Lines sung from an opera that act like bullets to your heart-what are they?

[beclemund]

I'm with you on Che gelida manina, Yashin, but I'm moved more when Rodolfo get's to "Ma il furto non m'accora, poiché, poiché v'ha presostanza la speranza!" and then finishes softly. Both Alagna and Bjorling really get me with that one.

Addio del passato from La Traviata is another that gets me from start to finish. Such melancholy. But then, even Alfredo's toast (Libiamo ne' lieti calici) gets me in that opera. 

[Sergeant Rock]

I hope you have heard him in Fidelio and Peter Grimes.  Thanks for bringing it to everyone's attention. 

Yes, I own Klemperer's Fidelio (and just a few minutes ago ordered Karajan '71 after a discussion with Bogey) and the Davis Grimes which I prefer to Britten/Pears. I think Vickers makes a more believable fisherman. Pears sounds like he gets all his fish from an expensive, trendy restaurant or upscale market 

Sarge

[jochanaan]

... and the Davis Grimes which I prefer to Britten/Pears. I think Vickers makes a more believable fisherman. Pears sounds like he gets all his fish from an expensive, trendy restaurant or upscale market 

I agree.  Pears' "Go there!" is merely lovely, far too much so; Vickers' really sounds as if he's furious.

[Mozart]

Carmen says "oui" all sexy like in the seguidille. I specially like hearing Julia Migenes, if she would only shave her armpits!

[jochanaan]

...if she would only shave her armpits!

Why should she do that?  Carmen was a European woman!

[Mozart]

Why should she do that?  Carmen was a European woman!

Yeah but hair is gross! American girls really hate Bush! It makes their "country" look bad 


Pur mai non sentesi
felice appieno
chi su quel seno
non biba amore!


Word Duke of Mantua

[Mozart]

I'm with you on Che gelida manina, Yashin, but I'm moved more when Rodolfo get's to "Ma il furto non m'accora, poiché, poiché v'ha presostanza la speranza!" and then finishes softly. Both Alagna and Bjorling really get me with that one.

Addio del passato from La Traviata is another that gets me from start to finish. Such melancholy. But then, even Alfredo's toast (Libiamo ne' lieti calici) gets me in that opera. 

I'll never get over the scene from the movie of Domingo/Stratas where he grabs her and says ""Ridete? e in voi v'ha un core?" Its soo manly.

[beclemund]

I'll never get over the scene from the movie of Domingo/Stratas where he grabs her and says ""Ridete? e in voi v'ha un core?" Its soo manly.

I guess I'm going to have to watch that one. I only have the Gheorghiu La Traviata on DVD.

[Mozart]

I guess I'm going to have to watch that one. I only have the Gheorghiu La Traviata on DVD.

Ohh its a must! The scenes are great! It has hot gypsies too. Besides the scene I describe the scene in act 2 where he throws money at her is powerful. I never cared for the third act of Traviata though, not much happens. A woman dies for 45 minutes...ZzzzZZzz

The one with Gheorghiu is over rated. Exept for seeing Solti conduct and Frank Loprado sing the Oh mio rimorso, I dont care for it much. I do love watching the overture though, I wish I could conduct like him....

[knight66]

There are a number of 'those' moments for me. However, all my CDs are in store until we move and I cannot refer to libretti to ensure the words are right.

However, one moment is yet another by Vickers, from Grimes. Here the poet side of the character, full of regret, grief....Who, who, who can roll skies back?

Another, thought lighter it always gets me. Fledermaus, when in the final act Falke starts up an ensemble reinstituting harmony, the first word is 'Bruderline'...as sung by Fischer Dieskau it is invested in real significance.

A similar moment is the final ensemble from Figaro, again reconciliation and though I cannot recall the words that herald it, it goes straight to the guts each time.

Mike

[Tsaraslondon]

Almost all of mine, unsurprisingly for those who know me, are with Callas.

3 places in Norma - the moment she turns away from killing her children -  Ah no! son miei figli! miei figli! (Ah no! they are my children!), her capitulation to Adalgisa in Mira o Norma, the lines Ah perche la mia costanza vuoi scemar con moli affetti? (Ah, why do you try to weaken me with such soft feelings?), in the 1960 studio recording, almost more felt than sung; and in her final duet with Pollione Si, sovr'essi alzai la punta...Vedi, vedi a che son giunta! (Yes I raised it [the dagger] over them. See, see what I have become). This Norma leaves you in no doubt that she hates what she has become, or more exactly, what her love for Pollione has turned her into.

There isn't a line in the recitative before Ah non credea from La Sonnambula, which doesn't rend the heart, but, in particular l'anello mio...l'anello. Ei me l'ha tolto...ma non puo rapirmi l'immagin sua (the ring...my ring. He took it from me...but he cannot take his image.)

The single word Dorme? in Act 3 of la Boheme, when Marcello says he will wake Rodolfo. In that one word, Callas tells us how deep and tender and true is her love for Rodlofo.

The whole of the final scene of Madama Butterfly, but, in particular, the words to Kate Pinkerton, Sotto il gran ponte dal cielo, non v'e donna di voi piu felice (Under the great dome of heaven, there is no happier woman than you). The way Callas sings them always brings a lump to my throat.

Aida's O patria! O patria! Quanto mi costi! (Oh fatherland. What a price you cost me), at the end of the duet with Amonasro.

La Traviata is liberally littered with heart-wrenching moments. Examples. There is a moment in the la Scla/Giulini recording (not duplicated in any of her other performances) when, after Alfredo leaves her in Act 1, she utters a sigh, which leaves us in no doubt that she has fallen in love. There are many places in the duet with Germont, but who could fail to me moved, by the single Ah that launches Dite alla giovine - si bella e pura (Go tell your daughter, so beautiful and pure). That ah is important, as it is the moment of resolution Violetta takes, that will change her life forever. Note also the slight hesitation Callas makes before the word pura, as if Violetta cannot bring herself to utter the word she can no longer use about herself.

There are loads of other Callas moments I can think of, but I will close with a non Callas one. This is the moment the Countess forgives the Count in the last scene of Le Nozze di Figaro- Piu docile io sono, e dico di si (I am sweeter, and say yes). Schwarzkopf is superb here (in the Giulini recording).

[PerfectWagnerite]

Wotan's long monologue from Act II of Die Walkuere. At some point he says: Das Ende. And I am just thinking to myself: only if you promise.

[Lilas Pastia]

The most heart-rending: "Va, gioca, gioca" (Butterfly's last line in the opera before she hara-kiris herself).

The most hair-raising: Amonasro's malediction int the Nile Act: "Una larva orribile Fra l'ombre a noi s'affaccia. Trema! le scarne braccia... Sul capo tuo levò... Tua madre ell'è... .. ravvisala... Ti maledice... Non sei mia figlia! Dei Faraoni tu sei la SCHIAVA !!

The most swooning: "Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me, il mio nome nessun sapra, no! no! Sulla tua bocca, lo diro, quando la luce splendera". This is Calaf of course

The most dramatic: the last lines of Il Trovatore "CONTE: È spento! - AZUCENA: Egli era tuo fratello!.. - CONTE: Ei!... quale orror!... AZUCENA: Sei vendicata, o madre! CONTE: (inorridito) E vivo ancor!"

[AnthonyAthletic]

Arturo's aria from Bellini's I Puritani

A te, o cara:

A te, o cara, amore talora
Mi guidò furtivo e in pianto;
Or mi guida a te d'accanto
fra la gioia e l'esultar.
Al brillar di sì bell'ora,
Se rammento il mio tormento    - The top "C" at this point is real lump in throat time!!
Si raddoppia il mio contento,

Love it 

[Lilas Pastia]

Corelli's death-defying high C in that aria never fails to surprise - indeed amaze me .

[AnthonyAthletic]

Amazingly even Bocelli's vocal on it does the same LOL

Before I heard the opera in full, I heard Giuseppe Sabbatini sing the aria and it knocked my socks off.

[Anne]

Pavarotti sang it and it was one of the reasons I learned to love opera.  I Puritani was the first complete opera that I bought.  It was so expensive I was sure I'd never own many operas.

For anyone who's interested, there is at least one DVD for sale of I Puritani.

[yashin]

What about the DVD with Bonfadelli?  She was singing opposite a singer called Marc Laho. I think it was in Belgium.  It is out on DVD anyway. About 30 Euro.

There was a clip of it on Youtube but it seems to have gone now.

[Mozart]

What about the DVD with Bonfadelli?  She was singing opposite a singer called Marc Laho. I think it was in Belgium.  It is out on DVD anyway. About 30 Euro.

There was a clip of it on Youtube but it seems to have gone now.

Ugly teeth!

[Novi]

The Marschallin's 'Hab' mir's gelobt' - the young are so cruel ...