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O, del mio dolce ardor

Aria from the opera Paride ed Elena by Christoph Willibald Gluck, arranged for orchestra (1870).

Catalogue References TH 178 ; ČW 409 (as "O del mio dolce ardor")
Date October 1870
Text Ranieri de' Calzabigi (1714–1795)
Language Italian
Key D minor
Tempo/Section Listing Lento e maestoso (D minor, 47 bars)
Instrumentation Solo voice + Flute, Oboe, Clarinet (B), Bassoons + 2 Horns (F) + Violins I, Violins II, Violas, Cellos, Double Basses
First Performance Moscow, 6/18 November 1870, conducted by Nikolai Rubinstein
Autograph Location Moscow (Russia): Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture (ф. 88, No. 160)
First Publication Moscow: Muzyka, 1970
Average Duration 3 minutes
Notes ‘O del mio dolce’ (also known as ‘O salutaris’) comes from Paride’s Aria in Act I (No. 1) of the opera Paride ed Elena (Paris and Helen) by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787), which was premiered in Vienna in 1770. For many years the authorship of the original aria was wrongly attributed to Alessandro Stradella (1639–1682), but recent scholarship has established that Gluck was the true composer [1]
External Links The Lied and Art Song Texts Page (text and translations)

History

The orchestration of the aria was made by Tchaikovsky, evidently, at the request of Nikolai Rubinstein, for a symphony concert of the Russian Musical Society, in which it was to be played. The manuscript is dated 29 October/10 November 1870. The aria was performed at the concert on 6/18 November, performed by the singer Kalashov.

From: Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958), p. 493
English text copyright © 2006 Brett Langston


Notes:
  1. See Alessandro Stradella (1639–1682): A thematic catalogue of his compositions (1991), p. 267, and The Tchaikovsky Handbook, vol. 1 (2002), pp. 354–355 [back]

This page was last updated on 14 November 2010