The Man from Mosel River

I would would love to talk to Giuseppe Verdi.

He talked to me last night through his masterpiece, La Traviata, which was the opening act of Bangkok’s 11th International Festival of Dance and Music.

It was performed by Ekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theatre, Russia. Playing Violetta Valery was soprano Natalia Starkova, a gold medallist at the International Bellini Vocalists’ Competition. Alfredo was played by Dymtry Kuzmin, a soloist with the National Opera of Ukraine. The conductor was Mikhail Granovsky from Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow.

To say it from the outset: this was a fantastic performance. Of course the end of La Traviata is tragic but the joyous parts are equally beautiful. All the singers were just great and they harmonised so well.

For me as a vintner, the so called “Drinking Song” (well its’ actually about the beauty of love) is just wonderful.
Here are the lyrics:

Alfredo
Libiamo ne’ lieti calici,
che la bellezza infiora;
E la fuggevol ora
S’inebrii a voluttà.

Libiam ne’ dolci frementi
che suscita l’amore,
poichè quell’ occhio al core
omnipotente va.
Libiamo, amore, amor fra i calici
più caldi baci avrà.

Tutti
Ah! libiam, amor fra’ calici
più caldi baci avrà.

Violetta
Tra voi sapò dividere
Il tempo mio giocondo;
Tutto è follia nel mondo
Ciò che non è piacer.
Godiam, fugace e rapido
E il gaudio dell’amore;
E un fior che nasce e muore,
Nè più si può goder.
Godiam!
C’invita un fervido
Accento lusinghier.

Tutti
Ah! Godiamo!
La tazza e il cantico
La notte abbella e il riso,
In questo paradiso
ne scopra il nuovo dì.

Violetta
La vita è nel tripudio.

Alfredo
Quando non s’ami ancora..

Violetta
Nol dite a chi ‘ignora.

Alfredo
E il mio destin così.

Tutti
Ah! sì godiamo..
La tazza e il cantico
La notte abbella e il riso;
Godiamo, in questo paradiso
Ne sopra il nuovo dì.

I could not find Natalia and Dymtry on youtube singing this song. That’s the bad news. The good news is you can go and see her performing live.

But I will not let you go without the song: here it is. There are many versions of this song on the internet. By chance I selected this one.
Salute Giuseppe

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 1:50 pm and is filed under culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.