Recorded on December 13, 2020
Artists of Regina Opera
accompanied by Dmitry Glivinskiy, pianist
Francine Garber-Cohen, Concert Producer
Ja opjat’ odinok (I am alone again) - Rachmaninoff
Hyunho Cho - tenor
I am alone again, and again that same night is all around me and the gloomy darkness. Occupied by fateful thoughts, I stand by a fresh grave! What should I wait for or live for? What should I turn back for and toil? Now there is no one for me to love. There is no one for me to pray to!
Dein ist mein ganzes Herz - Das Land des Lächelns (The Land of Smiles) - Lehár
Hyunho Cho - tenor
My heart is all yours! I cannot exist where you are not, just as the blossom wilts if the sun does not shine on it. My loveliest song is yours – it comes from love. Tell me once more, my only true love, “I love you!” I would love to drink in your breath and sink longingly at your feet. Dreamily beautiful and anxious with longing is your radiant countenance. When I hear your voice, it is just like music.
O mio Fernando - La Favorita - Donizetti
Galina Ivannikova - mezzo-soprano
Leonora de Guzman, mistress of Alfonso XI, King of Castile, loves and is loved by Fernando, a monastic novice turned soldier. He seeks her hand from the King, not knowing her status, and the monarch finds it convenient to grant it. Leonora will sacrifice anything for Fernando’s happiness, and determines to send him a letter telling him the truth.
Re dell’abisso, affrettati - Un ballo in maschera - Verdi
Galina Ivannikova - mezzo-soprano
The fortune-teller Ulrica calls upon Satan: “King of the Abyss, hurry, plunge through the air, enter my house without releasing the thunderbolt! By now, three times has the hoopoe screeched from on high; three times has the fire-eating salamander hissed; three times has the moaning from the graves spoken to me! It is he! In the throbbing of my heart I now feel the blazing ecstasy of his terrible embrace! He holds the torch of the future in his left hand. He smiled upon my spell, he makes it dazzle! Nothing can be hidden from my gaze!”
Addio fiorito asil - Madama Butterfly - Puccini
Lindell Carter - tenor
Lt. Pinkerton has returned to Japan to take his and Butterfly’s child from her. He bids farewell to the flower-filled home that he and Butterfly had shared, and laments the pain his betrayal has caused her.
Un autre est son époux - Werther - Massenet
Lindell Carter - tenor
Werther contemplates his lost love, Charlotte, who is with her new husband. “Another is her husband! God of mercy, if you had allowed me to walk through life with this angel by my side, my entire existence would never have been just an ardent prayer! And now ... sometimes ... I am afraid to blaspheme! It is me, me she could love! I would have pressed to my bosom the most divine, the most beautiful creature that God himself could form! It is me ... she could love! When the illuminated sky opened, suddenly I saw it close! It is me .. she could love! Ah! My whole body is shivering, my whole being is in tears!”
Mi chiamano Mimì - La Bohème - Puccini
Lisa Bryce - soprano
Rodolfo asks Mimì to tell him who she is. She replies that though she is called Mimì, her real name is Lucia. She embroiders and lives alone, but she has her dreams too; when April comes, the first sun is hers, and she loves the perfume of the budding flowers, but the flowers she makes have, alas, no perfume.
Un bel dì - Madama Butterfly - Puccini Lisa Bryce - soprano
Cio-Cio-San’s husband, the American naval officer Pinkerton, had left her three years before to return to America. But she nonetheless believes he will return to her. She tells Suzuki, her skeptical servant, that one fine day, they’ll see his ship entering the harbor. She imagines waiting for him on the hilltop, not answering to his call, in part to tease him – but in part so as not to die at their first meeting. She fervently promises that this will happen.
Acerba voluttà - Adriana Lecouvreur - Cilea
Galina Ivannikova - mezzo-soprano
In a salon in the house of the actress Duclos, the Princesse de Bouillon, wife of the Prince de Bouillon, waits for her lover Maurizio to arrive at their secret tryst. She laments the pain that love brings and wonders if he will come.