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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:
- 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]