Five Operatic Arias That Will Blow Your Mind Before Cracking The Glass
Hear them now. Don’t wait until you grow old and need to use this art form as a replacement for your sleeping pill.
‘I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls’ from The Bohemian Girl by Michael William Balfe
‘I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls’ or ‘The Gipsy Girl’s Dream’, is a popular aria from The Bohemian Girl, an 1843 opera by Michael William Balfe, with lyrics by Alfred Bunn. The Bohemian Girl” portrays the story of Arline, a gypsy girl who finds out that she is really the long-lost daughter of Count Arnheim of Austria, kidnapped in infancy, now recognized because of a scar she bears.
The only problem is that Arline still loves the gypsy boy, Thaddeus, a Polish nobleman in political exile. Arline sings this aria in Act 2 of the Opera to reminisce faded memories of her childhood.
‘Habanera’ and ‘Seguidilla’ from Bizet’s Opera Carmen
It would be difficult to select just one aria from George Bizet’s Opera Carmen, but I can not hold myself from pasting the links to two of his masterpieces.
Carmen is based on a short novel written by Prosper Mérimée in 1846. It is about a Spanish gypsy named Carmen, who is one of the girls working in a cigarette factory. She seduces a soldier Don José then dumps him for a Matador, Escamillo. This angered José and leads to the eventual death of Carman.
The two arias, Habanera and Seguidilla are both taken from Act I of the opera and are written for mezzo-soprano.
Habanera is a very popular Cuban dance form and was a song that Carmen sang while she flirted with the young men loitering outside the cigarette factory where she worked.
Seguidilla, a quick, ¾ Spanish folk song and dance form, is trance-like music that Carmen used to seduce Don José into going with her to her friend Lillias Pastina’s inn. Here is me singing this flirtatious aria.
Bizet was a heavy smoker and died of a heart attack at 36, three months after the première of Carmen. When his opera became a spectacular and enduring success, he wasn’t there to witness it.
‘Casta Diva’ from the Opera Norma by Bellini
The most beautiful aria of early romantic Italian Opera, the aria ‘Casta Diva’ from Bellini’s Norma has long been considered one of the several tests of a great singer's art.
“Casta Diva”, translating as a chaste goddess, is sung in a moment of stillness and calm before an oncoming war. Norma, a high priestess of the Druid cult vowed to chastity and sings a prayer to the chaste goddess of the moon.
The slow, nocturnal first half of the Opera demands fabulous breath control to float a serene, melodic line. The brilliant second half of the cabaletta (a simple aria with a repetitive rhythm) demands utmost vocal power and agility.
It’s an exquisite example of the ‘bel canto’ style (a lyrical style of operatic singing using a full, rich, broad tone and smooth phrasing) and is also, famously, one of the most challenging pieces ever written for soprano.
Verdi’s Aria STRIDE LA VAMPA from the Opera Il Travatore
In the gypsy camp in the mountains, Azucena sits at the campfire thinking of her mother who was burnt on this pyre. Azucena’s mother had bewitched the count’s infant brother. In retaliation, her daughter kidnapped the baby and accidentally burned her own child.
Overwhelmed by embitterment and emotion, in this aria, Azucena reveals this truth to her ‘adopted child’. Azucena sings this hallucinating aria in the shimmering light of the flickering fire. Orchestral accompaniment coupled with the metronomic rhythm of the bel canto voice starts with a small flicker and crescendoes to a climax signaling vicious burning and rage.
Listening to Opera makes you more efficient
Opera is classical music and classical music makes you smarter and thereby more productive in life.
When we listen to classical music we feel more relaxed and joyful. A relaxed mind helps us perform cognitive tasks better. Satisfactory performance makes us more positive thereby increasing dopamine and neuro connectivity, leading to a healthy brain. A healthy brain is able to remember things well, thereby improving memory. A good memory improves our productivity in every task.
“Music lessons and practice of any sort, particularly in classical music, may also contribute to improved brain plasticity and neural-network development, which can enhance learning and memory.” — Michael Schneck, MD, a neurologist with Loyola Medicine in Chicago
