Tag Archives: Luciano Pavarotti
Song of the Day #1,239: ‘Che gelida manina’ – Luciano Pavarotti
I’m wrapping up my week of opera arias with my very favorite — ‘Che gelida manina’ from Puccini’s La Boheme. As I mentioned on Monday, La Boheme is the one opera I’ve seen in its entirety (Baz Luhrmann’s version on Broadway).
This is among the best-known, best-loved and most referenced operas of all-time (it was the inspiration for Rent and features prominently in Moonstruck — remember Cher’s memorable line, “I didn’t think she was gonna die. I knew she was sick… I mean, she was coughing her brains out, and still she had to keep singing!”?).
Song of the Day #1,236: ‘Vesti La Giubba’ – Luciano Pavarotti
Next up in Opera Week is perhaps the most celebrated aria in history, and certainly one of my very favorites.
Leoncavallo’s ‘Vesti La Giubba’ wraps up the first act of Pagliacci, a tragic tale of a clown and his unfaithful wife. In this aria, lead character Canio discovers his wife’s infidelity but must go on with the show. Sometimes the English translations of great arias are kind of silly — is she really singing with such passion about a trade agreement? But in this case, the English translation reads as powerful and poignant as the Italian sounds.
Meet Me In Montauk 