PROGRAM NOTES

Ah Mio Cor from Alcina

George Frideric Handel

A musical giant of the Late Baroque period, George Frideric Handel was born in Germany but
spent most of his adult life in England. He successfully combined German, French, Italian, and
English musical styles in about 40 operas, 20 oratorios, and numerous other vocal pieces,
instrumental works, and church music. Handel began to have trouble with his eyes in 1751, and
two years later, he was nearly blind. On April 6, 1759, Handel conducted his last performance of
the Messiah and returned home in poor health. He died on April 14, 1759 where he is buried in
Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey in London, England. More than 3,000 people attended his
funeral. The opera Alcina is set on a magical island belonging to Alcina – a beautiful but
dangerous enchantress who seduces every man that lands there and transforms them into rocks or
wild animals when she has grown tired of them! In “Ah Mio Cor”, Alcina finds out that her
captive Ruggiero has escaped from her. She then wails her discontent to the gods.

Ah! My heart! Tainted are you!

Stars! Gods! God of love!
Traitor! I love you so much;
you can leave me alone crying,4
oh gods! Why?

Serenata
Enrico Toselli Enrico

Toselli's Serenata "Rimpianto" (Regret), from 1900, is a drinking song meant to be sung
informally in taverns over a drink. The picture that comes to mind is of an Italian singer telling
the story of lost love to friends, as they meet informally on an evening. The melody of the ABA-
structure song is carried over a gentle, almost swaying, accompaniment.
The song was so popular, Toselli himself made an arrangement for violin and piano.
Arrangements for almost every other instrument and ensemble have been made over the years as
well. The lyrics were written by Alfredo Silvestri.
Like a golden dream
it is carved in my heart.
The memory still of that love
that no longer exists.

It was the first view

 of that sweet smile
that made us happy,
with its brilliance, our youth.

But it was very brief in me

the sweetness of which truly vanished
this beautiful golden dream
leaving sorrow within me.

Dark is the future always more sad

the days of youth passed
will be regretted;
I remain alone,

Such bitter regret and grief in my heart!

O ray of sun,
On my path alas no longer shines.
No longer, no longer.

Craigslistlieder
Gabriel Kahane

Since the beginning of time, artists have sung about every aspect of love. However, with the
evolution of communication through technology, newer works explore more modern ways to
express their love through song – or even how to find it. Gabriel Kahane’s best known work,
Craigslistlieder, was first released in 2007, later being re-released in 2008 by Family Records.
This song set was inspired by real ads found on the site Craigslist. This song set, featuring eight
movements, has been described as being “hilariously creepy,” merging the genres of opera and
musical theatre to recite the ads. Gabriel Kahane attended the New England Conservatory before
transferring to Brown University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in music.

An ein Veilchen
Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany, on May 7, 1833. At the age of seven he
began taking piano lessons. Brahms was only 15 when he gave his first formal recital. He was
one of the relatively few composers whose works were fully recognized during their lifetimes.
He composed more than 300 songs and numerous orchestral, choral, piano, and chamber works.
Brahms died in Vienna on April 3, 1897, about a month after his last concert.
An ein Veilchen tells the story of someone telling their woes to a violet, waxing poetic about the
person they love. The language of flowers, sometimes called floriography, was a Victorian era
means of communication in which various flowers and floral arrangements were used to send
coded messages, allowing individuals to express feelings which otherwise could not be spoken.
Written in 16th century Germany, the text of this song likely represents more than a “violet”,
perhaps a “virgin”. Brahms set this text by Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty (1748 - 1776) to
music in 1868.
Hide, o violet, in your blue calyx -
Hide my melancholy tears, until my darling
Visits this spring! If she smilingly picks
You from the grass to adorn her bosom with you,
Oh then nestle yourself to her heart, and tell her
That those drops in your blue calyx
Flowed from the soul of the truest youth,
Who is weeping away his life and wishes for death.

Extase
Henri Duparc

French composer, Eugène Marie Henri Fouques Duparc was born in Paris in 1848. Duparc
originally pursued a law career. Studying piano with César Franck, Duparc discovered his
passion for composition. Duparc is best known for his 17 Mélodies or art-songs, with texts by
poets such as Baudelaire, Gautier, Leconte de Lisle and Goethe. He was very self-critical, and
ultimately ended up destroying many of his works. Due to mental illness, Duparc abruptly
stopped composing at the young age of 37. In the early 1900’s, Duparc eventually became
completely blind and paralyzed. Duparc lived his last 48 years in solitude, eventually passing at
the age of 85 in Mont-de-Marson, in southwestern France.
Many French art songs are bound up in heady Romantic ideals and symbolism, describing
conflicting topics like “sweet death”... Duparc wrote Extase in 1874 based on text by Jean Lahor
(1840-1909). The text and music express a feeling of quiet, blissful, and complete peace.
On a pale lily my heart is sleeping
A sleep as sweet as death:
Exquisite death, death perfumed
By the breath of the beloved:
On your pale breast my heart is sleeping…
“Chanson d’Avril”
Georges Bizet

Georges Bizet (1838-1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era, who was best known
for his operas. He also wrote over fifty songs for voice and piano, many of which have “stood the
test of time” due to Bizet’s ode to the genre of French mélodie (art song). His career was cut
short due to his early death, and was recognized for few successes before his final work,
Carmen, which would later become one of the most well-known and performed works in opera
repertoire. Bizet pursued his academic career at the Conservatoire de Paris, winning many prizes
during his residence. He was recognized in his lifetime as an outstanding pianist, but rarely
performed in public. “Chanson d’Avril” or “April Song” was composed and published in 1871
for mezzo-soprano Anna Banderali. This strophic piece paints the picture of the rustling leaves
of spring, while also serving as support for the smooth vocal lines.

Get up! Get up! Spring has just been born!

Over those valleys a rosy mist is floating!
Everything in the garden trembles and sings; your window
is full of sunshine, like a joyful gaze.
Around the bunches of purple-flowering lilac
butterflies and bees flutter and hum together,
and the little shaking bells of lily-of-the-valley
have woken up Eros who was sleeping in the woods.
Now that April has scattered its white daisies,
go without your heavy cloak and cold-weather muff!
The birds are already calling you, and the periwinkles (your sisters)
will smile in the grass when they see your blue eyes.
Let's get going! The stream is clearer in early morning.
Get up! Let's not wait for the day's burning heat.
I want to wet my feet in the moist dew
and talk to you of love under the blossoming pear-trees.

Gretchen am Spinnrade
Franz Schubert

Franz Schubert was an Austrian composer in the late Classical and early Romantic eras.
Although his life was cut short due to syphilis, Schubert had a very successful composing career,
leaving behind over 600 secular vocal works, seven symphonies, operas, and piano and chamber
music. “Gretchen am Spinnrade” or “Gretchen at the spinning-wheel” is one of Schubert’s most
famous lieder (songs), which tells the story of Gretchen, who is a character in Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe’s Faust. Gretchen is the woman that Faust falls madly in love with, who then turns
to fall in love with him. Schubert explores the mental breakdown of Gretchen while she reflects
on her feelings for Faust. The agitating accompaniment, featuring the sixteenth-note motive in
the right hand, represents both the spinning wheel and the flowing thoughts of Gretchen and her
intense love.

My peace is gone, my heart is heavy,

I will find it never and never more.
Where I do not have him, that is the grave,
The whole world is bitter to me.
My poor head is crazy to me,
My poor mind is torn apart.
My peace is gone, my heart is heavy,
I will find it never and never more.
For him only, I look out the window
Only for him do I go out of the house.
His tall walk, his noble figure,
His mouth's smile, his eyes' power,
And his mouth's magic flow,
His handclasp, and ah! His kiss!
My peace is gone, my heart is heavy,
I will find it never and never more.
My bosom urges itself toward him.
Ah, might I grasp and hold him!
And kiss him, as I would wish,
At his kisses I should die!

If I Had a Fine White Horse from The Secret Garden

Lucy Simon

Based on the 1911 novel by British writer Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden was first
performed as a musical 80 years later in 1991, with book and lyrics by Marsha Norman and
music by Lucy Simon. The story of The Secret Garden centers on young English girl Mary
Lennox, raised in India during British rule but sent to her uncles’ home in the Yorkshire moors
after her parents die during a cholera outbreak that kills everyone she knows. Lonely and
misbehaving, Mary despises her new surroundings and on her first night there hears echoes of
crying voices. The next morning, Mary meets Martha, a young chambermaid who encourages
Mary to go play outside by telling her about the surrounding moorland and a hidden garden. “If I
Had a Fine White Horse” is sung by Martha, who is trying to soothe Mary’s pleas to go outside.
Martha tells Mary about a wonderful world outside, but counters that picture with a description
of all the dangers outside. In the end, it’s better to be inside anyway, playing together.

Diva’s Lament from Spamalot

Betty Roe

When The Lady of the Lake finds herself watching the other actors perform a number of musical
numbers while she sits on the sidelines, she grows eager for her chance back in the spotlight with
the hilarious “Diva’s Lament,” asking why everyone else has had parts throughout the second act
except for her.

Pretty Funny from Dogfight

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

Dogfight is a musical with lyrics and music written by Pasek & Paul, which tells the story of
Eddie Birdlace, a soldier returning from the Vietnam War. Him and his best friends decide to
spend their last night before deployment in a “dogfight,” which is a competition to find the
ugliest woman in the town and bring her to a party to eventually judge her on her looks. “Pretty
Funny” tells the perspective of Rose Fenny, the dogfight contestant, exploring her feelings after
believing the chemistry between her and Eddie were real. The song takes place when Rose
returns to her room, alone with her thoughts. Pasek & Paul are a well-known American
songwriting pair, most famous for their compositions in the musical theatre genre (well known
shows include Dear Evan Hansen, James and the Giant Peach, and Edges). This beautiful ballad
shows the duality of emotion, gradually building up to Rose’s breakdown at the end.

“Duo Des Fleurs” from Lakmé

Léo Delibes

Composed by Leo Delibes, with libretto by Edmond Gondinet (1828-1888), and Philippe Gille
(1831-1901), “Duo Des Fleurs” is sung by Lakme and Mallika in the first act of the opera,
Lakme, which premiered in Paris in 1883. It is sung by Lakmé, daughter of a Brahmin priest, and
her servant Mallika, as they go to gather flowers by a river. The lightness of both the text and
melodic lines in the duet represent the beautiful surrounding flora, including white jasmine,
roses, and other flowers that reside near the riverbanks. This light-hearted melodic contour can
also be interpreted as depicting the swift flow of the river.
 LAKMÉ:
Look Mallika! Lianes are in bloom Casting downward their shadows
Over the sacred stream that flows calm and somber
Awakened by the sound of the song-happy birds!

MALLIKA:
Oh dear mistress! It's time at last I see you smiling
The time has come and I am reading
What was closed up in the heart of Lakme!

LAKMÉ [in duet with Mallika, below]

Dome canopy sweet jasmine, all the roses forever
Flowers in the morn freshly born call us to come together
Ah glide along and sing along the current so strong
The sun so hot the water is shimmering, hand skimming the surface nonchalantly
Cutting through the edge while birds are singing singing sing enchanted
Dome canopy white jasmine call us to come together please

MALLIKA [in duet with Lakme, above]:

Under dome canopy where the white jasmine all the roses forever
River flowers in the morn freshly born, let us both go down together
Gently we glide on and we float along, follow the current so strong
The sun so hot the water is shimmering, hand skimming the surface nonchalantly
Come let us reach the edge where the spring sleeps
And birds singing, sing enchanted under dome canopy where the white jasmine
Let us go down together

LAKME:
I, don't know what overcame me
To fill my heart full of fear
When my father goes down alone to the doomed city
I tremble, I tremble, my dear

MALLIKA:
Ganesha will watch over his protege up til the pond where the merry do play
With wings of snow swans are swimming, come let us pick the lotus blue

LAKME:
Oh yes, let's go where white swans are swimming and let us pick the lotus blue

LAKMÉ [in duet with Mallika, below]

Dome canopy sweet jasmine, all the roses forever
Flowers in the morn freshly born call us to come together
 Ah glide along and sing along the current so strong
The sun so hot the water is shimmering, hand skimming the surface nonchalantly
Cutting through the edge while birds are singing singing sing enchanted
Dome canopy white jasmine call us to come together please

MALLIKA [in duet with Lakme, above]:

Under dome canopy where the white jasmine all the roses forever
River flowers in the morn freshly born, let us both go down together
Gently we glide on and we float along, follow the current so strong
The sun so hot the water is shimmering, hand skimming the surface nonchalantly
Come let us reach the edge where the spring sleeps
And birds singing, sing enchanted under dome canopy where the white jasmine
Let us go down together