[3/5/2011] Special: Remembering Margaret Price, Part 2 -- finding her way to Mozart's Countess (continued)

We're going to jump to 1986 to hear Price as the Countess.

NOW LET'S HEAR PRICE MAKE HER WAY TO
THE COUNTESS IN THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO

I thought we'd start by listening again to those souvenirs of Price's early enounters with The Marriage of Figaro, the c1973 recording of her 1962 stage-debut role (with Welsh National Opera, and then at Covent Garden), Cherubino, and her small contribution to the Klemperer-EMI recording, as Barbarina.

Act II, Canzone, Cherubino, "Voi che sapete"

You ladies
Who know what love is,
See if it is
What I have in my heart.
All that I feel
I will explain;
Since it is new to me,
I don't understand it.
I have a feeling
Full of desire,
Which now is pleasure,
Now is torment.
I freeze, then I feel
My spirit all ablaze,
And the next moment
Turn again to ice.
I seek for a treasure
Outside of myself;
I know not who holds it
Nor what it is.
I sigh and I groan
Without wishing to,
I flutter and tremble
Without knowing why.
I find no peace
By night or day,
But yet to languish thus
Is sheer delight.
You ladies
Who know what love is,
See if it is
What I have in my heart.

Margaret Price (s), Cherubino; English Chamber Orchestra, James Lockhart, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded c1973

Act IV, Cavatina, Barbarina, "L'ho perduta, me meschina"

Oh dear me, I've lost it ...
Oh, wherever can it be?
I can't find it ... my cousin
And my lord... what will they say?

Margaret Price (s), Barbarina; New Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded January 1970

As Price's voice filled out, she gave up the tortuous role of Fiordiligi, but the Countess in Figaro was a role that suited her well. Perhaps appropriately, we're jumping ahead now to 1986, and a Figaro recording conducted by Riccardo Muti (not one of my favorite recordings of the opera, but it will serve our purposes). As regular readers know, I kind of like, when we jump into operas, to hear how they start, so we're going to start our little Figaro "suite" with Maestro Muti's performance of the Overture.

MOZART: The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492

Margaret Price (s), Countess Almaviva; Kathleen Battle (s), Susanna; Bob Kettleson, fortepiano; Vienna Philharmonic, Riccardo Muti, cond. EMI, recorded September 1986

Overture

Act II, Introduction and Cavatina, Countess, "Porgi, amor, qualche ristoro"

O love, bring some relief
To my sorrow, to my sighs;
O give me back my loved one
Or in mercy let me die.

Act III, Recitative and Aria, Countess, "E Susanna non vien" . . . "Dove sono i bei momenti"

Recitative
Susanna's not come! I'm impatient
To know what the Count said
To her proposal; the plan seems to me
Somewhat rash, and with a husband
So impetuous and jealous ...
But where's the harm?
To change my clothes
With those of Susanna, and hers with mine,
Under cover of darkness ... Oh heavens!
To what humiliation am I reduced
By a cruel husband, who after having
First loved me, then neglected and finally
Deceived me, in a strange mixture
Of infidelity, jealousy and disdain,
Now forces me to seek help from my servant!
Aria
Where are those happy moments
Of sweetness and pleasure?
Where have they gone,
Those vows of a deceiving tongue?
Then why, if everything for me
Is changed to tears and grief,
Has the memory oft hat happiness
Not faded from my breast?
Ah! if only my constancy
In yearning lovingly for him always
Could bring the hope
Of changing his ungrateful heart!

Act III, Recitative and Duettino, Susanna and the Countess, "Canzonetta sull'aria"

It's the Countess's turn to hatch a new plot to trap her philandering husband. Nobody is more surprised than her one trusted confidante, her maid Susanna.

Recitative
COUNTESS: What things you're telling me!
And what did the Count say then?
SUSANNA: You could read in his face
His indignation and anger.
COUNTESS: Gently now: it will be the easier to catch him,
Where is the rendezvous
That you suggested?
SUSANNA: In the garden.
COUNTESS: Let's fix a place for it. Write to him.
SUSANNA: I write? ... but ... my lady ...
COUNTESS: Write, l tell you,
And I'll take it all upon myself.
[SUSANNA sits down and writes]: A song to the zephyr . . .
Duettino
SUSANNA: "To the zephyr."
COUNTESS [dictating]: "How sweet the breeze . . ."
SUSANNA [repeating the Countess's words]: "The breeze."
COUNTESS: "Will be this evening . . ."
SUSANNA: "Will be this evening."
COUNTESS: "In the pine grove."
SUSANNA [questioning]: In the pine grove?
{Writing] "In the pine grove."
COUNTESS: The rest he'll understand.
SUSANNA: I'm sure he'll understand.
[Together they reread what has been written. SUSANNA folds the letter.]
Recitative
SUSANNA: The letter's folded . . . how shall I seal it?
COUNTESS [taking out a pin and giving it to her]: Here . . . take this pin.
It will serve as seal. Wait . . . write
On the back of the letter,
"Send back the seal.“
SUSANNA: It's stranger than
The seal on the commission.
COUNTESS: Quick, hide it . . . I hear people coming.
[SUSANNA puts the note in her bosom.]

I think it's safe to reveal now that the object poor Barbarina is searching for so desperately in the garden as Act IV starts is none other than the Countess's pin, which has been entrusted to her.


TOMORROW IN PART 3 OF OUR
REMEMBRANCE OF MARGARET PRICE . . .

It looks like tomorrow we'll get to those Così fan tutte excerpts featuring Price as Fiordiligi, and we're going to hear an assortment of other sopranos tackle the two stupendous arias. We'll also hear Price as Pamina in The Magic Flute.


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