Due Baritoni — Serata Italiana
Caro mio ben, credimi almen, senza di te languisce il cor. My dearest love, believe me at least — without you this heart withers away. — Giuseppe Giordani, "Caro mio ben"
At a glance 🔭💭
People on the stage ⏳🌊
- BaritoneNa Geon-yongGraduate of Seoul National University's voice program; earned a master's degree and the highest performer's diploma in opera at the Dresden University of Music, and topped the highest performer's diploma program in lied and oratorio at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. In 2016, sang the principal role of Ford in Falstaff at the Budapest National Theatre. Today's program includes Caldara and Bononcini, Bellini's moon, and Tosti's sorrow and prayer.
- BaritoneKim Tae-hanWon the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2023 at age 22 — one of the youngest winners in the competition's history. Graduated top of the class from Seoul National University; studied at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik in Berlin; joined the Berlin State Opera's opera studio beginning with the 2023/24 season. Today's program includes Giordani and Gluck, Bellini's rose, Donizetti's tear, and Tosti's dream and enchantment.
I. Songs of old Italy — Arie antiche · 17th–18th century
(A compilation) The four songs that open the recital are commonly known as the 'Arie antiche.' The name became fixed when the late-19th-century publisher Alessandro Parisotti gathered these opera arias and chamber songs from 17th- and 18th-century Italy into a single anthology. Every student of voice learns their first Italian vocal technique from this score, yet in the hands of a master on stage they become an entirely different song. (Venice) Antonio Caldara was born in Venice, Italy, in 1670 and rose to become vice-Kapellmeister of the Viennese court, a consummate craftsman of the Baroque. Giovanni Battista Bononcini, born the same year in Modena, Italy, made his name as Handel's rival in London — their rivalry even inspired the satirical verse 'Tweedledum and Tweedledee.' (Reform) Christoph Willibald Gluck is the only one of this group from outside Italy, hailing from Erasbach in Bavaria, Germany. A reformer who stripped away opera's bloated ornamentation on the principle that 'music must serve poetry' — today's piece comes from the heart of that reform, from Paride ed Elena, which premiered in Vienna. (Naples) And Giuseppe Giordani. This composer of the Neapolitan school left behind Caro mio ben, a song that has become synonymous with the entire genre of the Italian art song. For a long time it was attributed to Tommaso Giordani, who worked mainly in Dublin, but today opinion has settled on Giuseppe of Naples.
The very emblem of the Italian art song. It is nothing more than a few lines of pleading — 'my love, please believe me, my heart withers without you.' So simple that there is nowhere to hide, it is a touchstone for singers.
- The long legato of the opening phrase — where a singer breathes marks their caliber
- The plea of 'credimi almen' (please believe me), deepening with each repetition
- A messa di voce that swells and fades within a single note
A song of longing that Paris sings to a Helen he has not yet met, from the opera Paride ed Elena. True to Gluck's reform operas, it strips away ornament and stakes everything on a single melodic line.
- An appoggiatura laid like a sigh over the pulse of the strings
- The suppressed heat each time 'bramo' (to yearn) repeats — a warmth built by restraint
- A center of gravity that sinks lower when sung by a baritone
As sunlight settles peacefully on a calm sea, so a secret sorrow hides behind a smiling face — so the song goes. A typically Baroque metaphor drawn from nature only sharpens the darkness within.
- Harmony darkening above a calm accompaniment (the sea) — the contrast of surface and depth
- The tone sinking on 'segreto affanno' (a secret sorrow)
An aria from the opera Griselda. 'Even if it can never be fulfilled, I will love you still, for the glory of adoring you' — the elegant resignation of an age that sang even despair with grace.
- The improvised ornaments a singer adds on the da capo repeat — the pleasure of Baroque convention
- Even 'penar' (to suffer) rides an elegant melodic line — the poise befitting Handel's rival
II. Bel canto — songs of the long breath · first half of the 19th century
(Bel canto) Bel canto, meaning 'beautiful singing,' is both a vocal technique and an era. Long-breathed melody, seamless legato, high notes as natural as speech — at its summit stands Vincenzo Bellini, born in Catania, Sicily. Of the melodies this composer left before his early death in Paris at thirty-three, Verdi said they were 'long, long melodies, such as no one else could write.' (Chamber song) The three Bellini pieces on today's program are not opera but chamber songs written for the salon. Jealousy that entrusts a lover to a rose, a serenade that entrusts a message to the moon, passion that protests an accusation of coldness — an opera's worth of feeling pressed into a few short songs. (Bergamo) Gaetano Donizetti worked under the same sky as Bellini, but toward the opposite end. Born in Bergamo, Italy, he was a master of swift composition who poured out more than seventy operas — yet Una lacrima, sung today, is a romanza sunk low like a prayer, far removed from that bright world of opera buffa.
A song addressed to the rose that will rest on a lover's breast, calling it 'lucky one.' A light, salon-style melancholy in which envy turns to jealousy, and jealousy turns back into song.
- An elegant jealousy swaying over a waltz-like accompaniment
- A shadow that darkens slightly in the final verse — even Bellini's jest ends in a minor key
A dark romanza that repeats 'a single tear' like a prayer. It is the opposite face left by Donizetti, the swift-penned master of opera buffa, in his late years.
- A tread that grows heavier each time 'una lacrima' (a single tear) repeats
- The moment it opens into a major key at the end — where the tear becomes a prayer
A serenade that entrusts a message of love to the moon silvering the stream and the flowers. The most beloved of Bellini's chamber songs.
- 'Bellini's long melody' — try counting how far a single phrase can stretch
- The subtle change when the same melody returns in the second verse with only the words altered
- A pianissimo high note suspended like moonlight
A poem by Metastasio. 'Please, do not call me cruel' — the most impassioned protest among Bellini's chamber songs.
- A rapidly agitated accompaniment — impatience pulsing beneath bel canto elegance
- The accent placed on 'crudel' (cruel) — between reproach and entreaty
III. Tosti — romanza of the salon · 1846–1916
(Tosti) The heart of the program is Francesco Paolo Tosti. Born in Ortona on Italy's Adriatic coast and later settled in London, he served as singing teacher to the Italian royal family and the British royal household, and in 1908 was knighted by Edward VII. He is the only Italian composer to have reached that standing on the strength of songs alone, without writing a single opera. (Romanza) Tosti's territory lies between the opera house and popular song — the salon. A romanza completed by a single piano and a single voice: elegant, yet never easy; popular, yet never cheap. Tonight two singers each take two songs: Tae-han Kim sings dream and enchantment, Geon-yong Na sings sorrow and prayer — the four faces of Tosti set side by side.
A poem by Stecchetti. In the dream, the beloved knelt at his side — a dream dreamed knowing it will vanish upon waking. The essence of Tosti's romanza.
- An accompaniment that sways like a dream — the sound of reality and dream blurring together
- The sudden chill at the final 'sognai' (it was a dream)
'Do flowers bloom where you have passed — what magic have you worked?' — a song that half-playfully questions the spell cast by love.
- The rhythm of a salon waltz — Tosti's characteristic, sociable elegance
- The playfulness in pronouncing 'malia' (magic) — a song lost the moment it turns serious
A song that walks calmly through the melancholy of dusk. Singing sorrow without crying it out — here is the restraint of Tosti's later years.
- The same melody sinking a little lower with each verse — a descent built through repetition
- The dignity of singing 'sorrow' without weeping
'Give peace to my bewildered, lost heart' — a prayer sung not in church but in the salon. The furthest reach of devotion a secular song can attain.
- A low supplication above chords that support like an organ
- A devotion that seeps in though this is not sacred music — the paradox of a prayer in the salon
IV. From Naples — the encore's place · 1875–1937
(Convention) By convention, the last place in an Italian song recital is given over to Naples. Ernesto De Curtis is Naples's rightful heir — from the very family behind Torna a Surriento, where the elder brother wrote the words and the younger brother set them to music. (Film) Non ti scordar di me came into the world in 1935 as the theme song of the film of the same name, starring the era's greatest tenor, Beniamino Gigli. From the stage to the movie house, and on to stages around the world — the song stands at the very point where art song and popular song blur into one. (Duet) Tonight this piece is sung as a duet for two baritones. The moment when two singers, who on a competition stage might have been rivals, share a single melody — the whole recital has been walking toward this final chord.
'As the swallows return, do not forget me' — a Neapolitan farewell song spread across the world through tenor Gigli's film. Tonight it closes the recital as a duet for two baritones.
- The direct appeal of the canzone napoletana — the moment when art song and popular song melt into one
- The harmonic density as two baritones overlap in thirds
- The portamento on the climactic 'non ti scordar di me'
Glossary 📚🔎
Arie antiche
'Old arias.' The name took hold when Parisotti gathered 17th- and 18th-century Italian songs into an anthology in the late 19th century. The first gateway of vocal study, and a familiar recital opener.
Bel canto
'Beautiful singing.' An Italian vocal technique that prizes long-breathed melodic lines and seamless legato above all, and the style of the early 19th century epitomized by Rossini·Bellini·Donizetti.
Romanza
A lyric song for the salon, accompanied by piano — territory between the opera aria and popular song, with Tosti as this genre's very byword.
Da capo (da capo)
'From the beginning.' In A–B–A form, the return to the opening section. It was Baroque convention for the singer to add improvised ornamentation on the repeat.
Messa di voce (messa di voce)
A technique of sustaining a single note while swelling the sound and then tapering it again. A measure of skill when singing old arias.
Canzone napoletana (canzone napoletana)
Popular songs written in Neapolitan dialect and sentiment. "O sole mio," "Torna a Surriento," and "Non ti scordar di me" all belong here.
Baritone (baritone)
The male vocal range between tenor and bass. Called the voice closest to human speech, and today's stage belongs to a recital of these two voice types.