Day 6 | “Nessum Dorma”

So, I wanted to do a song with the least amount of traffic so I did this just after midnight. I will say that I only sang parts of it and I did blank out on some of the Italian.

One of the most popular arias from one of the most popular Operas. Turandot is a princess, beautiful but cold, and is the object of desire for the nameless prince Calaf. The aria appears in the final act of the opera. Calaf has correctly answered three riddles posed by the Princess Turandot. She now must marry him, but recoils at the thought. Calaf proposes a question of his own, for the Princess to guess his name before the sun rises. Turandot orders her subjects that “no one shall sleep” (Nessum Dorma) until his name is found, or they will all die. Yeah,..she has issues.

This was the very first aria that I heard and it made me fall in love with Opera. I longed to be like Pavarotti on the stage, singing the high “C”s to a cheering audience.

Here is the Italian:

Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma!
Tu pure, o, principessa
Nella tua fredda stanza
Guardi le stelle
Che tremano d’amore
E di speranza.

Ma il mio mistero e chiuso in me
Il nome mio nessun saprá!
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo diró
Quando la luce splenderá!

Ed il mio bacio sciogliera il silenzio
Che ti fa mia!

(Il nome suo nessun saprá!
E noi dovrem, ahimé, morir!)

Dilegua, o notte!
Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle!
All’alba vinceró!
Vinceró, vinceró!

The English translation:

No-one sleeps, no-one sleeps
Even you, o princess
In your cold room
Watch the stars
Which tremble with love
And hope!

But my secret is locked within me
No-one shall know my name!
No, no, I shall say it on your mouth
When the light breaks!

And my kiss will break the silence
That makes you mine!

(No-one shall know his name
And we, alas, shall die!)

Vanish, o night!
Set, ye stars!
At dawn I shall win!

You can follow / catch up at the 1st link below, make song requests and help support this odyssey. ALL proceeds will go to the Green Hills Animal Shelter in Trenton, MO (http://greenhillsanimalshelter.org/). I will keep this GoFundMe cause open throughout the year and close it out once this is over and present the check to the shelter where it will help a lot of critters.

Follow: http://bit.ly/1f3uf4n
Song requests: http://bit.ly/1Nj1Hlf
Help @ GoFundMe: http://bit.ly/1UyZEvu
#undertheoverpass

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