Blayne Ziegenfuss
tenor
Ināra Zandmane, piano
Graduate Recital
Sunday, February 16, 2014
5:30 pm
Recital Hall, Music Building
Program
Ah! Rammenta, o bella Irene Gaetano Donizetti
(1797-1848)
Tel Jour Telle Nuit Francis Poulenc
Bonne Journée (1899-1963)
Une ruine coquille vide
Le front comme un drapeau perdu
Une roulotte couverte en tuiles
A toutes brides
Une herbe pauvre
Je n’ai envie que de t’aimer
Figure de force brûlante et farouche
Nous avons fait la nuit
Intermission
Ach Lieb, ich muss nun scheiden Richard Strauss
Ich trage meine Minne (1864-1949)
Morgen!
Zueignung
from Evidence of Things Not Seen Ned Rorem
A Glimpse (b. 1923)
The More Loving one
Dear, Though the Night
He Thinks Upon His Death
A Letter from Sullivan Ballou John Kander
(b. 1927)
Blayne Ziegenfuss is a student of Dr. Robert Wells
________
In partial fulfillment of the degree requirements for the
Master of Music in Performance
Gaetano Donizetti:
Ah! Rammenta, o bella Irene
Text by Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782)
Ah, rammenta, o bella Irene,
Che giurasti a me costanza.
Ah ritorna, amato bene,
Ah ritorna al primo amor,
Qual conforto, oh! Dio, m’avanza,
Chi sarà la mia speranza?
Per chi viver più degg’io,
Se più mio non e quel cor?
Chi mai di questo core
Sapra le vie secrete
Se voi non le sapete,
Begl’occhi del mio ben,
Voi che dal primo istante,
Quando divenni amante,
Il mio nascosto foco
Mi conosceste in sen.
Francis Poulenc:
Tel Jour Telle Nuit
Text by Paul Eluard (1895-1952)
Bonne Journée
Bonne journée j’ai revu qui je
n’oublie pas
Qui je n’oublierai jamais
Et des femmes fugaces dont les yeux
Me faisaient une haie d’honneur
Elles s’enveloppèrent dans leurs sourires
Bonne journée j’ai vu mes amis sans soucis
Les hommes ne pesaient pas lourd
Un qui passait
Son ombre changée en souris
Fuyait dans le ruisseau
J’ai vu le ciel très grand
Le beau regard des gens privés de tout
Plage distante où personne n’aborde
Bonne journée qui commença
mélancolique
Noire sous les arbres verts
Mais qui soudain trempée d’aurore
M’entra dans le coeur par surprise.
Une Ruine Coquille Vide
Une ruine coquille vide
Pleure dans son tablier
Les enfants qui jouent autour d’elle
Font moins de bruit que des mooches
Ah! remember, lovely Irene
Ah! remember, lovely Irene
That you have sworn to be faithful to me.
Ah! return my love,
Ah! return to your first love,
What comfort, Oh God, is left for me,
What hope shall I have?
For whom do I have to stay alive,
If that heart is no longer mine?
Who shall ever know
The secret ways of this heart,
If you do not know them
Beautiful eyes of my love,
You, who from the first moment
When I became your lover
Knew the fire hidden
In my heart.
Such a Day Such a Night
A Good Day
A good day I have again seen whom I do
not forget
Whom I shall never forget
And women fleeting by whose eyes
Formed for me a hedge of honor
They wrapped themselves in their smiles
A good day I have seen my friends carefree
The men were light in weight
On who passed by
His shadow changed into a mouse
Fled into a gutter
I have seen the great wide sky
The beautiful eyes of those deprived of
Everything
Distant shore where no one lands
A good day which began mournfully
Dark under the green trees
By which suddenly drenched with dawn
Invaded my heart unawares.
A Ruin an Empty Shell
A ruin an empty shell
Weeps into its apron
The children who play around it
Make less sound than flies
La ruine s’en va à tâtons
Chercher ses vaches dans un pré
J’ai vu le jour je vois cela
Sans en avoir honte
Il est minuit comme une fleche
Dans un coeur à la portée
Des folâtres lueurs nocturnes
Qui contredisent le sommeil.
Le Front Comme Un Drapeau Perdu
Le front comme un drapeau perdu
Je te traîne quand je suis seul
Dans des rues froides
Des chambres noires
En criant misère
Je ne veux pas les lâcher
Tes mains claires et compliquées
Nées dans le miroir clos des miennes
Tout le reste est parfait
Tout le reste est encore plus inutile
Que la vie
Creuse la terre sous ton ombre
Une nappe d’eau près des seins
Où se noyer
Comme une pierre.
Une Roulotte Couverte en Tuiles
Une roulotte couverte en tuiles
Le chaval mort un enfant maître
Pensant le front bleu de haine
A deux seins s’abattant sur lui
Comme deux poings
Ce mélodrame nous arrache
La raison du coeur.
A Toutes Brides
A toutes brides toi dont le fantôme
Piaffe la nuit sur un violon
Viens régner dans les bois
Les verges de l’ouragan
Cherchent leur chemin par ches toi
Tu n’es pas de celles
Dont on invente les désirs
Viens boire un baiser par toi
Cède au feu qui te désespère.
The ruin goes groping
To seek its cows in the meadow
I have seen the day that I see
Without shame
It is midnight like an arrow
In a heart within reach
Of the sprightly nocturnal glimmerings
Which gainsay sleep.
The Brow Like a Lost Flag
The brow like a lost flag
I drag you when I am alone
Through the colds streets
The dark rooms
Crying in misery
I do not want to let them go
Your clear and complex hands
Born in the enclosed mirror of my own
All the rest is perfect
All the rest is even more useless
Than life
Hollow the earth beneath your shadow
A sheet of water reaching the breasts
Wherein to drown oneself
Like a stone
A Gypsy Wagon Roofed with Tiles
A gypsy wagon roofed with tiles
The horse dead a child master
Thinking his brow blue with hatred
Of two breasts beating down upon him
Like two fists
This melodrama tears away from us
The sanity of the heart.
Riding Full Tilt
Riding full tilt you whose phantom
Prances at night on a violin
Come to reign in the woods
The lashings of the tempest
Seek their path by way of you
You are not of those
Whose desires one imagines
Come drink a kiss here
Surrender to the fire which drives you to
Despair.
Une Herbe Pauvre
Une herbe pauvre
Sauvage
Apparut dans la neige
C’était la santé
Ma bouche fut émerveillée
Du gout d’air pur qu’elle avait
Elle était fanée.
Je N’ai Envie que de T’aimer
Je n’ai envie que de t’aimer
Un orage emplit la vallée
Un poisson la rivière
Je t’ai faite à la taille de ma solitude
Le monde entier pour se cacher
Des jours des nuits pour se comprendre
Pour ne plus rien voir dans tes yeux
Que ce que je pense de toi
Et d’un monde à ton image
Et des jours et des nuits réglés par tes
Paupières.
Figure de Force Brulante et Farouche
Figure de force brûlante et farouche
Cheveux noirs où l’or coule vers le sud
Aux nuits corrompues
Or englouti étoile impure
Dans un lit jamais partagé
Aux veines des tempes
Comme au bout des seins
La vie se refuse
Les yeux nul ne peut les crever
Boire leur éclat ni leurs larmes
Le sang au dessus d’eux triomphe pour lui
Seul
Intraitable démesurée
Inutile
Cette santé bâtit une prison
Nous Avons Fait la Nuit
Nous avons fait la nuit je tiens ta main je
Veille
Je te soutiens de toutes mes forces
Je grave sur un roc l’étoile de tes force
Sillons profonds où la bonté de ton corps
Germera
Je me répète ta voix cachée ta voix
publique
Scanty Grass
Scanty Grass
Wild
Appeared in the snow
It was health
My mouth marveled
At the savor of pure air it had
It was withered.
I Long only to Love You
I long only to love you
A storm fills the valley
A fish the river
I have formed you to the pattern of my
Solitude
The whole world to hide in
Days and nights to understand one another
To see nothing more in your eyes
But what I think of you
And of a world in you likeness
And of days and nights ordered by your
Eyelids
Image of Fiery Wild Forcefulness
Image of fiery wild forcefulness
Black hair wherein the gold flows towards
The south
On corrupt nights
Engulfed gold tainted star
In a bed never shared
To the veins of the temples
As to the tips of the breasts
Life denies itself
No one can blind the eyes
Drink their brilliance
The blood above them triumphs for itself
Alone
Intractable unbounded
Useless
This health builds a prison.
We Have Made Night
We have made the night I hold your hand
I watch over you
I sustain you with all my strength
I engrave on a rock the star of your strength
Deep furrows where the goodness of your
Body will germinate
I repeat to myself you secret voice your
Public voice.
Je ris encore de l’orgueilleuse
Que tu traits comme une mendiante
Des fous que tu respects des simples où tu
Te baignes
Et dans ma tête qui se met doucement
D’accord avec la tienne avec la nuit
Je m’émerveille de l’inconnue que tu
Deviens
Une inconnue semblable à toi
Semblable à tout ce que j’aime
Qui est toujours nouveau.
Richard Strauss:
Ach Lieb, ich muss nun scheiden
Text by Felix Dahn (1834-1912)
Ach Lieb, ich muss nun scheiden,
Gehn über Berg und Tal,
Die Erlen und die Weiden,
Die weinen allzumal.
Sie sahn so oft uns wander
Zusammen an Baches Rand;
Das Eine ohn’ den Andern,
Geht über ihren Verstand.
Die Erlen und die Weiden
Vor Schmerz in Tränen stehn,
Nun denket, wie uns Beiden
Erst muss zu Herzen gehn.
Ich trage meine Minne
Text by Karl Henckell (1864-1929)
Ich trage meine Minne
Vor Wonne stumm,
Im Herzen und im Sinne
Mit mir herum.
Ja, dass ich dich gefunden,
Du liebes Kind,
Das freut mich alle Tage,
Die mir beschieden sind.
Und ob auch der Himmel trübe,
Kohlschwarz die Nacht,
Hell leuchtet meiner Liebe
Goldsonnige Pracht.
Und lügt auch die Welt in Sünden,
So tut mir’s weh,
Die arge muss erblinden
Von deiner Unschuld Schnee.
Morgen!
Text by John Henry Mackay (1864-1933)
Und Morgen wird die Sonne wieder
scheinen,
Und auf dem Wege, den ich gehen werde,
Wird uns, die Glücklichen, sie wieder
einen
Inmitten dieser sonnenatmenden Erde…
Und zu dem Strand, dem weiten,
wogenblauen,
I laugh still at the haughty woman
Whom you treat like a beggar
At the fools whom you respect the simple
Folk in whom you immerse yourself
And in my head which gently begins
To harmonize with yours with the night
I marvel at the stranger that you
Become
A stranger resembling you
Resembling all that I love
Which is ever new.
Ah, Love, I must now leave
Ah, love, I must now leave,
To wander over hill and dale;
The alder trees and willows
Are weeping, every one.
They have so often seen us strolling
Together on the banks of the stream;
They cannot conceive
The one without the other.
The alder trees and willows
Are weeping sorrowfully,
Imagine them, how we two
Feel in our hearts.
I Carry My Love
I carry my love,
Mute with rapture,
In my heart and my mind
Wherever I go.
Yes, our encounter,
Dearest one,
Cheers through all the days
Alloted to me.
Though skies are grim,
And jet-black is the night,
Brightly shines my love’s
Sun-like splendor.
And through deceitful is the sinful world,
And it grieves me,
Its wretchedness will be blinded
By you snow-like innocence.
Tomorrow
And tomorrow the sun will shine again,
And on the path that I will follow,
It shall again unite us, happy ones,
Upon this sun-breathing earth…
And to the wide shore, with its blue waves,
Werden wir still und langsam
niedersteien,
Stumm warden wir uns in die Augen
schauen,
Und auf uns sinkt des Glükes stummes
Schweigen.
Zueignung
Text by Hermann Von Gilm (1812-1864)
Ja, du weisst es, teure Seele,
Dass ich fern von dir mich quale,
Liebe macht die Herzen krank,
Habe Dank!
Einst hielt ich, der Freiheit Zecher,
Hoch den Amethisten Becher,
Und du segnetest den Trank,
Habe Dank!
Und beschworst darin die Bösen,
Bis ich, was ich nie gewesen,
Heilig, heilig, ans Herz dir sank,
Habe Dank!
Ned Rorem:
From Evidence of Things Not Seen
A Glimpse
Text by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
One flitting glimpse,
Caught through an interstice,
Of a crowd of workmen and drivers
In a barroom around the stove
Late of a winter night,
And I unremarked in a corner,
Of a youth who loves me and whom I
love,
Silently approaching
And seating himself near,
That he may hold me by the hand,
A long while amid
The noises of coming and going,
Of drinking and oath and smutty jest,
That we two content,
Happy in just being together,
Speaking little, perhaps not a word.
We will quietly and slowly descend,
Speechless, we shall look into each other’s
eyes,
And upon us will descend the muted silence
of happiness…
Devotion
Ah, you know it, dear soul,
That, far from you, I languish,
Love causes hearts to ache,
To you my thanks!
Once, drinking to freedom,
I raised the amethyst cup,
And you blessed the drink,
To you my thanks!
You exorcised the evil spirits in it,
So that I, as never before,
Cleansed and freed, sank upon your breast,
To you my thanks!
The More Loving One
Text by W. H. Auden (1907-1973)
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast,
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.
Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.
Dear, Though the Night
Text by W. H. Auden
Dear, though the night is gone,
Its dream still haunts today,
That brought us to a room,
Cavernous, lofty as
A railway terminus,
And crowded in that room
Were beds, and we in one
In a far corner lay.
Our whisper woke no clocks,
We kissed and I was glad
At everything you did,
Indifferent to those
Who sat with hostile eyes
In pairs on every bed,
Arms round each other’s necks,
Inert and vaguely sad.
O but what worm of guilt
Or what malignant doubt
Am I the victim of,
That you then, unabashed,
Did what I never wished,.
Confessed another love;
And I, submissive felt
Unwanted and went out.
He Thinks Upon His Death
Text by Julien Green (1900-1998)
For the first time I thought of my own death
As a sure and real thing.
The warm air moved by the breeze,
The shadow of leaves on my hands,
It seemed to me that all things
Spoke only of that,
But until this moment
I had not understood.
A day would come when my heart
Would beat one last time,
Then would cease its suffering.
For others the wind would pass
Murmuring through the trees,
For other young men with heavy hearts;
But today I listened with
Neither terror nor regret
For this troubled voice to instruct me,
And which foresaw in the light
Of a summer day the end of all life.
