Lascia ch'io pianga

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Handel's autograph from Rinaldo : recitative and beginning of the aria
Piano version with German text

Lascia ch'io pianga is one of the most famous arias by George Frideric Handel . The music ? / i he composed as early as 1705, but it only became famous as a lament in his opera Rinaldo, which premiered in London in 1711 . Today it is one of the most popular melodies in classical music . Audio file / audio sample

Emergence

The melody was heard for the first time in 1705 at the world premiere of Handel's first opera Almira, Königin von Castilien in the Hamburg Theater am Gänsemarkt . In the third act, as the personified continents pass by, it accompanies the appearance of Asia as an instrumental piece .

In 1707 Handel composed the oratorio Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno in Rome . In it he put the existing melody of the allegorical figure of Piacere ("pleasure") in his mouth: Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa  - "Leave the thorns, pick the rose". Handel also set this text to music with a different melody for the pasticcio Giove in Argo .

It is only in the opera Rinaldo that music becomes a lament. In the course of the action, a fantastic crusade drama, the Christian virgin Almirena is captured and courted by the Saracen king Argante. Her request is directed to him to be allowed to weep for the lost freedom in order to obtain mercy and release (4th scene of the 2nd act).

shape

The melody of the Lascia ch'io pianga is a classic sarabande , a solemn dance in slow three-beat with stretching emphasis on the second beat. The short phrases, which are additionally structured by pauses, the alternation of third-emphasized tone repetitions and large-interval upswings and the modulation of the middle section via the minor parallel to the minor parallel of the dominant are expressive . The Rinaldo text by Giacomo Rossi with the demanding rhyme scheme a – b – c – da – b – c – d is so well adapted to the melody that its counterfactual character is in no way noticeable.

text

Italian text

translation

German version

Lascia ch'io pianga
mia cruda variety,
e che sospiri
la libertà.

Il duolo infranga
queste ritorte
de 'miei martiri
sol per pietà.

Let me weep for
my cruel fate
and sigh for
the [lost] freedom.

Sorrow breaks
this torment of
my torment
out of mercy alone.

Let me with tears
lament my lot
for wearing chains,
what a hard fate!

Oh, only in death
do I find mercy,
he
restores peace to the poor .

Edits

Of the countless adaptations and adaptations, those from the film Farinelli and those by Barbra Streisand are among the best known.

Web links

Commons : Lascia ch'io pianga  - collection of images, videos and audio files