CHAN 3093 BOOK.qxd - Chandos

CHAN 3093 BOOK.qxd 11/4/07 3:31 pm Page 46
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Perfumed flowers, clear flowing rivers
though you invite me, and delight me,
’tis your fate to fade away.
Verdant pastures, leafy woodlands,
all your beauty will decay:
what I loved and longed to cherish
is as dust, destined to perish
and return to barren clay.
translation by Amanda Holden
from Atalanta
Meleagro’s Aria
Meleagro
Noble forests, sombre and shady,
burning passion fills my heart!
translation by David Parry
from Così fan tutte
Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Don Alfonso’s Trio
Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Don Alfonso
Blow gently, you breezes,
lie quietly, great ocean,
for Heaven surely pleases
to grant them protection
and guide them to shore
Da Ponte, translation by Anne Ridler
reproduced by permission of ENO Benevolent Fund
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from Così fan tutte
Dorabella’s Recitative and Aria
Dorabella
Ah! Leave me now, beware the dangerous
madness of a desperate woman!
Go and close the shutters. I hate the daylight.
I hate the air that I’m breathing… I hate
myself !
Who makes fun of my despair?
Who dares console me?
Now go, for pity’s sake, leave me.
Ah, for pity’s sake, leave me to suffer.
Torture and agony, fiercely tormenting,
now do your worst to me, without relenting,
until your tyranny has brought my death.
You fatal Destinies who scourge and punish,
take what is left of me when life has vanished,
when my despairing cries cease with my breath.
Da Ponte, translation by Anne Ridler
reproduced by permission of ENO Benevolent Fund
from Così fan tutte
Dorabella and Fiordiligi’s Duet
Dorabella
I will take the handsome, dark one,
for he has a wicked mind.
Fiordiligi
Well, in that case I’ll take the fair one,
for his wit is so refined.
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Dorabella
If he writes me ardent verses
I will tease him with a smile.
Fiordiligi
I shall imitate his sighing
and his tragic lover’s style.
Dorabella
He will say ‘For you I languish.’
Fiordiligi
He will say ‘Ah, soothe my anguish.’
Dorabella and Fiordiligi
This adventure will be risky,
but I know we’ll have some fun!
Da Ponte, translation by Anne Ridler
reproduced by permission of ENO Benevolent Fund
Concert Aria
Banished, rejected, God save me!
Where will my torment guide me,
where will my weeping find me
if heav’nly mercy fails?
Love, deep and strange within me,
show me the way to follow;
soothe all the pain and sorrow
which fills my heart with doubt.
?Da Ponte, translation by David Parry
Concert Aria
Who knows what feeling
my lover is concealing?
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He’s angry, or he’s jealous,
afraid, suspicious, in love.
You know, you gods who hear this,
how pure the love I bear is;
wipe from my soul, I beg you,
the agony of doubt.
Wipe from my soul, I beg you,
the agony of love.
?Da Ponte translation by David Parry
from Così fan tutte
Guglielmo and Dorabella’s Duet
Guglielmo
My heart here I give you,
a pledge and a token.
As mine you have taken,
give yours in return.
Dorabella
You gave it, I take it,
but mine, I’ll not give it;
I cannot command it,
my heart is not mine.
Guglielmo
But a heart here is beating;
now how can that be?
Dorabella
How can your heart be beating?
You gave it to me?
Guglielmo
What is beating, beating here?
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