AH! NON CREDEA MIRARTI … AH! NON GIUNGE – an aria from “La Sonnambula”

The portrait of Vincenzo Bellini’s aria AH! NON CREDEA MIRARTI … AH! NON GIUNGE

Read Interesting facts and hear great YouTube Videos about Rossini’s famous Aria “AH! NON CREDEA MIRARTI … AH! NON GIUNGE“.

 

If you want to read and hear more about LA SONNAMBULA, click on this link to the opera portrait

 

 

 

The aria AH! NON CREDEA MIRARTI … AH! NON GIUNGE – Synopsis & Background

 

Synopsis: The innkeeper Lisa is in love with Elvino. But he is already engaged to Amina. During the engagement festivities a mysterious man named Rodolfo appears. What nobody knows: he is the lost son of the late count. The villagers have to go home after dark, because they fear the white ghost. Rodolfo is amused to note this. He is passing through and goes to his room in the inn. Lisa knocks at his door and greets him as the count, the whole village has heard. Rodolfo starts flirting with Lisa, who flirts back with his advances, but they are interrupted by the noise on the street. When she hides in the dressing room, she drops her scarf. She observes Amina sleepwalking in a white dress, and entering the Count’s room. When she reaches out her hand to Rodolfo to accompany her to the altar, Lisa runs to Elvino to tell him about Amina’s disloyalty. Although Rodolfo is tempted at first, he decides not to take advantage of the situation. He puts her on the sofa and leaves the room. Elvino appears and recognizes with horror his fiancée on the Count’s canapé. Amina wakes up and is pleased to see Elvino. When he pushes her back she realizes with horror what has happened. She affirms her innocence, but Elvino breaks off the engagement and decides to marry Lisa. The next day the villagers go to the castle and ask the count to vouch for Amina. Rodolfo testifies to Amina’s respectability, but Elvino has seen her with his own eyes in the Count’s bedroom. Rodolfo explains to the people the sunambulism. But Elvino doesn’t want to know about it and takes Lisa’s hand.

There Amina appears on the windowsill. Sleepwalking, she crosses a beam over the mill wheel. Everyone holds their breath, if she fell, she would die. She reaches the other end and steps onto the village square, where she speaks of her love for Elvino in the most moving way, still in her dreams. (Ah !Non credea mirarti)  Now Rodolfo Elvino allows her to wake up. Elvino has recognized his mistake and slips the ring over Amina’s finger (Ah! Non giunge).

Only a simple motif of the first violins and the plucking of the basses accompanies the gently breathed suffering of Amina. The melody is a typical Bellini cantilena: elongated and with small intervals without doubling by instruments.

 

Bellini composed an extremely sparse accompaniment. To the sound of the strings we hear only the interjections of a plaintive oboe, later the accompaniment of an expressive solo cello. The so-called “flower aria” ends with a few intimate coloraturas.

As a fast second part (Caballetta), he composed a bravura aria, with great leaps in tone, trills and top notes (Ah! non giunge).

 

 

 

The Aria – the text of AH! NON CREDEA MIRARTI … AH! NON GIUNGE

 

Potria novel vigore

il pianto mio recarti

ma ravvivar l’amore

il pianto mio, ah no, non può…

Ah, non giunge uman pensiero

al contento ond’io son piena:

a miei sensi io credo appena;

tu m’affida, o mio tesor!

 

Maybe my tears could

Lend you new life,

But to revive love

My tears oh no, they cannot do so…

Ah, human thought can’t manage

(To grasp) the depth of my happiness:

I can barely believe my own senses;

You do trust me, oh my darling!

 

 

 

 

Famous interpretations of AH! NON CREDEA MIRARTI … AH! NON GIUNGE

 

Maria Callas changed the way Sopranos sung the role of Amina.

Ah! Non credea mirarti …  –  Maria Callas

 

Dessay was convincing both in the coloraturas and as an actress.

Ah! Non credea mirarti …  –  Dessay

 

Tenderly breathed and dreamily portrayed by Anna Moffo in her glamorous young years in a recording for television.

Ah! Non credea mirarti …  –  Moffo

 

The famous American critic John Ardoin wrote that the final act of this opera went into the annals of the opera. Callas sang this aria in 1955 with additional (crazy) embellishments by the conductor of the performance of Leonard Bernstein.

Ah! Non giunge  –  Callas

 

Cecilia Bartoli sings the aria with additional decorations and gigantic leaps in tone.

Ah! Non credea mirarti … Ah! Non giunge –  Bartoli

 

Joan Sutherland’s technique allowed her to sing the aria at a crazy tempo and leads her to a glorious conclusion, the trills are breathtaking. Pavarotti is said to have been speechless when he learned that Sutherland was able to give a midday performance of the Sunambula the same day before an evening performance of Traviata.

Ah! Non giunge  –  Sutherland

 

Callas even dared a high E in a live performance.

Ah! Non giunge –  Callas

 

Maria Callas veränderte die Art und Weise, wie Soprane die Rolle der Amina sangen.

Ah! Non credea mirarti …  –  Maria Callas

 

Dessay überzeugte sowohl in den Koloraturen und als Schauspielerin.

Ah! Non credea mirarti …  –  Dessay

 

Zärtlich hingehaucht und verträumt dargestellt von Anna Moffo in ihren glanzvollen jungen Jahren in einer Einspielung fürs Fernsehen.

Ah! Non credea mirarti …  –  Moffo

 

Der berühmte amerikanische Kritiker John Ardoin schrieb dass sie mit dem Schlussakt dieser Oper in die Annalen der Oper einging. Callas sang 1955 diese Arie mit zusätzlichen (wahnwitzigen) Verzierungen des Dirigenten der Aufführung von Leonard Bernstein.

Ah! Non giunge  –  Callas

 

Cecilia Bartoli singt die Arie mit zusätzlichen Verzierungen und gigantischen Tonsprüngen.

Ah! Non credea mirarti … Ah! Non giunge –  Bartoli

 

Joan Sutherland’s Technik erlaubte ihr die Arie mit irrem Tempo zu singen und führt sie zu einem gloriosen Abschluss, die Triller sind atemraubend. Pavarotti soll sprachlos gewesen sein, als er erfuhr dass Suthereland vor einer Abend-Vorstellung der Traviata  gleichentags eine Mittagsvorstellung der Sonnambula geben konnte.

Ah! Non giunge  –  Sutherland

 

Callas wagte sogar ein in einer live Aufführung ein hohes E.

Ah! Non giunge –  Callas

 

Luisa Tetrazzini was the great “canary” of the twenties. There was no height or coloratura that she could not sing. It is a pleasure to listen to her bird song from 1911.

Ah! Non giunge –  Tetrazzini

 

Edita Gruberova with a high F that shines through the wind like the siren of an express train.

Ah! Non giunge –  Gruberova

 

The mezzo-soprano Federika von Stade recorded the aria in the spirit of Maria Malibran, in a downward transposed version.

Ah! non credea mirarti … Ah! Non giunge  –  von Stade

 

 

 

Peter Lutz, opera-inside, the online opera guide to the aria “AH! NON CREDEA MIRARTI” from the opera “La Sonnambula”  from Vincenzo Bellini.