Una Furtiva Lagrima - Enrico Caruso 1904

Digitally remastered version of a recording from the 1st of February 1904 (room 826, Carnegie Hall, NY). You may want to look at my non-profit website for more Caruso info: http://www.enricocaruso.dk (English). I have uploaded all of Caruso's recordings (in different versions/restorations) there.

I feel it is important to place this recording in its proper perspective - before you compare Caruso with other later tenors. Caruso had 2-3 years of formal schooling. His native language was Neapolitan Italian, which is'nt Italian. His whole life he had troubles reading - in any language. Still he spoke some 7 languages. The singing lessons he received were rudimentary at best. And still he moves the hearts of those who actually listen to his voice (.. more than a century later). Why? In my opinion because he was an empathetic genious. Able to communicate feelings through his singing like very few others after him.

Una furtiva lagrima (A furtive tear) is the romanza from Act II, Scene 2 of the Italian opera, L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of Love) by Gaetano Donizetti. It is sung by Nemorino (Caruso) when he finds that the love potion he bought to win his dream lady's heart, Adina, works.

Nemorino is in love with Adina, but she isn't interested in a relationship with an innocent, rustic man. To win her heart, Nemorino buys a "love potion" with all the money he has in his pocket. The "love potion" is actually a cheap red wine sold by a con business traveler. But when he sees Adina weeping, he knows that she has fallen in love with him and the "Elixir" works.

Caruso created the role of Nemorino the first time in February 1901 at La Scala in Milan. The conductor was the famous Toscanini, but the notoriously critical and reserved audience of La Scala did not react at all ... until Caruso started singing - and he basically turned the performance from failure to success. The audience went wild and Caruso was compelled to repeat "Una furtiva lagrima" three times.

When Toscanini came back stage to go before the curtain with the artists, he embraced Caruso, then turned to the manager of La Scala, Giulio Gatti-Casazza, and said: "Per dio! Se questo Napoletano continua a cantare così, farà parlare di sè il mondo intero." (By Heaven! If this Neapolitan continues to sing like this, he will make the whole world talk about him.)
And a few years later the whole world talked about him. - and still haven't forgotten his "velvet" voice and intense empathy.

Text Italian:

Una furtiva lagrima
Negli occhi suoi spunto:
Quelle festose giovani
Invidiar sembro.
Che piu cercando io vo?
Che piu cercando io vo?
M'ama! Sì, m'ama, lo vedo, lo vedo.
Un solo instante i palpiti
Del suo bel cor sentir!
I miei sospir, confondere
Per poco a' suoi sospir!
I palpiti, i palpiti sentir,
Confondere i miei coi suoi sospir
Cielo, si puo morir!
Di piu non chiedo, non chiedo.
Ah! Cielo, si puo, si puo morir,
Di piu non chiedo, non chiedo.
Si puo morir, si puo morir d'amor.

English translation:

A secret tear appeared in her eye.
She seemed to envy those happy girls.
For more could I ask?
She loves me, I see it.
To feel the beating of her beautiful heart for just one moment!
To mingle my sighs with hers for just at moment!
Heavens, I could die now, I need nothing more!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Opera
• Classical
• bel
• canto
• italian
• opera
• Caruso
• Una
• furtiva
• Lagrima
• Donizetti
• Match
• Point

[victorio1940]

dmorxis, thank you. I do not see human happiness simply as freedom from sorrow and pain or sheer luck. Art is one of the things that make us human. It creates pleasure even through suffering, pleasure beyond pleasure, feeling that is stronger than the senses can perceive. We can think of an animal that is free and perfectly bonded with Nature as being "happy". But no such happiness can match the happiness of a tormented soul finding freedom through art!

[tomfroekjaer]

@victorio1940 Very nice, profound - and, at least for me, very true - comment.

But I believe you meant to answer dmorxis. It has been posted as a general comment. If you want to respond to dmorxis so that he gets an e-mail about it, please click the Greek equivalent of "Reply/Answer" at the comment from dmorxis.

Best regards to you in the ancient craddle of wisdom, Greece..

Tom (I uploaded the video)

[SOMOSMUYKABRONESCREW]

Is The Best Singer for all time <3

[tomfroekjaer]

@SOMOSMUYKABRONESCREW Maybe - you decide...

[victorio1940]

Yoy cannot explain Caruso in technical terms alone, any more than you can explain Callas. Both were everyday people with weaknesses, passions, sorrows. Yet, what they give to me cannot be expressed in words. They simply make me feel part of a better world, someone suddenly made richer, happier, more whole. It is a bit like falling in love at 13 with a woman more beautiful than life itself, yet you have no way of describing it. Maybe it is the feeling that lies beyond happiness.

[tomfroekjaer]

@victorio1940 Terrific profound comment !! Thanks.

[1906sfjd]

Every note that Caruso sang is filled with heart and emotion. How anyone with a voice that powerful could sing so sublimely is impossible to fathom. Una Furtiva Lagrima - one furtive tear - offers some of the most delicate, endearing pianissimo moments, notes that would befuddle most dramatic or spinto tenors, but Caruso just shifts from the powerful bottom to that tender restrain with flawless ease. He is, and will forever be, the greatest operatic voice, the greatest voice in captivity.

[nitro1821]

The gratest tenor of all times!

[cocochanelleke]

Thanks for uploading and puttting the original words to it!

Quite an abbreviated translation of the words into English, though.

[DannyWrigley]

@victorio1940 Do you think that such a happiness is only a more powerful experience because it reveals that there is within us an element that will not be mastered by temporal circumstances like suffering? The hope of such a happiness, imo, IS freedom from these the things you listed, and perhaps because all humanity cannot yet be united in it (physically, ethically and otherwise unable) the best we can have now is the suffering that provokes our desire for it and inspires us to achieve it.

[miguelangeljma]

WTF? O_O this guy can handle his voice better than i can handle my hands (for stablish an example) WOW! this was magnificient! the pianos and pianisimos, the fortes notes, the high and low notes, this is just amazing! i wish i could have 1/4 of the voice this Mr. Enrico Caruso had...

[Achilles1987]

The best interpretation of "Una Furtiva Lagrima" definitely. Every word is full of emotions. Flawless!

[Demoke51]

Congratulations! Emoke.

[FleshLessOne]

love all the different versions of this.. your Enrico Caruso site is really Awesome also.

[heartazucar]

Voice is grand, but my heart would Palpiti, w/more strength & vigor!

[antinoo80]

@tomfroekjaer Anyone can explain why Italy is the land of art and music. Why most Italians sing meanwhile work? It's a blessed country, I think. Michelangelo, Leonardo, Rafaello, Verdi, Toscanini, and a lot of more, it is impossible recall everyone. I'm so proud to be an Italian, born in Argentina, but Italian till the last of my days!!!

[David45NV1]

Caruso shows here his impressive expressive richness