Dame Margaret Price: Verdi - Un Ballo In Maschera, 'Ma dall'arido stelo divulsa'

Dame Margaret Berenice Price, DBE (13 April 1941 -- 28 January 2011) was a Welsh soprano. Her father, a talented amateur pianist, was opposed to a musical career, and hence she never attended a young Eisteddfod and was aiming for a career as a biology teacher. She was educated at Pontllanfraith Secondary School, near Caerphilly. At 15, her school music teacher organised an audition with Charles Kennedy Scott, who convinced her to study with him at Trinity College of Music in London and obtained a scholarship for her. Over the next few years, Price was trained as a mezzo soprano. Price was most famous for her Mozart portraits, especially Fiordiligi, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, the Contessa in The Marriage of Figaro (after having sung Cherubino and Barbarina at the beginning of her career), and Pamina in The Magic Flute. Additionally, she sang Verdi roles, such as Amelia (Un ballo in maschera, a role she also recorded with Luciano Pavarotti), Elisabetta (Don Carlos) and Desdemona (Otello), her debut role at the Met, as well as the title role in Aida (also with Pavarotti in San Francisco, which was preserved on video), Richard Strauss's Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Adriana Lecouvreur by Cilea. Price retired to a 160-year-old farmhouse on Ceibwr Bay, part of Moylegrove near Cardigan, Ceredigion, overlooking the Irish Sea. From there, she successfully bred and showed Golden Retrievers, having the rear seats of her Chrysler removed to create what she termed a "dogmobile." She came out of retirement once to perform at a Poppy day concert at her local church, something she later commented on: "It was the most nerve-racking occasion of my life. Never again will I sing in public." Price was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her services to music in 1993... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Price
Lyrics & English Translation

Here is the dreadful field where
death is matched with crime!
There are the gallows . . .
The plant is there, it spreads green at the foot. Let me approach.
Ah, my heart freezes!
Even the sound of my own footsteps, everything here
fills me with horror and dread!
And if I must die?
To die! Very well, since it is my fate,
such is my duty, let it be fulfilled, and so be it.

[She is about to proceed.]

But when that herb
has been torn from the dry stem by my hand,
and when in my feverish mind
that heavenly image dies,
what remains to you, once love is lost . . .
what remains to you, my poor heart!
Ah! Who is weeping, what force holds me back?
Does the bleak path hinder me?
Come, courage . . . and be made of stone,
do not betray me, cease from tears;
or cease beating and die,
be annihilated, my poor heart!

[A bell is heard striking the hour.]

Midnight! . . . Ah, what do I see? A head
rises from under the ground . . . and groans!
Its eyes flash with anger
and it stares at me and is terrifying!

[She falls to her knees.]

Please guide me, help me, o Lord,
have mercy on a poor heart!
A link to this wonderful artist's personal website: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/margaret-price-mn0001489606
Please Enjoy!

I send my kind and warm regards,

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