Giacomo Puccini:
Minnie, dalla mia casa son partito
In Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West, an opera set in the great American west of the 1800’s,
Sherriff Jack Rance has fallen in love with the beautiful Minnie. In this aria, he tells how he
came from across the sea seeking gold in the new world. Never having felt love like this
before, he tells Minnie he would give up a fortune just for one of her kisses.
Minnie, I left from my home
which is beyond the mountains,
across a high sea: not one regret, Minnie, followed me,
not one regret could I leave there!
No one ever loved me, no one have I loved,
nothing ever gave me pleasure!
Closed in my breast is the heart of a gambler,
bitter, poisoned,
it laughs at love and destiny.
I got on my way,
drawn only by the fascination of gold…
It is this gold, the only thing
that has not deceived me.
Now for one kiss of yours,
I give up a treasure!
The UNCG School of Music has been recognized for years as one of the elite music institutions in the United
States. Fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music since 1938, the School offers the
only comprehensive music program from undergraduate through doctoral study in both performance and
music education in North Carolina. From a total population of approximately 12,700 university students, the
UNCG School of Music serves over 575 music majors with a full-time faculty and staff of sixty. As such, the
UNCG School of Music ranks among the largest Schools of Music in the South.
The UNCG School of Music now occupies a new 26 million dollar music building which is among the finest
music facilities in the nation. In fact, the new music building is the largest academic building on the UNCG
Campus. A large music library with state-of-the-art playback, study and research facilities houses all music
reference materials. Greatly expanded classroom, studio, practice room, and rehearsal hall spaces are key
components of the new structure. Two new recital halls, a large computer lab, a psycho-acoustics lab,
electronic music labs, and recording studio space are additional features of the new facility. In addition, an
enclosed multi-level parking deck adjoins the new music building to serve students, faculty and concert
patrons.
Living in the artistically thriving Greensboro—Winston-Salem—High Point “Triad” area, students enjoy
regular opportunities to attend and perform in concerts sponsored by such organizations as the Greensboro
Symphony Orchestra, the Greensboro Opera Company, and the Eastern Music Festival. In addition, UNCG
students interact first-hand with some of the world’s major artists who frequently schedule informal
discussions, open rehearsals, and master classes at UNCG.Costs of attending public universities in North
Carolina, both for in-state and out-of-state students, represent a truly exceptional value in higher education.
For further information regarding music as a major or minor field of study, please write:
Dr. John J. Deal, Dean
UNCG School of Music
P.O. Box 26167
Greensboro, North Carolina 27402-6167
(336) 334-5789
On the Web: www.uncg.edu/mus/
Warren Coker
baritone
Carmine Mann, piano
Graduate Recital
Monday, April 7, 2003
5:30 pm
Recital Hall, School of Music
Program
On Billow Rocking Robert Planquette
(1848-1903)
The Lights Far Out at Sea Alfred Scott Gatty
(1847-1918)
Crossing the Bar Sir Joseph Barnby
(1838-1896)
“O, du mein holder Abendstern” from Tannhäuser Richard Wagner
(1813-1883)
Meeres Stille Franz Schubert
Am Meer (1797-1828)
Der Zwerg
Billy Budd’s aria, from Billy Budd , Act II Benjamin Britten
(1913-1963)
Intermission
Le Bestiaire Francis Poulenc
1. Le Dromadaire (1899-1963)
2. La Chevre du Thibet
3. La Sauterelle
4. Le Dauphin
5. L’Ecrevisse
6. La Carpe
L’horizon Chimérique Gabriel Fauré
1. La mer est infinie (1845-1924)
2. Je me suis embarqué
3. Diane, Séléné
4. Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés
“Minnie, dalla mia casa son partito” Giacomo Puccini
from La Fanciulla del West (1858-1924)
_____
The hall is equipped with a listening assistance system.
Patrons needing such assistance should contact an usher in the lobby.
2.
I am embarked on a ship which dances
and rolls edge on edge and pitches
and balances itself.
My feet have forgotten the earth and its ways;
the supple waves have taught me other rhythms,
more beautiful than the tired rhythms of human songs.
To live among you, oh, have I a soul?
My brothers, I have suffered on all your continents.
I want only the sea, I want only the wind for my lullabye,
as an infant, in the hollow of the waves.
Out of port, the tears of parting.
No longer burn my eyes.
I, myself, remember not
Of my last farewells…
Oh, my pain,
Where have I left you?
3.
Diana, Selena, moon of lovely metal,
Which reflects towards us, by your desert face,
In the immortal boredom,
You, calm, quiet, the regret of a sun
of which we lament the loss,
Oh, moon, I want your clarity,
Insult to the troubled vanity of poor souls,
and my heart, always tired and always restless,
aspires to the peace of your nocturnal flame.
4.
Ships, we have cared for you in pure loss,
the last of all of you has parted on the sea.
Resting, with your sails opened wide,
this port and my heart are forever deserts.
You returned to the sea, to your destiny,
to the shore where our steps do not stop.
We cannot link our souls,
you are of the distance I do not know.
I am of those whose desires are on the earth.
The graying wind fills my heart of fear,
but your call melts the evenings of my despair,
for I have an insatiable desire of great departures in me.
La Sauterelle (The Grasshopper)
Here is the fine grasshopper
the nourishment of St. John.
Powerful, may my poetry be,
a delight of elite people.
Le Dauphin (The Dolphin)
Dolphins, you play in the sea,
but the wave is always bitter.
Sometimes my joy bursts through it,
life is still cruel.
L’écrevisse (The Crayfish)
Uncertainties, oh my delights,
You and I, we go in,
as goes the crayfish,
backwards, backwards.
La Carpe (The Carp)
In your ponds, in your pools,
Carp, you live a long time!
Does death forget you,
Fish of melancholy?
Gabriel Fauré:
L’horizon Chemérique
L’horizon Chimerique (The Fanciful Horizon) by Fauré conveys the glory of the
great sailing vessels. The desire to set forth into the unknown is present in these
songs. Diana, Séléné refers to the Roman goddess of the full moon, so often
admired and dreamt upon by sailors.
1.
The sea is endless and my dreams are mad.
The sea sings to the sun, beating the cliffs
And my dreams are of no comfort,
The drunk birds dance over the waves.
The vast movement of waves takes them,
the breeze shakes them and rolls them in its folds.
Playing in the wake, they will form an escort
to the ships in which my heart escapes and follows.
Intoxicated by air and salt and burned
by the foam of the sea which consoles
and washes away tears,
they will know the wide open
And its good bitterness;
The lost gulls will take them as their own.
The first pieces of the program are songs by British composers with texts about
the sea, which is so close to the hearts of the great sea-faring people of Great
Britain. The Planquette and Gatty songs are traditional sea chanties, and the
Barnby is a setting of a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. “Crossing the Bar” was
written in a few quick moments by Tennyson after a sailing trip.
Richard Wagner:
“O, du mein holder Abendstern” from Tannhäuser
“ O, du mein holder Abendstern” (Oh, you my dearest evening star) is from the
Wagner opera Tannhäuser. Here Wolfram compares his dear Elisabeth to the
evening star. He envisions Elisabeth transcending the earthly world to become
an angel.
Like foreboding of death, twilight covers the lands;
it covers the valley with blackened robes,
the soul, longing for those heights,
is afraid of its flight through darkness and horror.
There you shine, oh! Loveliest of stars,
You send your soft light from afar
the twilight is divided by your dear rays,
and friendly, you show the way out of the valley.
Oh, you my loveliest evening star,
surely I have always greeted you so willingly,
from the heart that she never betrayed,
greet her, when she passes by you,
when she floats from the valley of the earth,
to become a blessed angel.
Franz Schubert:
Lieder
Composing over 600 lieder, Franz Schubert was a master of fusing compelling
text with artful music. Meeres Stille and Am Meer are both full of sea imagery,
enhancing human emotions with the mystic nature of the sea. Der Zwerg is a
grisly ballad telling of a queen and her jealous gnome.
Meeres Stille – Still Seas
Deep stillness rules in the water,
without motion rests the sea,
and troubled, the sailor sees
smooth flatness all around.
No wind from any side!
Deathly still, terrible!
In the enormous open
moves no wave.
Am Meer - At Sea
The sea sparkled broadly
out in the last shine of evening;
we sat at the lonely fisherman’s house,
we sat quiet and alone.
The fog grew, the water swelled,
the gulls flew here and there;
out of your eyes, full of love,
fell down the tears.
I saw them fall out of your hand
and I sank to one knee;
I drank the tears from your white hand.
Since that hour my body consumes itself,
the soul dies of longing.
That misfortunate woman
has poisoned me with her tears.
Der Zwerg – The Gnome
In gloomy light, the mountains already disappear,
The ship hovers on smooth sea waves,
Here, the queen sails with her gnome.
She looks up to the high curved arch
at the glowing blue distance,
woven with strands of light
crossed by the Milky Way.
“Never, never have you lied to me,
you, stars.”
So she calls out,
“Soon I will disappear, you say to me,
truly yet, wilI l gladly die.”
The gnome steps toward the queen,
wanting to bind her neck
with the cord of red silk,
and cries as if he wished
to be blinded with grief.
He says, “You, yourself
are guilty for these sufferings,
because of the King you have left me,
now only your death wakes my joy,
surely I will hate myself eternally,
that with these hands
I give your death,
yet you must now go,
pale, to an early grave.”
She lays her hand on her heart,
full of young life,
and out of her eyes,
the heavy tears run,
raising them to Heaven.
“May you have no pain
through my death!” she says.
The gnome kisses her pale cheeks,
then her senses pass.
The gnome looks on the woman,
caught by death,
he sinks her deep into the sea
with his own hands.
His heart burns with such longing for her
that he will never set foot on shore again.
Benjamin Britten:
Billy Budd’s aria from Billy Budd, Act II
Benjamin Britten was one of the most innovative composers of the 20th century.
His unique harmonic language was expressed beautifully in his operas. Billy
Budd is captivating, making use of the great Herman Melville classic. In this aria,
it is the morning of Billy’s execution at sea. In the gallows of a ship, Billy sees the
moon through a porthole. The moon is fading quickly, much like his own life. He
tries to keep a brave face, but understands the finality of what is about to happen.
Francis Poulenc:
Le Bestiaire
Le Bestiaire (The Bestiary) combines the music of Poulenc and the poetry of
Apollinaire. The animals of each song are found in very specific settings. With
references to fantastic journeys, mythological and biblical stories, and the
magical characteristics of each animal, these songs are brief but profound.
Le Dromadaire (The Dromedary)
With his four dromedaries
Don Pedro of Alfaroubeira
roamed the world and admired it.
He did what I would want to do
if I had four dromedaries.
La chèvre du Thibet (The Goat of Tibet)
The fleece of this goat,
and even the one of gold,
which so pained Jason,
are worth nothing compared to the hair
with which I am smitten.
Warren Coker
baritone
Carmine Mann, piano
Graduate Recital
Monday, April 7, 2003
5:30 pm
Recital Hall, School of Music
Program
On Billow Rocking Robert Planquette
(1848-1903)
The Lights Far Out at Sea Alfred Scott Gatty
(1847-1918)
Crossing the Bar Sir Joseph Barnby
(1838-1896)
“O, du mein holder Abendstern” from Tannhäuser Richard Wagner
(1813-1883)
Meeres Stille Franz Schubert
Am Meer (1797-1828)
Der Zwerg
Billy Budd’s aria, from Billy Budd , Act II Benjamin Britten
(1913-1963)
Intermission
Le Bestiaire Francis Poulenc
1. Le Dromadaire (1899-1963)
2. La Chevre du Thibet
3. La Sauterelle
4. Le Dauphin
5. L’Ecrevisse
6. La Carpe
L’horizon Chimérique Gabriel Fauré
1. La mer est infinie (1845-1924)
2. Je me suis embarqué
3. Diane, Séléné
4. Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés
“Minnie, dalla mia casa son partito” Giacomo Puccini
from La Fanciulla del West (1858-1924)
_____
The hall is equipped with a listening assistance system.
Patrons needing such assistance should contact an usher in the lobby.
