Opera and Applause

by Luigi Speranza for "Gli Operai" jlsperanza@aol.com

I intend to approach this topic. By now, I'll go through the arias in what I call the 'definite' collection: this Genoa-based CD recordings (6 of them) of tenor arias. Since I'm SO familiar with it, I'll start from last to first not to bore me so.

I'll try to recall DVD productions I have by different companies of these operas, and reflect on APPLAUSE as the tenor aria ENDS:

"Testa adorata" (Leoncavallo, Boheme -- Marcello's tenor aria). Unfortunately, while I am aware that some 'pirate' or informal recording of a performance of this on DVD MUST be available, I never saw it. I wouldn't think applause is much merited here. It's TOO dramatic, and I'm for one, I'm too moved to even TRY. The last line goes exactly like the end of "Ridi pagliaccio":
"la stanza e morta"
"E il vedovo mio cor
piange nel dtedio quei perduti di".
----- The slancio lies elsewhere, and this is like a more minor-key coda, so if there is a strong applause, it is for recollecting the big 'slancio' bit where the tenor pours his 'heart', as they put it, "Bianchi manine", perhaps.

"Apri la tua finestra" -- Mascagni, Iris. Compared to "Quel vino e generoso", this is quite a bore, and I would NOT be disappointed if the tenor aria does not get too much of an applause. I think applause goes best when it's really a full orchestral boom-boom, rather than this harp arrangement. It's a Chinese thing. The last lines go: "al paese eterno ti trarro ove, o fanciulla, tu serai amata". Too future in tense to merit much of an overwhelming applause. Again, I lack a DVD recording of this.

"Giunto sul passo estremo". I was told on this list this was created by Campanini. It's from Boito, Mefistofele. The last 'stanza', for the thing is rather boringly structured in quatrains goes: "gia nell'idea gregusto l'alta ineffabil ora" -- I think there are some 'flourishings' to that final line, which is a way to 'invite' applause. When all is said and done -- why KEEP reapeating a line unless you want to make a point TO THE AUDIENCE? I do have the DVD with Ramey as Mefistofele for this, but can't say I recall much about the tenor performance. The fact that I was so more familiar with the OTHER, more cheerful aria, 'of prairies and mountains', I cannot say much about THIS 'Giunto sul passo estremo', which seems to invite for COMPASSION rather than extravagant 'Bravo!' applause.

"Spirto gentil". I do have KRAUS's DVD for this (Donizetti, La Favorita), and a good thing about Kraus-Trujillo is that he never cared for applause. If he did, his face did not show it! I am so vague about this aria. I never learned who first sang it in Italian and WHY -- that the character does not move me much. The last line goes: "segnasti il core d'onda mortal -- ahime ahime", etc. And then that would be good, but this is a ternary thing -- so it's back to 'larve d'amor' -- a TRICK. It's easy to ask for APPLAUSE in a ternary aria, where the audience is FAMILAR (to death sometimes) with a melody. It's much difficult to elicit applause in an irregular aria -- like my favourites, e.g. "L'anima ho stanca" in Cilea's Lecouvreur. I see Caruso recorded this, and this triggers a question in me: why is it that when it comes to CDs people prefer 'studio' recordings (I think -- I DO), while when it comes to DVD productions it's always LIVE recordings that count? Answer: the applause.

"O Paradiso" -- Meyerbeer. Osborne has a whole book on THIS! "O nuovo mondo tu m'appartieni" is the last line. This is supposed to be grand. Alas, I don't think there is a DVD 'legal' production of this. I only have ONE DVD by Meyerbeer and it's NOT this (It's the rather more boring "Crusade" thing).

"La rivedro nell'estasi" -- Ballo -- to skip because it's too complex. Last line: "ma la mia stella e questa che il ciel non ha"

"La vita e inferno al infelice" (Forza, Verdi). Role created by Tamerlik. Last line SO TRAGIC and the hero is virile enough to stand a good round of applause -- he's not dying of old age, as Fausto in Mefistofele is, say --. Last line: "Leonora mia, soccorrimi, pieta del mio penar, pieta di me". This is good. I like the fact that the ending is sort of 'illiterate'. It is one thing to ask for 'piety for my suffering'. Another one to ask for 'piety of myself altogether'. So I like that. It's a way the composer has of letting us think that the lyrics are spontaneous enough as coming from this "Incan" prince -- or something. APPLAUSE much merited. Plus, this is the ONLY bit of hightlight in an otherwise rather boring opera, so what else can you have to 'lighten up' the occasion?

"Da voi lontan in sconosciuta terra" I have Bocelli's Met live performance for this. Just kidding. This is Wagner. I don't think Wagnerian audiences enjoy applauding much. They say 'applause' is a Southern European (Italian, even Provencal) thing, rather than "Gothic'. Verdi referred to the Goths as a very cold people, and was annoyed when people said that "Aida" was Gothic in conception. The last line is: "un angiol la porto sull'ali d'or" -- this is stanzaic, since 'ali d'or' rhymes with reliquia del signor'. So it's not precisely SPONTANEOUS. Mind: some cris de coeur ARE spontaneous, or rather, are rhymic, but one forgets: I die "in dispair" (disperato) in "Tosca" (E lucevan le stelle) IS The last bit of the aria, even if it's 'tanto la VITA -- tanto la vita', as a code, is the bit that connects back to the rhyme of "l'ora e fuggita' -- but audiences are so wild and the thing is so heavenly that one forgets the man is just reciting a little verse.

"Non piangere, Liu" (Turandot). The last line is good in that Puccini managed to rhyme "Liu" (a non-Italian name) with "che non sorride piu". It is ODD to end an aria with a "u" sound, so if applause follows galore, it is welcomed. I prefer this aria to the worn out, "Nessun dorma". It's much more melodious, and the rhythm is magic.

"Salve, dimora, casta e pura". This has an extravagant ending -- it invites applause even as a drawing-room piece! It's of course ternary, so it shouldn't count. The tenor goes back to the first bit ("Salve, dimora casta e pura") to end his piece with. But still, it shows what a craftsman Gounod was. He KNEW. Odd this is the only opera ("Fausto") that we are treated with regularly.

"Di' tu se fedele" Verdi -- Ballo. VERY complicated. Let alone to analyse applause at the end. "nell'anime nostre non entra terror".

"La donna e mobile" While Verdi has the good sense of having TWO stanzas here ("E sempre misero chi a lei sfida"), it comes back to the first line for the ending -- spoiling it all, in a way. "e di pensier" -- "e di pensier". This must be the most applauded bit in all opera, so I would love for Verdi to have gone here, as he does in "Celeste Aida" with "p pp dim ppp morendo". That would be the day! Oddly Il Cairo opera theatre opened with "Rigoletto" -- so was "Aida" really necessary? (Just kidding). The role was created by TERATE.

"Questa o quella" Rigoletto. Ends with "se mi punge una qualche belta". Difficult. Hardly to elicit as much applause as "Donna e mobile" -- for good or bad.

"Mi par l'udire ancora" Pescatori di Perle (Bizet). Too lyrical -- and Bizet himself did not look like the man that encouraged a lot of applause. Looks Gallicly cold. The last line: "la veggio d'ogni velo prenderli per le ser", but it comes back to the 'refrain' at the end, I think, so it doesn't count. Strictly.

"Un di all'azurro spazio". I'm somewhat saddened that the OTHER aria in Giordano "Chenier" was not included. But this is GRANDIOSE. Too grandiose to my taste, in fact. Last line: "invian chiedeva pane e invano stendea la mano". The fact that it is not addressed to the love of the prima donna -- makes 'applause' an easier thing. This is a PUBLIC manifestation of stuff, and the applause is thus the public paying 'tit' for 'tat'.

"Ah, la paterna mano" (McDuff in Verdi's Macbeth). Ends with a rhyme: "rossa c olui la braccia del tuo perdono aprir" with 'aprir' rhyming with 'respir'. The slancio or the most dramatic bit (which I love) is in "coll'ultimo singulto, coll'ultimo respir", but it becomes so repetitive at the end, plus those unorchestrated exposed cris de coeurs that if it does not get an applause one just as well shoot oneself. It was created by Brunacci in 1847 -- complete in kilt, which helped.

"Ch'ella mi creda libero e lontano". I would NOT be surprised if Caruso was most CLAPPED for this geniality! Oddly, apparently he never recorded it? I have the MET DVD of it.

"Dalla sua pace la mia dipende" (Mozart, Ottavio, in Don Giovanni). Apparently, it's the OTHER aria (mio tesoro) that gets the louder applause. He starts and ends up in an empty stage for this. The fact that not everybody empahtises with the character (a non-actor, really) does not help. It tends to be clapped, I expect, for virtuosismo. It's one of those 'di capo' things that get a bit repetitive at the end (cfr. "Un'aura amorosa" in Cosi fan tutte") -- "e non ho bene s'ella non l'ha". How many TIMES does he say that? before he gets the applause? I never learned what Da Ponte (a practical man) thought of Mozart's settings of his simpler verse in such exercises of virtuosismo. Plus, at Salzburg, people never clap much, so."

"Quando le sere al placido" (Miller, Verdi). The only masterpiece in a rather dry score, and a TYPICAL aria, which should GET as much applause as it can. "Ah, mi tradia" is the last line, overepeated, but then it is a simple (short) sentence and not so boring to hear repeated again and again. Plus, it's the typical aria where the applause is to empathise for the tenor who has been totally wronged by the prima donna. So the applause is DOUBLY justified. How many like to applaud to a silly happy ending arietta, instead?

"Quanto e bella, quanto e cara" -- Nemorino's OTHER aria in "Elisire". This is a typical Donizetti ending -- "io non so che suspirar" he repeats 4 times, and without orchestra, typical, too. Surely Nemorino gets his good round of applause. Oddly, I applaud in recollecting the bits in the aria which are NICER than the very last bit which I don't find particularly applause-provoking. What an art, to compose an aria which is sublime in bits, and yet is NOT really spoiled by a 'closure' which is TOO conventional and artsy and virtuosistic like this one.

"Vesti la giubba". This must be the MOST applauded aria (Yes, I said that of "La donna e mobile", but I contain multitudes). "Ridi del duol che t'avvelenna il cor". I actually Have TWO instrumental recordings of this (and a piano reduction, which I love even better). In ONE instrumental tracking (I mean with no voice), the orchestra continues for like 2 minutes after the vocal line -- and I LOVE that. It's SO NECESSARY, after such an outpour. The result, though: applause is a TRICK here. I have Alagna DVD and as he notes, he must LEAVE the stage as the 'aria' ends (the orchestral strains rather) as he sobs and stuff. So, it's not as 'simplistic' as "e di pensier!" in "Donna e mobile".

"Recondita armonia" (Tosca). "Tosca, sei tu!" -- my favourite aria to applaud. It's unsubtle enough -- in that you KNOW when it has 'ended'. What bothers me slightly here is the fact that the tenor is sharing the stage with his 'friend'. If his friend were mute that would be ok -- but he manages to bring in the odd line. But my 'bravo' is directed to the one on the right (the tenor), not the one on the left.

"Amor ti vieta" (Fedora, Giordano). I have Domingo DVD and he DOES get an overwhelming round. It is a subtle thing. And this was created by Caruso, when his voice was still defined as "feminine" by the La Scala critics (in comparing it when he returned in full glory to the theatre some two decades later). "Se il labbro dice, non t'amero". What annoys me slightly about the last line is that it's in QUOTES. But quotes don't 'sing' easily. So I'm sure MY FRIEND will think it's Caruso who says "I won't" (love you). Very tricky. What I like about this is that it's high-class verismo. I mean, the style, musical, is verista at heart. A disperate cri de coeur that one associates with 'working life' of the verista repertoire. But this is a noble Russian in a ball -- which IS a ball.

"Ella mi fu rapita" (Rigoletto). THE only aria in Rigoletto. In the sense that the tenor FEELS it like character. The other pieces are more for the 'public display' (La donna e mobile, Questa o quella). The last line: "ei che le sfere agli angeli per te non invidio". Very sincere. Should get the loudest applause, but it doesn't.

"Di quella pira" (Trovatore). "O teco almeno corro a morir" but it gets complicated. A classic example to study given he variants that tenors like to bring to this. Role created by Baucarde, who was not everybody's cup of tea (There is an online review by an Englishwoman who saw him in London and detested him!).

"Mamma, quel vino e generoso". Should get the biggest loudest applause. MEANT for it. Mascagni at his "search for applause" best. Created by a non-star, really (i.e. not someone who LOOKS like he cared much for applause). STAGNO, in Rome, 1890.

"Che gelida manina" -- This ends with some sort of anti-climax: "deh, parlate", etc. Which contain the best harmonies, I find. Those 'progressions' that Puccini was so in favour of (cfr. "Madama Butterfly", Love duet, and others). Plus, everybody KNOWS that Mimi will JUST have a big part herself, so what's the good of DELAYING her aria by Too-Long-an-applause? I would love to see what this PhD on Puccini and applause says about this -- we were discussing changes in "Tosca".

"M'appari tutt'amor" (Flotow, Martha). I identify this with the Brits (Mario in the Covent Garden) so I'm not expecting an of applause. Caruso found, two years before he died -- that he still could sing it. I loved that. (I read about it in Caruso, "a life in words and music"). The ending is repetitive: " di dolor morro" -- si, ah, oh, si, morro, morro morro. If you don't get applause after such a rather low trick! What is a bit annoying is that Martha did not really BETRAY the tenor -- she just, literally, disappeared. I suppose that as far as German arias go -- in Italian -- this is a pretty dramatic one. But cannot really compare with the so many other masterpieces we have, I would think. I never learned what Italian was identified qua tenor with this aria and what was the Italian theatre where it was MORE popular. It seems like a piece IN ITALIAN by non-Italians and to be sung 'overseas' or 'outside' Italy (which is nothing bad -- but something one may reflect upon).

"Dio. Mi potevi scagliar tutti i mali" (Otello, Verdi --, libretto my Boito). Such a masterpiece.I would be too moved to applaud. Plus, it's not very musical, and I love to applaud a tenor trying to keep a tone, rather than 'parlando' as this one does. Tamagno, nobody could sing it like him (and he did look the part, too, as they say --). I have Domingo DVD Zeffirelli -- and it's a good thing it's a STUDIO thing (a film), since too much of an applause would turn this thing into a 4-hour long thing.

"E lucevan le stelle". "e non ho amato mai tanto la vita -- (rhyming with "l'ora e fuggita"), with a repeat. Possibly one of the best finals for an aria ever. I love the fact that, when I sing it with the orchstral backings I have for this, one can really make a parallel with "ed orezzava la terra" and the rest of it). So, we have here that what looks like spontaneous, is very well thought out.
CORRESPONDING to
entrava ella fragrante ------ "e non ho amato mai tanto la vita"
mi cadea su la braccia --- "tanto la vita". Genius!

"Donna non vidi mai" (Puccini, Manon Lescaut). Deh non cessare, deh non cessare, deh non cessare. A bit repetitive for my taste, but very sophisticated. While NOT like "Celeste Aida", this is a bit of a cavatina, too, and one DOUBTS of a love-at-first-sight like this. As it transpires, De Grieux is in love with his own idea of love. Not credible. But it should merit a good applause.

"La fior che avevi a me tu gitato" (Carmen, Bizet). In my DVD, Vickers is so ONTO the thing that he couldn't care less (literally) if people applaud or not. Plus, I think it's a studio thing, which does not help. It's a very lyrical, as all Bizet is, thing -- : The very last thing, "Carmen, io t'amo" is simple enough and should merit a good round. -- It's all a crescendo thing, having started so delicately. The ideal aria, or ideal format of an aria to culminate in big applause.

"E la solita storia del pastore" (Arlesiana, Cilea). Role created by Caruso. Last line: "Fatale vission, mi lascia, mi fai tanto male, ahime". There are variants on this, I should be more familiar with. What I love about this, however, is the passage (just orchestral) between the first and the second part -- just after the strings take up the last bit of the vocal line in "di lei il dolce sembiante". I like an aria to be tender. The fact that we never SEE this Arlesiana who "has done so much bad" to the tenor is NOT credible. I do not have a DVD version of this, but I expect it elicits lots of applause.

"Ecco ridente in cielo" (Rossini, Barbiere). It's a 'quoted' aria --. Not something coming out of the tenor's heart, but as disguised as a troubador. It's too artsy. The last line, "lo stral che mi feri" contain the best orchestration -- and THAT to me is the end of the aria, even if it officially goes on with some 'marcia' type thing which is so unromantic that becomes distracting.

"Nessun dorma". Possibly the most applauded piece in all-time opera.

"Cielo e mare". A trick. Ponchielli, Gioconda. "Vieni," "della vita e del amor", the last line. It's pretty good and ideal for applause. The setting helps. Of course, knowing that the 'boat' will go on flames soon after add to the dramatism. I forget what the Enzo who created this role was like. The fact that it's the only Ponchielli that survives does not help to get an idea of what type of aria this composer favoured. One usually studies him as a 'satellite' of Verdi, as others study contemporaries of Sullivan in London as satellites of the Savoyard. Plus, all the applause will go to that 'interpolation': the dance of the hours.

"Ah, non mi ridestar". (Werther, Bizet). A good piece to applaud. Last line: "e che dolore. Ohime!". A sort of low trick. If you are expressing your pain in such an explicit way, isn't the thing to do to provide help via some sort of 'emotional support' that an applause amounts to? Surely the wicked characters in opera get LESS of an applause. "Which is ridiculous," as Joan Sutherland said. "Bel canto means that even the wickedest people should get their due of good applause", as she reminisced over "Lucrezia Borgia", the poisoner of all. Kraus made this aria his own, and he did NOT care for applause, much. It seems. He was too professional to care, they say. And he looked it.

"Celeste Aida". Apparently Mongini had a 'flexible' voice but not too expressive. So perhaps Verdi KNEW that he would go 'bombastic' with "vicino al sol, vicino al sol, vicino al sol" and all the aristocracy and the 'eastern' ladies occupying the royal boxes-cum-harem would be there. And there is a cultural gap there. So perhaps Verdi thought it best to just PROHIBIT Mongini to go 'too Italian' over this: marking the thing: 'p pp dim ppp morendo' -- enough to give you a headache.

"Addio fiorito asil" -- Pinkerton. The man is such a bastard that while one APPLAUDS him, one does not love him.

"Tu che a Dio spiegasti l'ali" (Lucia). This is the END of the opera. So it doesn't COUNT! Surely one has to applaud at the end of the opera. This is my favourite so I should be able to elaborate. There is the recit., which you don't HAVE to applaud (it's actually very CLUMSY to applaud -- but I wouldn't be surprised if someone did in this one, since it's so bombastic). Then comes the aria proper -- with all the Donizettian overlong repetitions, 'remember the imbecile who dies for you' for you -- the ashes of the imbecile who dies for you. ... I suppose that is technical the end of the aria. But in my tracking, I cannot wait for the cabaletta, with which the thing ends. At this point the thing has gotten so complicated, that I can only pity Rubini. He has a whole CHORUS at his side. So his last line, "ne coniunga il nume in ciel" gets to mixed up with what all the other hypocrites are saying ("What a scene of horror! Forgive him, he doesn't know what he did -- by stabbing himself") that you don't know WHO you are applauding. It's a good thing Lucia is well dead by then! (But surely most know that one has to save some energy of applause for the re-appearance of the soprano a few minutes after the end of the opera).

"Sogno soave e casto" (Don Pasquale). A masterpiece I would applaud and applaud and applaud. Created by Mario. But the plot and the character and the morale of this aria is so superficial and feign ("Go with him. I renounce to you if your life with the millonaire will make you happier") that one is reluctant to applaud TOO MUCH. It's not like somebody is dying or something.

"Tra voi, belle, brune e bionde" (Puccini, Manon Lescaut) -- usually NOT applauded. I don't see why they had to include this arietta in this collection. And the last bit is:

"Una furtiva lagrima" (Donizetti). Role created by Genero, who would not have cared for applause. The final is so repetitive it ACCUMULATES desire to applaud. Each repetition is like the tenor saying: "you thought the aria is over -- it's not -- See how much I can still sing! See how I FEEL the lines! Di piu non chiedo". What really annoys me is that the original version (and in some recordings too) this ends with "CHIEDO" not with "die of love". "Amor" does NOT rhyme with the "Lo vedo" of the first stanza! Or something!

Speranza -- Bordighera