"When the thaw comes, the first sunshine is mine": Still more Freni

Freni as Micaëla in 1965 (photo by Bisazza)

BIZET: Carmen: Act III, Recitative (not by Bizet) and aria, Micaëla, "C'est ici des contrebandiers le refuge ordinaire" . . . "Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante"

A mountain pass. A wild rocky place. It is a dark night. The stage has been populated by smugglers and Gypsies including CARMEN and her gal-and-guy cronies and also the AWOL, hopelessly smitten DON JOSÉ. They've all filed out now, leaving JOSÉ behind, posted on a high rock to watch. Unseen by him, MICAËLA, accompanied by a guide, enters. The guide points out the smugglers' camp, then quickly withdraws.

Recitative (by Ernest Guiraud)
This is the smugglers' usual hideout.
He's here, I will see him,
and the duty his mother charged me with
I'll accomplish without trembling.
Aria
I say that nothing frightens me.
I say, alas, that I can take care of myself.
But I play the valiant woman in vain.
Deep in my heart I'm dying with terror!
Alone in this savage place,
all alone, I'm afraid,
but I'm wrong to be afraid.
You will give me courage,
you will protect me, Lord!

I'm going to see close up this woman
whose cursed wiles
have wound up making an outlaw
of the man I once loved!
She's dangerous, she's beautiful,
but I don't want to be afraid!
No, no, I don't want to be afraid!
I will speak boldly in her presence!
Ah! Lord, you will protect me!

Ah! I say that nothing frightens me, etc.
Protect me, o Lord!
Give me courage!

[in Italian] Munich Radio Orchestra, Ino Savini, cond. Eurodisc-Vanguard Cardinal, recorded 1959

Vienna Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan, cond. Live performance from the Salzburg Festival, July 27, 1966

by Ken

Thus far in our remembrance of Mirella Freni (1935-2020) -- first here, then here -- we've gotten as far as hearing her sprinkle abundant vocal magic as young Nannetta Ford impersonates the Queen of the Fairies in the final scene of Verdi's Falstaff, a role she learned on shorter notice than she thought she could when the call came from Covent Garden, where she wound up winning the heart of the young Carlo Maria Giulini with her debut in 1961 -- and attracting lots of other international attention, including that of Herbert von Karajan, who seems pretty quickly to have thought of her for a couple of other roles he needed to cast.

One was Micaëla in Carmen, which he was doing at Salzburg and (in November 1963) recording for RCA. This was a role Freni didn't have to learn, except perhaps in French (if we can really call what she's singing French); it was the first role she sang onstage, in her hometown of Modena, at the age of 20. (The 1959 Italian-language recording of Micaëla's aria we hear above comes from the same Eurodisc operatic recital from which we've heard her first recordings of Gianni Schicchi's darling daughter Lauretta's "O mio babbino caro," Suor Angelica's "Senza mamma," and Nannetta's "Sul fil d'un soffio etesio.") One thing we might say of Micaëla, though, as we might have said of Nannetta, is that while they're both roles that many up-and-coming singers have sung on their way to bigger opportunities, it's not often that either of these roles is itself a career-builder. For that to happen, the singer has to be something special.

Is there any question that Freni was something really special?


LET'S SAMPLE TWO OTHER ROLES, INCLUDING THE
OTHER ONE THAT KARAJAN HAD FRENI IN MIND FOR

Since my current plan calls for hearing a good deal more of all three roles we're hearing Freni in today, and next I want to sample one that may not pop immediately into mind for everyone when they think of her. She sang it, though, and recorded it, and as I mentioned, it has only gradually dawned on me that the recording is one of my favorite Freni recordings, I think because it so richly exemplifies the quality that endeared her to so many opera enthusiasts, a quality I can best describe as persondom, the feeling that was giving us a real human being, and one we could hardly help but care about.

So let's hear her introduction to the audience as Adina in Donizetti's Elixir of Love.

DONIZETTI: L'Elisir d'amore: Act I, Scene, Adina and villagers,
"Benedette queste carte" . . . "Della crudele Isotta"

The scene represents the entrance to a farm. In the background is the open country with a stream on whose banks some women are doing their washing. In the center a large tree in whose shade GIANNETTA is resting with the harvesters, men and women. ADINA is seated to one side, reading. NEMORINO watches her from a distance.

[After a heartbroken NEMORINO, perennially unable to win the attention of ADINA, has paid songful tribute to her beauty, she suddenly bursts out laughing --]

ADINA [laughing]: These blessed pages!
It'a a bizarre adventure!
VILLAGERS: What are you laughing at?
Let us share your amusing reading.
ADINA: It's the story of Tristan.
It's a chronicle of love.
GIANNETTA and VILLAGERS: Read, read, read, read!
NEMORINO [aside]: I'll draw near
and mix with them.
GIANNETTA and VILLAGERS: Read!
ADINA [reading]: For the cruel Isolde
Tristan burned with love;
nor had he any hope
of ever winning her.
When he sought the favor
of a wise magician,
who in a phial gave him
a certain elixir of love,
whereby the fair Isolde
would no longer flee from him.
Elixir so perfect,
of such rare quality,
if only I could learn your recipe,
could know who makes it!
NEMORINO, GIANNETTA, and VILLAGERS:
Elixir so perfect,
of such rare quality,
if only I could learn your recipe,
could know who makes it!
Read, read, read!
ADINA: No sooner did he take one taste
from the enchanted phial
than Isolde's rebel heart
at once succumbed to him!
Changed all in a moment,
that beauty so cruel
was Tristan's beloved,
lived only for him;
and that first magic drink
he blessed forever.
ADINA, NEMORINO, GIANNETTA, and VILLAGERS:
Elixir so perfect,
of such rare quality,
if only I could learn your recipe,
could know who makes it!
If only I could learn your recipe, etc.

-- translation mostly by William Weaver

with Nicolai Gedda (t), Nemorino; Angela Arena (s), Giannetta; Rome Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, cond. EMI, recorded August 1966


AND THEN, OF COURSE, THERE'S MIMÌ


"Mi chiamano Mimì": Mimì (Freni) and Rodolfo (Gianni Raimondi) have their fateful Act I meeting in the 1965 Unitel film of Puccini's La Bohème directed by Franco Zeffirelli and conducted by Herbert von Karajan.

While young RODOLFO, a would-be poet and playwright, was attempting to do some writing in the attic room he shares with three fellow bohemians, a knock on the door introduced him to his beautiful neighbor, seeking a light for her extinguished candle. RODOLFO naturally went into high flirtation mode and wound up telling his unexpected guest his life story, then asked if she would tell him "who you are."

MIMÌ: Yes. They call me Mimì,
but my name is Lucia.
My story is brief.
Linen and silk
I embroider at home and outside.
I'm contented and happy,
and my pastime
is making lilies and roses.
I love those things
that have a gentle charm,
that speak of love, of spring,
that speak of dreams and fancies,
the things called poetry . . .
Do you understand me?
RODOLFO: Yes.
MIMÌ: They call me Mimì:
why, I don't know.
I am all alone
and prepare my meals myself.
I don't always go to mass,
but often pray to our Lord.
I live all alone
up in my tiny white room;
I look out over the roofs at the sky.
But when the thaw comes,
the first sunshine is mine,
April's first kiss is mine!
The first sunshine is mine!
A rose blossoms in my vase,
I breathe in its scent, petal by petal.
So sweet is the perfume
of a flower!
But the flowers that I make, alas,
the flowers that I make, alas,
have no scent!
I don't know what else to tell you:
I'm your neighbor
come to bother you at this late hour.

-- translation mostly by Gwyn Morris

Vienna Volksoper Orchestra, Argeo Quadri, cond. Studio recording, 1961

Mirella Freni (s), Mimì; with (on the single word "Sì") Gianni Raimondi (t), Rodolfo; Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan, cond. Live performance, Nov. 9, 1963

Yes, the other role Karajan seems to have fixed on for Freni was Mimì, and indeed, as we hear above, she was singing it with him in Vienna at the time they made the RCA Carmen recording. It quickly became her signature role, her international calling card; eventually she and Karajan made a Bohème recording together (her second), with her Modena homeboy Luciano Pavarotti as Rodolfo.

As I said, these are only samples of the three roles -- Micaëla, Adina, and Mimì. My plan is to explore them all more, with maybe some related repertory, on the lookout for signs of that quality of "persondom" I mentioned in Freni's singing. We're definitely going to encounter it when we sample three important Verdi roles -- the Forza Leonora, Elisabeth in Don Carlos, and Desdemona in Otello -- that should have been too heavy for her voice but that she kind of managed anyway. Oh, and there's probably some other stuff we'll want to hear, or in some cases rehear. Stay tuned.

REMEMBERING MIRELLA FRENI: The series so far

Mirella Freni (1935-2020). "O mio babbino caro" (Gianni Schicchi), "Senza mamma" (Suor Angelica), a Fenton-and-Nannetta moment from Falstaff. [2/16/2020]

"On the breath of a fragrant breeze": More from Mirella Freni. Nannetta as the Queen of the Fairies in Falstaff. [2/23/2020]

"When the thaw comes, the first sunshine is mine": Still more Freni. Micaëla's aria (Carmen), Adina reads about Tristan and Isolde (L'Elisir d'amore), "Mi chiamano Mimì" (La Bohème). [3/8/2020]

"Sweet memories of our land fill him with strength and courage": Freni as Micaëla. The Act I Don José-Micaëla duo from Act I of Bizet's Carmen. [3/15/2010]

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