Sunday Classics

Deborah Voigt as Brünnhilde and Bryn Terfel as Wotan in the new Met production of Die Walküre, 2011

English singing translation by Andrew Porter, used in the Goodall-ENO performance below:LOGE: Never one wordof praise or thanks!For your sake alone,hoping to helpI restlessly roamedto the ends of the earthto find a ransom for Freia,one that the giants would like more.In vain sought I,and now I can seein this whole wide world,nothing at allis of greaterworth to a manthan woman's beauty and love!I asked every one living,in water, earth, and sky,one question, sought for the answerand all whom I met,I asked them this question:"What in the worldmeans more to youthan woman's beauty an

Donald McIntyre as Wotan summons Loge at the end of Die Walküre, with Pierre Boulez conducting, in this installment of Patrice Chéreau's (in)famous Bayreuth Ring production, designed by Richard Peduzzi, video-recorded in 1980.

Teresa Stratas and Alberto Rinaldi as Nedda and Silvio in Franco Zeffirelli's film of Pagliacci

Tonight we hear a chunk of the 1934 recording of Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci built around the great tenor Beniamino Gigli.by KenIn last week's Pagliacci post, we left Nedda in a state, after fending off the unwelcome advances of her troupemate, the hunchback clown Tonio.

Sine Bundgaard as Nedda and Fredrik Zetterström as Tonio in Copenhagen, December 2011 -- there are full English texts farther along in the post.To deal for now with just the beginning:

Lawrence Tibbett sings the Pagliacci Prologue from the 1935 film Metropolitan.LEONCAVALLO: I Pagliacci: Prologue: conclusion

Elizabeth Futral does her best at singing while she histrionicizes Nedda's recitative and Balatella. The chunk of recitative below, the first of three, occupies the first 57 seconds of the clip.(1) "Qual fiamma avea nel guardo!"

MAHLER: Songs of a Wayfarer:No. 4, "Die zwei blauen Augen" ("The two blue eyes")Thomas Allen sings the last of Mahler's Wayfarer Songs, "Die zwei blauen Augen" ("The two blue eyes"), with Václav Neumann conducting the Mahler Youth Orchestra, in Frankfurt's Alte Oper, 1991.Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano; Philharmonia Orchestra, Sir Adrian Boult, cond. EMI, recorded Oct. 18, 1958Maureen Forrester, contralto; Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch, cond.