - 



Poveri fiori - Adriana Lecouvreur - Scotto - 



Qual fiamma avea nel guardo - Pagliacci - Moffo - 



Qual vergogna - Siberia - Caniglia - 



Un dì, ero piccina - Iris - Carteri - 



Voi lo sapete - Cavalleria Rusticana - Ponselle -


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

schigolch said:


> That is a really difficult undertaking...
> 
> I would restrict myself to soprano arias from the Giovane Scuola (aka verismo composers). This is a nice CD:
> 
> ...


Wow great list, and lots of effort put into it! Several that I'm unfamiliar with, checking them out now.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Schigolch, do you think that Catalani fits the company? As far as I understand, he was much in opposition to Giovane Scuola, not very keen on the ideas of realism and much closer to what we call late-romantic. In context of this thread, this would make him considerably more Germanic than the other composers from your list. 

As for my take, I think the essence of italianate quality is more with the singer than in the music. There are arias that I feel are as Italian as it gets when I hear them in particular performance, then I loose most of that feel when singers like Kaufmann are doing them.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

You are right, I include Catalani in the list more in a chronological sense ("Loreley" is from 1890, and "La Wally" from 1892) than for an stylistic reason.


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## ericdxx (Jul 7, 2013)

Maybe I'm making a fool out of myself but to me the gold standard is Recondita armonia. That is the italian aria.


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

*Verdi - Ten Arias for Soprano
*
Salgo già del trono aurato - Nabucco

Ernani, Ernani, involami - Ernani

Caro nome - Rigoletto

Tacea la notte placida - Il Trovatore

D'amor sull'alli rosee - Il Trovatore

E strano - La Traviata

Addio del passato - La Traviata

Morrò, ma prima in grazia - Un ballo in maschera

Pace, pace mio Dio - La forza del destino

[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vRcqVtlgjbA]O Patria mia - Aida[/URL]


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

This always makes me think that no composer that wasn't Italian could ever write a piece like this for sacred composition:


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Babbino Caro
Largo et Factotum 
La donna mobile


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Itullian said:


> Largo et Factotum


What is this, some kind of new tempo marking for half French, half Italian musicians?


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

Itullian said:


> Babbino Caro
> *Largo et Factotum *
> La donna mobile





Aramis said:


> What is this, some kind of new tempo marking for half French, half Italian musicians?


I think it must refer to something long that can do anything. I thought we were discussing arias here.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Itullian said:


> Babbino Caro
> Largo et Factotum
> La donna mobile


*O mio *babbino caro
Largo *al* factotum
La donna *è* mobile


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## Bardamu (Dec 12, 2011)

schigolch said:


> That is a really difficult undertaking...
> 
> I would restrict myself to soprano arias from the Giovane Scuola (aka verismo composers). This is a nice CD:
> 
> ...


Difficult undertaking especially since you are taking different sopranos for each aria (in some of those I would have taken an already used soprano ...).
Anyway following you approach:
Ferito! L'hanno ferito! - L'oracolo - Sutherland 



Son pochi fiori - L'amico Fritz - Favero -


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Yes, I would have too, especially Olivero singing the marvel thas is "Amor celeste ebrezza". 

I love "L'Oracolo" (I have even watch it staged, in Frankfurt) and Mafalda Favero.


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## Hesoos (Jun 9, 2012)

This two are really italianate:

siciliana, from Cavalleria rusticana: O Lola c'hai di latti la cammisa
Barcarola (Venezian song), from I due Foscari: Tutta è calma la laguna

Some Italian arias (very Italian, I think)

serenata, from Don Pasquale: Com'é gentil la notte a mezza april
chorus from Mosè in Egitto, Dal tuo stellato soglio
Norma, Casta diva
I puritani, A te o cara
L'elisir d'amore, Una furtiva lagrima
Nabucco, Va pensiero
I Lombardi, La mia letizia infondere
Ernani, Ernani involami
Luisa Miller, Quando le sere al placido
Rigoletto, La donna è mobile
Il trovatore, Di quella pira
Un ballo in maschera, Di tu
Pagliacci, Vesti la giubba
Turandot, Nessun Dorma
Tosca, E lucevan le stelle


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

Is possible to write an Italianate aria without being Italian?. Well, perhaps yes....

Ahimè! Dove sono? -	Fosca - Stoyanova -


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

Di Rigor Armato, by the Italian Tenor in Rosenkavalier.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

^ also, _Da voi lontan, in sconosciuta terra_ by Riccardo Vagner:


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Itullian said:


> Largo et Factotum


...a Police drama about Europe's two finest Supercops.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Aramis said:


> ^ also, _Da voi lontan, in sconosciuta terra_ by Riccardo Vagner:


I grew up with my grandmother who used to listen to all Wagner dubbed in Italian...
Maria Callas was an outstanding Kundry indeed.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Couac Addict said:


> ...a Police drama about Europe's two finest Supercops.


Very few cops in Italy can afford this... Maybe in the past only the bodyguards of Mr. Berlusca (i.e. Berlusconi, you know, the most famous Italian clown... Berlusca is his nickname given by the people from Milan)


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## DarkAngel (Aug 11, 2010)

For music the opening to Cavalleria Rusticana paints such an evocative picture in my mind of Italian village life and countryside, a great "italianate" musical score


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