FACS - A Musical Journey

A Musical Journey Kevin Eckard, bass-baritone Eric Grigg, piano PROGRAM Ella Giammai M’amo! from Don Carlos Giusseppe Verdi (1813-1901) L’Horizon Chimérique Gabriel Faure (1845-1924) La mer est infinite Je me suis embarqué Diane, Séléné Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimés Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child Wade in de Water Were You There? H.T. Burleigh (1866-1949) Der Atlas Die Stadt Aufenthalt Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Madamina! Il Catalogo e Questo from Don Giovanni W.A. Mozart (1756-1791) I. Modéré – Allegretto vivo Hellfire from Hunchback of Notre Dame Alan Menken (b. 1949) Joey, Joey, Joey from The Most Happy Fella Frank Loesser (1910-1969) Dust and Ashes from Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 Dave Malloy (b. 1976) TRANSLATIONS Ella Giammai M’amo FILIPPO: She never loved me! No, her heart is closed to me, she feels no love for me! I can still see her, sad-faced, gazing at my white hair the day she came from France. No, she has no love for me, she does not love me! Where am I? Those candelabra are almost spent! Dawn whites my balcony, day is already breaking! I see my days passing slowly! Sleep, oh God, has wanished from my drooping eyelids. I shall sleep alone in my royal mantle when I attain the evening of my days, I shall sleep alone beneath the black vault, there, in my tomb in the Escurial. If the royal crown could but give me the power to read human hearts which God alone can see! Ah, if the royal crown, etc. If the Prince sleeps, the traitors watches; the King loses his crown, the husband his honour! I shall sleep alone in my royal mantle, etc. Ah, if the royal crown, etc. She never loved me! No, her heart is closed to me, she does not love me! La mer est infinie The sea is infinite and my dreams are mad. The sea sings to the sun while beating the cliffs and my light dreams are no longer content to dance on the sea like drunken birds. The vast movement of the waves carries them away, the breeze stirs and rolls them in its folds; playing in the wake, they will form an escort to the ships which my heart has followed on their flight. Intoxicated by air and salt and burnt by the foam of the sea which consoles and which washes away the tears, they will know the open sea and its kindly bitterness; the lost seagulls will mistake them for their own. Je me suis embarque I have embarked on a ship which dances and which rolls from side to side and pitches and swings. My feet have forgotten the the ground and its paths; the supple waves have taught me other rhythms more beautiful than the weary beat of human songs. To live among you, alas! Had I a soul? My brothers, I have suffered on all your continents. I only want the sea, I only want the wind to cradle me like a child in the trough of the waves. Out of the harbour which is now no more than a faded picture the tears of departure no longer burn my eyes. I do not remember my last farewells… Oh my suffering, my suffering, where have I left you? Diane, Selene Diana, Selene, moon of radiant metal, who reflects towards us, by your deserted face, in the unending monotony of the sidereal calm the regret of a sun for whose loss we weep. O moon, I begrudge you your purity harmful to the vain efforts of the poor souls, and my heart, ever weary and ever restless, longs for the peace of your nocturnal flame. Vaisseaux, nous vous aurons aimes Ships, we shall have loved you to no avail; the last of you all has gone to sea. The setting of the sun has carried away so many hoisted sails that this harbour and my heart are for ever deserted. The sea has restored you to your destiny, beyond the shore where our steps must end. We cannot keep your spirits captive; you need distant places which I do not know. I am one of those whose desires are on land. The breeze which intoxicates you fills my heart with fear, but your call, in the depth of the evening, makes me despair, for I have great departures unfulfilled within me. © translated by Christopher Goldsack Der Atlas I unhappy Atlas! A world full of sorrows, That I must carry I carry the intolerable Which breaks my heart and body You proud heart you were intended to do so. You wanted to be happy. Unendingly happy or unendingly miserable, Proud heart you are now miserable. I unhappy Atlas! I must carry the whole world of sorrows. Die Stadt On the far horizon There looms, like a wintery ghost A city with all of it’s turrets As dusk is covering the coast. With wet gusts of wind The grey waterway, The oars of the boat splash sadly; The boatman has earned his pay. Another sunrise in front of me, Bright shining frost Clearly it now shows me, Where I once loved and lost. Aufenthalt Roaring River, Rustling forest, Rigid rock my abode. As wave after wave follows, My tears are eternally renewed. As in the high crowns billowing it moves, So unending my heart beats. And as the rock’s very old ore Eternally remains my grief Catalogue Aria Pretty lady, here’s a list I would show you, Of the fair ones my master has courted, Here you’ll find them all duly assorted, In my writing, will’t please you to look, Here is Italy, six hundred and forty, France is down for five hundred and twenty, Only two hundred the Rhineland supplied him, But mark the climax, Spain has already one thousand and three, Here are Countesses in plenty. Waitingmaids, nineteen or twenty. Rustic beauties, Marchionesses, Ev’ry grade his pow’r confesses. Here are courtly dames and maidens, Young and handsome, old and plain. Is a maiden fair and slender, He will praise her for modest sweetness, Then the dark ones are so tender! Lintwhite tresses shew discreetness; When ’tis cold he likes her portly, In the summer, slim and courtly, Tall and haughty, ne’er she alarms him, If she’s tiny, no less she charms him. Ripe duennas he engages, That their names may grace these pages, But what most he’s bent on winning, Is of youth the sweet beginning, Poor or wealthy, wan or healthy, Stately dame or modest beauty, He to win them makes his duty, And you know it, not in vain.