Ah! non avea piu lagrime

Happy birthday to Mattia Battistini.

This recording changed my life. When I first heard it a few years ago, I immediately felt, for the first time, awake to what bel canto is in meaning and in action and in sound. It also set me on the path to working out my own voice. I became obsessed with this aria and even went so far as to recreate the score as performed by Battistini.

In his biography of the baritone, Jacques Chuilon writes:

"In this precious remnant of a transcendent performance, with its flowery ornamentation, the legendary romantic spirit of bel canto is reborn. The voice sounds impressively large, capable of ebbing from the loudest forte to the softest hush with extraordinary flexibility. The vocalises are so rapidly executed that one has to listen twice to believe what one has heard. If this little jewel of a record had never been made, one might legitimately doubt that such a style of singing ever existed."

And an historical note: Battistini never performed Maria de Rudenz itself, but he did have Maria di Rohan revived from time to time, and like his predecessor Giorgio Ronconi (who created the baritone roles in both Donizetti operas), he inserted this aria into his Maria di Rohan performances. In the opening line of the recitative, you'll notice he sings "...adorata Maria," which is actually "...adorata Matilde" in the original.

The photo in this video is of Battistini in costume as Enrico, Duke of Chevreuse in Maria di Rohan.