Baltimore Opera Company

Study Guide

La Sonnambula
The Sleepwalker

Perspectives on an Aria: "Ah, non credea mirarti"

I frequently find myself in the position of having to “critique” music, and while I generally can muster up something interesting to say about our glorious art, I have to say that occasionally having to say “critical” things about composers is uncomfortable for me. Who am I to disparage even a note that these great geniuses have written? But whenever I think about the music of Bellini, I do have something of a prejudice. It has always seemed to me that he was in a completely foreign land whenever the tempo exceeded moderato , for a great deal of his music in quicker tempi, particularly many of his cabalettas, can sometime seem to lack inspiration. BUT, when Bellini arrives at an andante, larghetto, cantabile sostenuto assai , or any other similar musical direction, he is quite simply unparalleled.

Bellini, like many other theatrical composers, saves his coup de theatre for the final scene (also seen in Norma when she reveals that the miscreant Priestess is none other than herself– “Son io!”). Amina is sleepwalking and her life is in significant danger– she is on a bridge and could easily fall and kill herself. She does thankfully cross the bridge, but is still in a somnolent state. In fact, this is the “mad” scene of the opera, undoubtedly a move by the composer and librettist to revitalize the convention and (pardon me Lucia …) inject a little new blood into the endless succession of heroines going mad through mental abuse. In this instance her “madness” if you can call it that, is induced by the physical disease of sleepwalking. Like the other mad scenes, it allows the heroine to reveal truths about herself while essentially in an out-of-body state. Like Lucia seeking the elements of her marriage ceremony, Amina is looking for the ring that Elvino gave her in the first scene where he plighted his troth. She then takes a bouquet of flowers, another pledge of Elvino's eternal love, and kisses them– but sadly notes that they, like her love, are “inaridito”– withered. And then we come to the Bellini that we love so much– the composer of the arching-phrased, time-suspended, vocal-Chopinesque, ineffably beautiful melodic treasury that seemed to pour out of him.

To get us from the key of D minor, which closed the recitative, Bellini gives us three gently swooping intervals, creating a sense of melancholy expansiveness. Then comes the simple triadic accompaniment, in essence the basis of the bel canto. The voice, in the minor mode, enters with the characteristic Bellini arching phrase. Amina poetically says “Ah! I never thought that you would wither so soon, o flower” with an appropriately “ flowery” melisma on the word “fiore”– flower. While the first phrase “I never thought” the words and music are sung through, but on the highly expressive phrase “wither so soon” Amina separates the words, as if gulping in incredulity. Then continuing, she sings “You died, as did our love, that only lived but a day.” The word “love”– amor– is “colored” by an expressive mordent, and then the phrase “lived but a day” is repeated three times. Elvino is highly moved and in tandem with the solo oboe declares that he can bear no more, even as she continues to sing, as if in streams of consciousness, the phrase “You died, as did our love, that lived but a day.”

Then as if by a shaft of light, we enter the major mode. She sings “If to give you new life, my weeping would but suffice” repeating the word weeping. Then she says, “but to revive love, my tears are not enough” she lingers on an appoggiatura like D# (sharp) on the word “love” and then a high G on the word “weeping” always with a perfectly executed messa di voce, and then expressively repeats “not enough”. Then, as Elvino did earlier, she begins a “duet” with a solo cello, requiring extraordinary vocal control and a sympathetic rubato between the singer and the instrumentalist. Then we come to the final cadenza. It is interesting to note that, in a world where for generations artists have embellished final cadenza to suit their own vocal abilities, this cadenza is never changed, and always sung “come scritto” – as written. On the vowel Ah, Amina wafts up to a beautiful high A, and then as if the sound was too happy, she goes back up, but only to a high Ab (flat). Then quietly, but achingly expressively, she resolves the cadence, with the orchestra concluding with two short chords, perhaps mirroring the beating of her heat, which, in its agony, has perhaps stopped.

The extraordinary thing about this is that it defines the Bellini line, the musical shape that was the hallmark of the Italian style for almost 100 years, a style also seen in the works of Georg Frideric Handel and also, and somewhat surprisingly, of the English composer Sir Edward Elgar. One has but to look at the score to be able to almost “map out” the vocal line. It always has a starting point, an apex, and a “retiring” point, the entire phrase tapering at both ends. Always, the text is set for maximum expressiveness, and additionally, the text is set with the lungs of the singer in mind. While the phrases are long, they are never too long for the singer, carefully husbanding his or her breath, to negotiate. In a humorous aside, frequently a composer will write “lunga” by a note, indicating that it is to be played or sung for a “long” time. In the vocal world, “lunga” translates into “lungs”, because that is what you need to sing the phrase!

Bellini's texts are set so honestly that one could imagine that the singer, in a time-suspended state, is making up the music as he or she goes along. This was the hallmark of the artistry of Maria Callas, who indeed completely “inhabited” the roles she sang. Bellini's music is among the most satisfying of all composers. While fiendishly difficult to sing, especially Norma , which is perhaps the most difficult role in the entire repertoire, regardless of fach, the music of Bellini offers the vocalist complete and personal identification with the heart of the character. With such a resource, the gap between the stage and the audience is closed, and the hearts of all are stirred.

James Harp

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