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Aria Focus: “Ah! je ris” (The Jewel Song)

April 15, 2009

By Act III, Scene 6 of Faust, the title character has made his pact with the devil and has been transformed into a young man in love with the beautiful maiden Marguerite. At first, she politely rejects his advances, but this only assures him of her purity. Faust goes to her home and sees that Siebel has left her flowers, so Mephistopheles sets out to find a more impressive gift for Faust to leave. In the meantime, Faust marvels over Marguerite’s simple home and questions whether or not he should even be pursuing such an ideal, innocent creature.

Mephistopheles returns and plants a box of jewels next to Siebel’s flowers before hiding in the shadows with Faust. Marguerite comes home, with the handsome stranger from earlier in the day on her mind. She sees Siebel’s flowers, but then immediately is struck by the casket of jewels. Marguerite in her modesty is hesitant to believe such a grand gift could be for her, but she soon gives in and tries them on. Basking in their beauty and shocked at how regal they make her look, she sings Gounod’s famous “Jewel Song.” Listen to Maria Callas sing and follow the lyrics in English below:

Ah, I laugh to see myself
so beautiful in this mirror,
Is it you, Marguerite, is it you?
Answer me, answer me,
Respond, respond, respond quickly!
No No!  it's no longer you!
No...no, it's no longer your face;
It's the daughter of a king, (repeat)
It's no longer you, etc.
One must bow to her as she passes!
Ah if only he were here!
If he should see me thus
Like a lady, he would find me so beautiful,  Ah!
Lets complete the metamorphosis,
I am late yet in trying on
The bracelet and the necklace!
God!  it's  like a hand
Which is placed on my arm!  Ah,  ah!
Ah, I laugh to see myself
so beautiful in this mirror!
Here's Angela Gheorghiu's take on the aria:

This is undeniably a lovely moment in the opera, a light reprieve from the sinister machinations afoot. There is great pleasure for the audience in seeing Marguerite have so much fun with herself, and the aria is a soprano’s dream: a beautiful, simple, lyric melody that shows off the voice (plus the singer is bedecked with jewelery and gets to play up the character’s vanity!). But it is exactly because the innocent Marguerite is giving in to her vanity that an element of darkness persists here. This is the first step in the devil’s plan to have her succumb to worldly temptations, and it’s working…

Die Walkure, with our Dorabella!

April 9, 2009

Just a little reminder for anyone tuning into the Met Opera broadcast of Die Walküre this Saturday on WPR at 11 a.m.: our Dorabella from Cosi, Laura Vlasak Nolen, will be singing the role of Waltraute, one of the flying Valkyries belting out those famous “Ho jo to hos.” Laura flew out of Madison to make it to New York for rehearsals at the Met literally an hour after her final bow for Cosi on March 15th! Pictured is Nolen with famed Wagnerian bass James Morris.

Explore the Voice

April 8, 2009

Another new project we have coming up with Faust is “Explore the Voice,” a day-long seminar exploring the complexity and wonder of how the voice works. This is an exciting collaboration between Madison Opera and the UW Voice and Swallow Clinic, and you can register here for the FREE event on May 16 (in between Faust days), from 9am – 3pm at the UW Hospital and Clinics on University Ave in Madison.

Throughout the day there will be workshops on everything from the prevention and treatment of vocal disorders to jaw massage to healthy warm up practices. Madison Opera’s Allan Naplan will be giving a talk on how an opera company works, and our chorus master Andy Abrams will be comparing his vocal experiences in musical theater and opera. It should be a really fantastic day, with important and useful insights from doctors, speech pathologists, and singers! As the flyer says, we invite all individuals who use their voice for communication, including professional singers, teachers and other occupational voice users, to attend this FREE educational event.

Monday funday

April 6, 2009

Through a series of small mix ups, my Monday has been packed with Photoshop duty to whip up some last minute ads for Faust. Not to mention, our 09/10 Season brochure (announcement coming soon!) was just sent to the printer, so we’ve all been a bit nuts. And the office copier decided to take an extended rest today as well. So really it’s just been another predictably unpredictable Monday. On that note, here are two entertaining bits from the web that similarly left us laughing and scratching our heads: Madison Opera Trustee Pete Lundberg (who I’ve just learned goes by the pseudonym “Art Throb” for Brava Magazine) has a mind-bending April column well worth a read, and blogger OperaChic posts that the May issue of Vanity Fair will have a two-page spread on the opera stars of the Met’s HD Broadcasts (Madison audiences will recognize Nathan Gunn and Danielle De Niese, two recent recitalists here).

Madison Opera Book Club

April 3, 2009

We have a few new community engagement initiatives starting with our production of Faust on May 15 and 17. The first is the Madison Opera Book Club. The idea behind this is to offer another avenue into opera, this time via literature in partnership with the Madison Public Library. Every year we’ll pick a book related to one of our season operas and host discussions at the local public library branch (for us, that’s the beautiful new Sequoya Library). Our first pick is Douglass Wallop‘s comic novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, an Americanized updating of the Faust story to the world of 1950s baseball (I bet you thought we were going for the Goethe…). Here’s what The Washington Post says in their recent reconsideration of Wallop’s work:

Both “Faust” and “Yankees” are stories of men who sell their souls to the Devil in return for earthly delights. In Goethe’s drama, Faust willingly becomes the tool of Mephistopheles; in Wallop’s comic novel, Joe Boyd somewhat less willingly turns himself over to the hands of the satanic Mr. Applegate. Faust wants perfect beauty and other impossible dreams; Boyd wants something scarcely less improbable, an American League championship for the Senators, whom he — like Wallop himself — loves beyond all reason.

Gounod’s operatic version of Faust is based on Goethe’s spinning of the tale, a decidedly darker story, so Wallop’s lighter version is perfect for comparison. You also may remember that Wallop’s Yankees was the basis for the movie-musical Damn Yankees, so we’ll be sure to tie in a few clips when the book club meets at the Sequoya branch on Saturday, April 25 from 2 – 4 p.m. Here’s a taste:

Get your copy of The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant at the library then meet with us on April 25. Check the blog to follow my reading of the book, should be fun!