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Opera Daily đŸŽ¶ — Why do I write this newsletter?

www.youroperadaily.com

Opera Daily đŸŽ¶ — Why do I write this newsletter?

This week's edition of Opera Daily features “Ebben? Ne andrĂČ lontana” from La Wally and “GlĂŒck, das mir verblieb” from Die Tote Stadt

Opera Daily
Jul 24, 2022
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Opera Daily đŸŽ¶ — Why do I write this newsletter?

www.youroperadaily.com

👋 Hello to the new Opera Daily subscribers who have joined us this week. A reminder that you can check out the complete Opera Daily archives and the playlist on YouTube for more selections. If you were forwarded this email by a friend, join us by subscribing here:

Why do I write this newsletter?

(Click the link to read the full post online)

If I am being honest, there are times when I think to myself—why am I writing this newsletter every week? Is it necessary? Is it important? We have lives to live, and opera is not the first thing we think about every day when we wake up and the last thing we think about when we go to sleep.

We might not need a newsletter about opera when our lives are incredible.

When we are feeling on top of the world.
When our bodies and families are healthy.
When our heart is intact and not broken.
When our children are happy.

But what about those moments when things are not perfect?

When your heart breaks or when a family member is ill.

Suddenly, you’re desperate to make sense of life, and you want to know if anybody has ever felt this bad before? And how did they come out of it?

Or the inverse to that, something great!

You meet somebody, and your heart explodes. You’re giddy. Has anybody felt like this before? What is happening to me?

And that’s when that poem, song, or piece of art is not a luxury. It’s a necessity.

These forms of expression help us survive.

Over millennia, humans have depicted a vast spectrum of emotions in art that we can relate to our own experiences and which trigger feelings in us.

There are a lot of us here, so the chances that we all feel the same every Sunday is impossible.

So why am I writing this newsletter?

I write this newsletter because we need music, poetry, art, frankly, all forms of expression. And we need to be able to talk about them!

This week we are listening to two pieces that help me make sense of life.

I would love to hear about yours in the comments.

Leave a comment


“Ebben? Ne andrĂČ lontana” from La Wally

Maria Callas is singing the role of Wally here, and she lets her soul flow into the music. Heartbreakingly beautiful and otherworldly. She inhabits roles like very few singers in the past or present have done.

Callas was an innovator and transformed her personal pain into something beautiful for the world to experience. She influenced the opera world more than any other person during the 20th century.

🎧 Listening Example (5 minute listen): Soprano Maria Callas singing “Ebben? Ne andrĂČ lontana” from Act I of the Italian opera La Wally by Alfredo Catalani

La Wally (La-vah-LEE) is about a woman named Wally from a small town in the Austrian Alps. Wally is secretly in love with a man from another town who is also the son of her father’s enemy. Her father catches wind of her feelings and demands that she marry his friend or be forced to leave his house. Wally defies her father, goes to the mountains, and sings “Ebben? Ne andrĂČ lontana”.

I will go alone and far
As far as the echo of the church bell,
There, through the white snow;
I will go, I will go alone and far
Through the golden clouds.

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“GlĂŒck, das mir verblieb” from Die Tote Stadt

RenĂ©e Fleming is singing the role of Marietta here, and every time I hear her sing it, I don’t have words that describe how it makes me feel. Her singing is warm, pure, and effortless.

🎧 Listening Example (6 minute listen): Soprano RenĂ©e Fleming singing “GlĂŒck, das mir verblieb” (popularly known as “Marietta's Lied”) a soprano aria from Act I of the German opera, Die Tote Stadt by Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Die Tote Stadt (German for “The Dead City”) is the story of Paul, who greatly misses his wife, Marie, who recently died, but finds himself attracted to Marietta, who resembles her. When Marietta and Paul meet for the first time, Marietta sings “Marietta's Lied” to him about lost love.

Come to me, my true love. 
Night sinks into the grove. 
You are my light and day. 
Anxiously beats heart on heart. 
Hope itself soars heavenward.

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Thank you for reading (and listening), and feel free to hit reply with feedback. I would love to hear from you.

Stay tuned for next week when I share my favorite Falstaff!

Michele

PS. If you missed last week’s selection, we featured an OD throwback featuring “Stride la vampa” from Il Trovatore and how culture is not entertainment.

❀ If you enjoyed this selection, please hit the heart to like it (and share it too!)

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Opera Daily đŸŽ¶ — Why do I write this newsletter?

www.youroperadaily.com
11 Comments
Daniel P Quinn
Writes ArtsPRunlimited, Inc
Jul 24, 2022

I heard Carol Neblett do the NYC Opera premiere and she did a lovely job in Frank Corsaro's wild production. There was also a great Baritone aria with Dominic Cossa, but the opera as a whole was treacly and thin.

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Daniel P Quinn
Writes ArtsPRunlimited, Inc
Jul 24, 2022

Callas does a haunting rendition. Several years ago La Wally was revived in Europe with a review in Opera News. The avalanche seemed to have ended that revival too.

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