Next weekend there is a feee CD inside the Mail on Sunday entitled “Classical Superstars” which Includes well known tracks, some of which have been used in various films, adverts & programs, copies of the CD will probably start appearing on Ebay by Monday and I bet you can probably listen to most of these tunes on YouTube.
1. Libiamo Ne’ Lieti Calici (Brindisi) from La Traviata
Taken from La Traviata – the famous opera by Giuseppe Verdi. A beautiful and dramatic score. Verdi touches on a daring and even distasteful contemporary subject dramatizing the unwholesome love between Violetta and Alfredo. With soaring melodies and a sensual waltztime rhythm Verdi plays out the emotive nature of the opera in emphatic and compelling fashion. The song can be heard in the most recent film adaptation of Midsummer Nights Dream.
2. Un Bel Dì Vedremo from Madama Butterfly
Made famous by the film Fatal Attraction. Madame Butterfly is one of the most loved Operas in the collection. The Opera focuses around the unfailing love of an abandoned Japanese girl (Madame Butterfly) for her American husband and the hope that he’ll one day return to her and her son. Part of Un Bel Di Vedremo was also sung when Midori Ito lit the Olympic Flame at Nagana in 1998.
3. Votre Toast Je Peux Vous Le Rendre (Toreador Song)
One of the most popular Operas of all time, ‘Carmen’ by Georges Bizet was the first opera of its type to present real characters and emotions on stage. For its time, its realism shocked and alienated audiences, Carmen was perhaps of the most dramatic and powerful Operas of its time.
4. Una Furtiva Lagrima from L’Elisir d’amore, ‘Elixir of Love’
Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore was first performed in 1832. Heard in the 1985 film ‘Prizzi’s Honour’, it is Donizett’s most frequently performed Opera. L’Elisir d’amore is one of the Operas more charming melodramas, it deals with the ups and downs of the romance between Nemorino and his capricious girlfriend Adina.
5. Largo Al Factotum from Il barbiere di Siviglia
Heard in the movie Mrs Doubtfire, Il barbiere di Siviglia is often noted as one of the most difficult baritone arias to perform, Rossin’s Barber of Seville tells the tale of the joys and stresses of being the most in-demand barber of Seville. Like Mozart, Rossini drew upon plays by the French writer Beaumarchais, producing a true masterpiece.
6. Thy Hand Belinda… When I Am Laid In Earth from Dido and Aeneas
Written by English Baroque composer Henry Purcell, Dido and Aeneas was his only fully completed opera. First performed in 1689, the story is based on book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid and narrates the love story of Dido Queen of Carthage, and Trojan Prince Aeneas.
7. Grand March from Aida
Often associated with royal processions and ceremonies, Grand March is taken from Act 2 of Verdi’s Aida. The aria is unparalleled in its splendour and virtuoso and is often cited as one of the most trilling scenes in all opera.
8. Soave Sia Il Vento from Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte meaning ‘All women behave that way’ tells of three sailors bets on the fidelity of each others fiancées whilst they are away. They form a plan, in which they say they have been called away to war, they sail away only to return disguised to try and seduce each others partners. Soave Sia Il Vento (May the breeze be gentle) is sung by the three sailors as they set out to sea, it is also featured in the movie Sunday, Bloody Sunday.
9. E Lucevan Le Stelle from Tosca
Tosca has appeared in Opera America’s top twenty most performed operas in North America. The final act opens with the character Cavaradossi, a painter, to be executed at dawn. Spending his final night alive, he writes a letter and becomes overwhelmed with the memories of his much loved Tosca.
10. Va Pensiero Sull’ Ali Dorate (Chorus Of The Hebrew Slaves) from Nabucco
Nabucco, thought by many as Verdi’s earliest successful opera, relates to us the story of the Hebrew Slaves, having been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar. The Chorus of The Hebrew Slaves sadly recollect images and thoughts of their homeland from which they were taken.
11. La Donna È Mobile from Rigoletto
La Donna È Mobile meaning ‘Woman is fickle’ plays a comic irony when sung by character Duke of Mantua who himself is fickle with women. In this particular aria the Duke justifies his fickleness declaring that ‘Woman is fickle, but he who does not taste love can never be truly happy.’
12. Se Quel Guerrier Io Fossi… Celeste Aida from Aida
This aria, sung by character Radamès, tells of the young warriors hopes to become the leader of the Egyptian army to fight against the Ethiopians. Returning victorius, he muses, will surely win over his secret love Aida, an Ethiopian slave.
13. Vesti la Giubba from Pagliacci
Vesti la Guibba, known popularly in English as On With The Motley. This is an aria sung by the character Canio, a clown, who has just recently learnt that his wife has a lover. He sings of the cruel irony, whilst applying his make-up, of having to perform and make people laugh whilst inside his heart is broken.
14. Non Più Andrai from The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro is one of Mozart’s most famed comedy operas. Sung by the character Figaro, Non Più Andrai is an aria mocking and warning Cherubino about army life. Figaro explains that it won’t be easy for Cherubino after having fallen in love with the Countess Almaviva, to whom he is Page.
