Sweet Willie Singleton
Performs Ten Giacomo Puccini Operatic Arias On Cornet
With Piano Accompaniment
Personnel:
Sweet Willie Singleton – Cornet
Myrtle David – Piano
Recording Date: 1972
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
1. “Quando me’n vo'”, also known as “Musetta’s Waltz”, is a soprano aria, a waltz in act two of Puccini’s 1896 opera La bohème. It is sung by Musetta, in the presence of her bohemian friends, hoping to reclaim the attention of her occasional boyfriend Marcello.
This scene takes place at the Café Momus.
2. “Ch’ella mi creda” is a tenor aria from act 3 of the opera La fanciulla del West by Giacomo Puccini. It is the tenor aria sung by Dick Johnson (a.k.a. the bandit “Ramerrez”) before he is to be executed by a lynch mob of gold prospectors led by Sheriff Jack Rance. In the aria, Johnson asks them not to tell Minnie, whom he loves, that he has been killed. Instead, he asks them to “let her believe” (the title phrase, “ch’ella mi creda”) that he is far away, on the road to redemption from his bandit past.
The aria was sung for the first time by Enrico Caruso, at the world premiere of La fanciulla del West at the Metropolitan Opera in New York on 10 December 1910. It is said that during World War I, Italian soldiers sang this aria to maintain their spirits
3. “O mio babbino caro” (“Oh my dear Papa”) is a soprano aria from the opera Gianni Schicchi (1918) by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is sung by Lauretta after tensions between her father Schicchi and the family of Rinuccio, the boy she loves, have reached a breaking point that threatens to separate her from Rinuccio. It provides an interlude expressing lyrical simplicity and love in contrast with the atmosphere of hypocrisy, jealousy, double-dealing, and feuding in medieval Florence.
4. “Un bel dì, vedremo” (Italian pronunciation: [um bɛl di veˈdreːmo]; “One fine day we’ll see”) is a soprano aria from the opera Madama Butterfly (1904) by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It is sung by Cio-Cio San (Butterfly) on stage with Suzuki, as she imagines the return of her absent love, Pinkerton.
It is the most famous aria in Madama Butterfly, and one of the most popular pieces in the entire soprano repertoire.
5. “In quelle trine morbide” is an aria from Manon Lescaut (Italian: [maˈnɔn leˈsko]) which is an Italian-language opera in four acts composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1889 and 1892 to a libretto by Luigi Illica, Marco Praga and Domenico Oliva, based on the 1731 novel Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux, et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost. The opera was first performed in 1893 in Turin, at the Teatro Regio.
6. “Senza mamma” is an aria from Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica) which is an opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an original Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is the second opera of the trio of operas known as Il trittico (The Triptych). It received its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on December 14, 1918.
7. E lucevan le stelle” (“And the stars were shining”) is a romantic aria from the third act of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca from 1900, composed to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.
It is sung in act 3 by Mario Cavaradossi (tenor), a painter in love with the singer Tosca, while he waits for his execution on the roof of Castel Sant’Angelo. Written in B minor, it is one of the most famous opera arias.
8. “Vissi d’arte” is a soprano aria from act 2 of the opera Tosca by Giacomo Puccini. It is sung by Floria Tosca as she thinks of her fate, how the life of her beloved, Mario Cavaradossi, is at the mercy of Baron Scarpia and why God has seemingly abandoned her.
9. “Recondita armonia” is the first romanza in the opera Tosca (1900) by Giacomo Puccini. It is sung by the painter Mario Cavaradossi when comparing his love, Tosca, to a portrait of Mary Magdalene that he is painting.
10. “Nessun dorma” (Italian: [nesˌsun ˈdɔrma]; English: “Let no one sleep”)[1] is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot (text by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni) and one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, il principe ignoto (the unknown prince), who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful but cold Princess Turandot. Any man who wishes to wed Turandot must first answer her three riddles; if he fails, he will be beheaded. In the aria, Calaf expresses his triumphant assurance that he will win the princess.