Jonas Kaufmann - Flower Song from Carmen

Georges Bizet: Carmen
Don José's aria La fleur que tu m'avais jetée

Moscow, December 16, 2008

La fleur que tu m'avais jetée,
Dans ma prison m'était restée.
Flétrie et sèche, cette fleur
Gardait toujours sa douce odeur;
Et pendant des heures entières,
Sur mes yeux, fermant mes paupières,
De cette odeur je m'enivrais
Et dans la nuit je te voyais!
Je me prenais à te maudire,
À te détester, à me dire :
Pourquoi faut-il que le destin.
L'ait mise là sur mon chemin?
Puis je m'accusais de blasphème,
Et je ne sentais en moi-même,
Je ne sentais qu'un seul désir,
Un seul désir, un seul espoir:
Te revoir, ô Carmen, ou, te revoir!
Car tu n'avais eu qu'à paraître,
Qu'à jeter un regard sur moi,
Pour t'emparer de tout mon être,
Ô ma Carmen!
Et j'étais une chose à toi
Carmen, je t'aime!

The flower that you tossed to me
In my prison stayed with me.
Withered and dried, this flower
Kept always its sweet odor
And during all of the hours,
Over my eyes closed my eyelids,
I became intoxicated with this odor
And in the night I saw you!
I became accustomed to cursing you,
To detesting you, to saying to myself :
Why is it necessary for destiny
To put herself there on my path?
Then I accused myself of blasphemy
And I didn't feel but in myself
I didn't feel but one desire
A sole desire, a sole hope
To see you again, oh Carmen, to see you again!
For you had only to appear
Only to toss a glance towards me
In order to take a hold of all my being
Oh my Carmen
And I was yours
Carmen, I love you!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Jonas
• Kaufmann

[stepasb]

Jonas - Lithuanian name .... To German - Johann (like Bach). Sir Jonas, maybe you Lithuanian?

[frufruJ]

@stepasb You are right that the Lithuanian Jonas is for Johann or John or Juan, but this is Jonas (in Czech we have Jan for Johann and Jonáš for Jonas :-) ) It comes from Hebrew, Jonah was the person who was swallowed by a whale in a Biblical story.

I love Wikipedia :-)

[alexgomez2]

WOW! The greatest ever pianissimo I've ever heard at Et j'étais une chose à toi (min. 3:45). Domingo sings this phrase at full voice; Carreras resorts to falsetto, but Kaufmann sings it in pure full voice in the most delicate pianissimo which reminds me of the great Franco Corelli who, inspite of the size of his voice could produce incredible and long diminuendos. It was about time someone like Kaufmann come alone and show that this technique doesn't belong only to great sopranos. Great document

[jfichter69]

He's too throaty for me.

[nomadlebowski]

that was....delicate, heart wrenching beauty that one hopes for .....bravo.

[nomadlebowski]

the voice and the man are To DIE FOR. That last poignant long note is everything in this piece, and he did it with all the emotionally delic

[chaiter1]

Well, this is definitely not Italianate singing.His voice would be much more suitable to Wagner and Richard Strauss.

As it is, for me it sounds too much sliding,the line is broken and "rewritten" sometimes, there are instances when he tries to overdo just to do differently.

You want the last sententences pianissimo? Try early Alagna.Although, to tell you the truth I prefer Caruso,Gedda and Pavarotti in this aria.

[wilton318]

remarkable; i don't know a word of what he said but it touched me deeply.

[Nireo79]

Necesito más sentimiento y un canto menos plano para conquistarme, no obstante, el piannisimo del final es soberbio y, dado que Domingo es considerado un referente en este papel y lo da gritando (compatriota mío, pero una gran mentira de tenor, amigos, puro marketing), le doy mi voto positivo, al menos respeta la partitura que tantos pisotean.

[bb1111116]

This is very good even though for me it is not quite up to the version by Carreras.

[blackdyke1]

A chocolate box tenor if ever I heard one, and beautiful with it!

[operafantic]

He's good looking but he doesn't move me. The voice is too tough and his phrasing is too square for French or Italian music. And could anyone understand his French?

[Funkytown421]

schlimm gesungen..