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

[CaroNome]

It's not so much a "line" as a "passage of music." It is also from the trio in "Der Rosenkavalier."
It's after the Marschallin says "there stand the boy" (or whatever she says, I'm terrible with German! sorry!) when she gives a floating high A (Ab?) and it just soars over everything, the other two singers and the orchestra.
And then when Sofie and then Marschallin battle it out with the two high B's. I always thought it was the Marschallin's last fight for Octavian, she's trying one last time to beat Sofie for his affection. It doesn't work, but I find those two passages very affecting.

Overall it's a glorious trio. 

[Tsaraslondon]

Her final "In Gottes Namen" always gets me too.

And while we're on this opera, there is this line in Act 1: Manchmal steh ich auf mitten in der Nacht, und lass die Uhre alle, alle stehn (Sometimes I get up in the middle of the night and stop all the clocks), perfectly expressing the Marschallin's preoccupation with time and it's passing.

[Marc]

What immediately comes in mind:
final duetto in Carmen:

---------------------------------------------------------
Don José (avec anxiété)
Tu ne m'aimes donc plus?
(Silence de Carmen, et Don José répète avec désespoir)
Tu ne m'aimes donc plus? 

Carmen (simplement)
Non! je ne t'aime plus.

Don José (avec passion)
Mais moi, Carmen, je t'aime encore,
Carmen, hélas! moi, je t'adore!

Carmen
A quoi bon tout cela? que de mots superflus!

Don José
Carmen, je t'aime, je t'adore!
Eh bien! S'il le faut, pour te plaire,
je resterai bandit... tout ce que tu voudras...
Tout! tu m'entends... mais ne me quitte pas,
O ma Carmen! souviens-toi du passé!
Souviens-toi du passé, nous nous aimions, naguère,
Ah! ne me quitte, Carmen,
Ah! ne me quitte pas!

--------------------------------------------------------
And also (same duetto):

Don José (éperdu)
Pour la dernière fois, démon,
veux-tu me suivre? 

Carmen
Non! non!
(à demi voix, avec rage)
Cette bague, autrefois, tu me l'avais donnée...
Tiens!
(elle la jette à la volée)

Don José (le poignard à la main, s'avançant sur Carmen)
Eh bien! damnée!

---------------------------------------------------------

You have to hear the tiens! of Teresa Berganza!

And what about Salomé, Richard Strauss:

---------------------------------------------------------
Salomé
Laß mich deinen Mund küssen,
Jochanaan!

Jochanaan
Ich will dich nicht ansehn.
Du bist verflucht, Salomé.
Du bist verflucht....
Du bist verflucht!!

---------------------------------------------------------

[Harry]

Bullets to the heart, Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Literal?

[knight66]

The opening words by Pinkerton at the start of the Act 1 love duet with Butterfly, the music surges, flowers and, as sung by Bjoerling, those words always give me a jolt.

Mike

[Lilas Pastia]

Well, Pinkerton's last words in the opera make me choke every time.

[PerfectWagnerite]

Siegfried's line in Act III of Siegfried: Das ist kein Mann !!
It reminds me of that Tom and Jerry episode when Tom had a mask/helmet in the form of a dog and every time he gets chased by that dog named Killer he would put it on and the dog suddenly stops chasing him. Then at the end Jerry puts a sign up pointing to Tom and it reads: YES STUPID, IT'S A CAT !
Yeah, that's how I feel.

[CaroNome]

I totally forgot another line that ALWAYS gets me. It's from the third act of Turandot. It's when Liu is singing "Tanto Amore" and she says "E perdo tutto! Persino l'impossibile speranza." It just makes you want to break down and beg Turandot for mercy!!!!! Quite heartbreaking...

[Harry Collier]

Mori! Mori! (Tosca) as in the Callas version.

[val]

"Milde und leise wie er lächelt" from Tristan und Isolde. And the music is in fact "milde und leise" (gently and quiet).

In the end of Moses und Aron, the desperate words "O Wort, du Wort, das mir fehlt!".

The alucinated laugh of the Sphynx, dying, in Enescu's Oedipe.

[matti]

"O mio Babbino caro"

His mom just bought him some clothes in Tallinn, but those were COMPLETELY wrong and ANYONE can see they are fake. His mom is asleep and so is he. He did quite a good job pretending to his mom the gear was ok.

I am awake pondering how to tell the truth to a person whose last words before falling asleep were: "Those hiphop clothes were bloody expen.... snore snore."

Any ideas how to introduce the subject to her over breakfast? 

I am not kidding, btw.

edit: I am kidding just a bit, but it will be a bloody nuisance, though. 

[The new erato]

When Bjørling sings "Ah! Manon, mi tradisce il tuo folle pensier:Sempre la stessa!"

[Wilhelm Richard]

FRICKA
Wotan, Gemahl,
unsel'ger Mann!
Sieh, wie dein Leichtsinn
lachend uns allen
Schimpf und Schmach erschuf!*

...gets me every time.







*Wotan, husband,
unhappy man!
See how your giddy thoughtlessness
has brought disgrace and humiliation
on us all!

[Mozart]

In La Traviata there are a few for me.

Piangi piangi piangi o misera!

When Alfredo reads the not and his dad shows up
Padre mio!
Mio figlio! O quanti soffri! Tergi il pianto

In the party whatever it is Violetta sings 3 times
morir mi sento pieta gran dio pieta di me!

then shortly after
partiro se guirai seguirai i passi miei or whatever ive a bad memory

[zamyrabyrd]

Traviata is a treasure trove for gut-wrenching lines. Added to the list already:

"Dite alla giovane" in Act II where Violetta says tell the young girl "si bella e pura" that she will give up the only thing in her life that was decent.

When she asks for a pure, fatherly hug from Germont; when in Act III she tells Alfredo that someday he'll understand that she loves him and at the end when she tells him she wants him to find a good girl to marry when she is gone.

Somehow renunciation, though quieter, has more of an impact, at least for me...

ZB

[zamyrabyrd]

Don't know if this counts but right now I am busy with the soprano choral part of the German Requiem by Brahms and practically the whole piece gets to me. (I won't say when and where this will be as I don't want to jinx the chances of this happening without the usual problems like sore throat, etc.) I must have listened to the whole piece about 10 times over the past 10 days.

Three recordings: CD of Toscanini in English with the Westminster Choir, 1943, not very clear and his slow tempi are almost unbearable. The soprano soloist must have breathed 3 times in her first line. The big T's choice of singers at times may have been somewhat questionable.

LP of Bruno Walter, 1954 with Irmgard Seefried, excellent, but by now worn out over 25+ years.

My latest and best acquisition, Philippe Herreweghe with the redoubtable Collegium Vocale.

Meanwhile, I'm indulging in emotion right now and hope the catharsis will be over by the time we have to do it...

ZB

[zamyrabyrd]

Well, Pinkerton's last words in the opera make me choke every time.

Right, I would like to choke Pinkerton when he says "i am vile". But as a character, he is superficial anyway. Knowing what is going to happen to Buttefly already, when she says she is responding to the call of love, I feel sorry for that idealistic, deceived maiden.

ZB

[jochanaan]

Don't know if this counts but right now I am busy with the soprano choral part of the German Requiem by Brahms and practically the whole piece gets to me. (I won't say when and where this will be as I don't want to jinx the chances of this happening without the usual problems like sore throat, etc.) I must have listened to the whole piece about 10 times over the past 10 days.

Three recordings: CD of Toscanini in English with the Westminster Choir, 1943, not very clear and his slow tempi are almost unbearable. The soprano soloist must have breathed 3 times in her first line. The big T's choice of singers at times may have been somewhat questionable.

LP of Bruno Walter, 1954 with Irmgard Seefried, excellent, but by now worn out over 25+ years.

My latest and best acquisition, Philippe Herreweghe with the redoubtable Collegium Vocale.

Meanwhile, I'm indulging in emotion right now and hope the catharsis will be over by the time we have to do it...

ZB

Ooooh, ooooh!  I wanna come!  Seriously, I have fond memories of playing this in a college orchestra decades ago.  Have you heard the Celibidache recording?

[zamyrabyrd]

Ooooh, ooooh!  I wanna come!  Seriously, I have fond memories of playing this in a college orchestra decades ago.  Have you heard the Celibidache recording?

My superstitions still hold me back from revealing all the details before it happens but we are supposed to do it 3x in the week of the 14th. Ein deutsches Requiem had a long gestation period, from 1861 to its final version in 1868. Surely the events of Schumann's attempted suicide and death, plus that of Brahms' own mother had a deep effect on this composition. This is such a monumental piece, yet tender and comforting.

I'm trying to get into the mindset of being one little molecule of this work ever since its inception and the tens of thousands of times it has been repeated from more than a century ago. This was I can hopefully control the emotion when I listen to and/or sing it.

I didn't hear Celibidache's recording yet but will try to look it up. (Slower tempi than Toscanini???)

ZB

[jochanaan]

My superstitions still hold me back from revealing all the details before it happens...

Just as well.  The only way I could afford to come is if someone would pay ticket price and all travel expenses.

(Slower tempi than Toscanini???)

I couldn't say for sure, since Ive never heard the Toscanini recording, but it spills onto a second CD and the total time is apparently 87:35, if that tells you anything.