O dolcissimi lumi

Milan, September 2009

Conductor - Rinaldo Alessandrini

Music - Roberta Invernizzi
Orpheus - Georg Nigl
Eurydice - Roberta Invernizzi
Messenger - Sara Mingardo
Hope - Sara Mingardo
Charon - Luigi De Donato
Proserpine - Raffaella Milanesi
Pluto - Giovanni Battista Parodi
Echo - Roberta Invernizzi
Apollo - Furio Zanasi
Staging, Sets and Lights - Robert Wilson

0:00
ORFEO
Vi ricorda, o bosch'ombrosi,
De' miei lungh'aspri tormenti,
Quando i sassi ai miei lamenti
Rispondean fatti pietosi?

Dite, allor non vi sembrai
Più d'ogni altro sconsolato?
Or fortuna ha stil cangiato
Et ha volto in festa i guai.

Vissi già mesto e dolente,
Or gioisco, e quegli affanni
Che sofferti ho per tant'anni
Fan più caro il ben presente.

Sol per te, bella Euridice,
Benedico il mio tormento;
Dopo il duol vie più contento,
Dopo il mal vie più felice.
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ORPHEUS
Do you recall, O shady woods,
my long, bitter torments,
when the rocks, their hearts softened,
replied to my laments?

Say, did I not then seem to you
more wretched than any other?
Now Fortune has changed her tune
and turned my woes into rejoicing.

Once I lived in sadness and sorrow;
now I rejoice, and those anxieties
that I have suffered for so many years
make my present happy state more dear.

Through you alone, lovely Eurydice,
I bless my torments;
after sorrow, one is all the more content,
after woe, one is all the happier.
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1:41
MESSAGGIERA
Pastor, lasciate il canto,
Ch'ogni nostra allegrezza in doglia è volta.

ORFEO
D'onde vieni? ove vai? Ninfa, che porti?

MESSAGGIERA
A te ne vengo, Orfeo,
Messaggiera infelice,
Di caso più infelice e più funesto:
La tua bella Euridice ...

ORFEO
Oimè, che odo?

MESSAGGIERA
La tua diletta sposa è morta.

ORFEO
Oimè!

MESSAGGIERA
In in fiorito prato
Con l'altre sue compagne
Giva cogliendo fiori
Per farne una ghirlanda a le sue chiome,
Quand'angue insidioso,
Ch'era fra l'erbe ascoso,
Le punse un piè con velenoso dente.
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MESSENGER
Shepherd ' cease your singing,
for all our gaiety has turned to pain.

ORPHEUS
Whence do you come and whither are you going?
Nymph, what news do you bring?

MESSENGER
I come to you, Orpheus,
as an ill?fated bearer of tidings
still more ill?fated and more tragic.
Your lovely Eurydice ...

ORPHEUS
Alas! what do I hear?

MESSENGER
Your beloved bride is dead.

ORPHEUS
Woe is me!

MESSENGER
In a flowery meadow,
with her other companions,
she was wandering, gathering flowers
to make of them a garland for her tresses,
when a treacherous snake
that was lurking in the grass
bit her in the foot with its venomous fangs.
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3:48
ORFEO
S'arman forse a miei danni
Con tal furor le Furie innamorate
Per rapirmi il mio ben? Ed io 'l consento?

Qui si volta Orfeo.

O dolcissimi lumi, io pur vi veggio,
Io pur... ma qual eclissi, oimè, v'oscura?

SPIRITO III
Rott'hai la legge, e se' di grazia indegno.

EURIDICE
Ahi, vista troppo dolce e troppo amara,
Così per troppo amor dunque mi perdi?
Ed io, misera, perdo
Il poter più godere
E di luce e di vita, e perdo insieme
Te, d'ogni ben più caro, o mio consorte.
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ORPHEUS
What Pluto forbids, Love commands.
I must obey
a more powerful divinity
who conquers both men and gods.

There is a noise behind the scenes.

But what do I hear? Woe is me!
Perhaps the enamoured Furies
are taking up arms with such frenzy against me
to snatch my treasure from me? And I allow it?

Orpheus turns round.

O sweetest eyes, now I see you,
now I ... but alas! what eclipse obscures you?

THIRD SPIRIT
You have broken the law and are unworthy of mercy.

EURYDICE
Ah, sight too sweet and too bitter!
Thus, then, through excess of love you lose me?
And I, unhappy one, lose
the power any longer to enjoy
either light or life, and lose you too,
O my husband, more precious than all else.