Te deum

Ettore Bastianini (September 24, 1922 -- January 25, 1967) was an Italian opera singer who was particularly associated with the operas of Verdi. In 1958, Bastanini sang his first Scarpia at the Teatro di San Carlo. This was followed by three other roles new to him at La Scala that summer: Belcore in L'elisir d'amore, Ernesto in Il pirata (with Callas and Franco Corelli), and the title role in Nabucco. In July of that year, he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival as Rodrigo under Herbert von Karajan, and then returned to Bilbao in September for several more performances. Towards the end of the year, he sang four roles in five days at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, followed by his only baroque opera role, Lichas in Handel's Hercules under Lovro von Mata?i?, at La Scala. In September 1958, Bastanini sang for the first time at the Vienna State Opera as Scarpia opposite Tebaldi's Tosca. He performed regularly there until the end of his career, in 1965. In the fall of 1959, he debuted at the Dallas Opera singing Enrico opposite Callas's Lucia, and Figaro as well. The following December, he sang his first Michonnet in Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur at the Teatro di San Carlo, starring Magda Olivero. He returned to that house in 1960 to sing Don Carlo in Ernani, a role he also portrayed at the Salzburg Festival that year. Also in 1960, he sang Severo in Donizetti's Poliuto in a famous production that marked the return of Callas to La Scala. In February 1961, he debuted with the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company as Rigoletto. Later that month he appeared in two productions at La Scala, Lucia di Lammermoor with Dame Joan Sutherland and I puritani with Renata Scotto. In December 1961, he returned to La Scala to sing his first and only performances of Rolando in Verdi's rarely heard opera La battaglia di Legnano. In 1962, he made his first and only appearance at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden as Renato, returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago to sing the title role in Rigoletto, and sang Conte di Luna at La Scala and the Salzburg Festival, in addition to several performances with the Vienna State Opera...

Lyrics & English Translation

SCARPIA
to Spoletta, who emerges from behind the column
Three men and a carriage ... Quick, follow
Wherever she goes! And take care!

SPOLETTA
Yes Sir. And where do we meet?

SCARPIA
Farnese Palace!
Spoletta hurries out with three policemen
Go,Tosca!
Now Scarpia digs a nest within your heart!
Go, Tosca. Scarpia now sets loose
The roaring falcon of your jealousy!
How great a promise in your quick suspicions!
Now Scarpia digs a nest within your heart!
Go, Tosca!

Scarpia kneels and prays as the Cardinal passes

CHORUS
Adjutorum nostrum in nomine Domini
Qui fecit coelum et terram
Sit nomen Domini benedictum
Et hoc nunc et usque in saeculum.

SCARPIA
My will takes aim now at a double target,
Nor is the rebel's head the bigger prize ...
Ah, to see the flame of those imperious eyes
Grow faint and languid with passion ...
For him, the rope,
And for her, my arms ...

CHORUS
Te Deum laudamus,
Te Deum confitemur!

SCARPIA
The sacred chant from the back of the church startles him, as though awakening him from a dream. He collects himself, makes the Sign of the Cross
Tosca you make me forget God!
he kneels and prays devoutly

CHORUS, CHORUS
Te aeternum
Patrem omnis terra veneratur!


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