Music
Although not frequently performed today, it contains some of Donizetti's best vocal writing, some of it "first rate" (the end of Act 1's duet between Roberto and Sara beginning with Dacchè tornasti, ahi misera ("Since you returned, ah miserable me!"), while the brief second act is "superb". The opera is raw and emotional; it is a powerful vehicle for the soprano. Some of the highlights include the Act 1 duet between Elizabeth and Robert, Nascondi, frena i palpiti ("Hide and check your wild beating / oh my unhappy heart"). The final scene is one of the most dramatic and difficult in bel canto opera. As Elizabeth is going mad with the death of her lover, Quel sangue versato ("That spilled blood / rises to heaven") pushes romantic opera to the limits of melodic expression and has been described as "mak(ing) a powerful end to one of Donizetti's finest and most affecting operas."
Read more about this topic: Roberto Devereux
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“For do but note a wild and wanton herd
Or race of youthful and unhandled colts
Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
Which is the hot condition of their blood;
If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound,
Or any air of music touch their ears,
You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
Their savage eyes turned to a modest gaze
By the sweet power of music.”
—William Shake{peare (1564–1616)
“I used to be angry all the time and I’d sit there weaving my anger. Now I’m not angry. I sit there hearing the sounds outside, the sounds in the room, the sounds of the treadles and heddles—a music of my own making.”
—Bhakti Ziek (b. c. 1946)
“And this shall be for music when no one else is near,
The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!
That only I remember, that only you admire,
Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)