![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Dance the ghost with me
For years, "The Black Swan" from Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium (1946) was my standard audition aria: I heard it first in high school and it sounded like a fever dream or a nightmare, so naturally I fell in love with it. Whether I should blame the weather or the time of year, it's been in my head all day. Herewith, lyrics.
The Black Swan
The sun has fallen and it lies in blood
The moon is weaving bandages of gold
O black swan, where, o where is my lover gone?
Torn and tattered is my bridal gown
And my lamp is lost
With silver needles and with silver thread
The stars stitch a shroud for the dying sun
O black swan, where, o where has my lover gone?
I had given him a kiss of fire
And a golden ring
Don't you hear your lover moan?
Eyes of glass and feet of stone
Shells for teeth and weeds for tongue
Deep, deep down in the river's bed
He's looking for the ring
Eyes wide open, never asleep
He's looking for the ring
The spools unravel and the needles break
The sun is buried and the stars weep
O black wave, o black wave, take me away with you
I will share with you my golden hair
And my bridal crown
O take me down with you
Take me down to my wandering lover
With my child unborn
With my child unborn
Autumn, ghost-time: have a good season, all.
The Black Swan
The sun has fallen and it lies in blood
The moon is weaving bandages of gold
O black swan, where, o where is my lover gone?
Torn and tattered is my bridal gown
And my lamp is lost
With silver needles and with silver thread
The stars stitch a shroud for the dying sun
O black swan, where, o where has my lover gone?
I had given him a kiss of fire
And a golden ring
Don't you hear your lover moan?
Eyes of glass and feet of stone
Shells for teeth and weeds for tongue
Deep, deep down in the river's bed
He's looking for the ring
Eyes wide open, never asleep
He's looking for the ring
The spools unravel and the needles break
The sun is buried and the stars weep
O black wave, o black wave, take me away with you
I will share with you my golden hair
And my bridal crown
O take me down with you
Take me down to my wandering lover
With my child unborn
With my child unborn
Autumn, ghost-time: have a good season, all.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Do you have any good suggestions on where to find a copy so one can listen to it?
no subject
I have never seen the aria show up in compilations (unlike "Monica's Waltz," which can be found on Renée Fleming's I Want Magic! and various others), but there are several full recordings of the opera. Of all things, I really like the 1951 film cast, where Anna Maria Alberghetti performs Monica. She has an odd voice, half operatic and half childlike, but it suits the song whose melody is like a murder ballad or a demonic lullaby. The film itself is worth checking out. I was strongly reminded of Tanith Lee's The Secret Books of Paradys, the first time I saw it.
Nor do I have a recording of myself, or I'd post it here. : P
no subject
no subject
Nine
no subject
no subject
no subject
You're welcome. Thank Gian Carlo Menotti.
no subject
no subject
It's about as odd and eerie as those two arias would lead you to expect: I haven't yet seen a stage production, but I love the music and the film adaptation. I can send you music, if you like.
no subject
no subject
OMG!
no subject
Awesome.