Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Methuen Sound Clips!

Friends,

My only regret from the glorious Methuen Hymnfest (June 6) is that it wasn't recorded – or so I believed. Imagine my surprise last week when my good friend Paul Raila handed me two surreptitiously recorded CDs, in excellent sound!

Enjoy: http://leonardociampa.com/MMMH





Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Greatest Moments of Singing XVI

The last post made me too depressed, so here's an entirely more lighthearted one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCvAM1rk8SI&feature=related


Here is an approximate translation:

Vincenzella was weaving her dowry
Night and day at the loom
Making the spool fly:
Tu-tu-tu, Tu-tu-tu, Tu-tu-tu

As she toiled, the good lady,
She sang a song of love
in a voice that went straight to the heart.
And it went something like this:

Turì-turì-turò; Turì-turì-turò
No good trying to say no
No good trying to resist,
When a woman wants something,
with her eyes she makes you do it.

Finally the lady got married
To a dumb rich man in the village,
after a year, they made him baron
Tu-tu-tu, Tu-tu-tu, Tu-tu-tu

This dumb baron had to go to the country,
And left his wife to weave.
When he came home that evening
he found her singing like this:

Turì-turì-turò; Turì-turì-turò
No good trying to say no
No good trying to resist,
When a woman wants something,
with her eyes she makes you do it.

Suspicious, one night he returned home
an hour earlier, just to be safe.
But from behind the shutter he heard:
Tu-tu-tu, Tu-tu-tu, Tu-tu-tu

He took a matchbox, lit a match
and lit a candle.
He saw Vincenzella, his wife, with the fabric,
and he saw something else.
And she was singing like this:

Turì-turì-turò; Turì-turì-turò
No good trying to say no
No good trying to resist,
When a woman wants something,
with her eyes she makes you do it.

Greatest Moments of Singing XV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K2cHhpMJbE

In my grandparents' and great-grandparents' generations, Toselli's Serenade was extremely popular. It's hard to imagine a most beautiful rendering than Gigli's 1926 recording.

SERENATA RIMPIANTO
REGRETFUL SERENADE
Musica di Enrico Toselli / Parole di Alfredo Silvestri

Come un sogno d'or
scolpito è nel core
Il ricordo ancor di quell'amor
che non esiste più.

Fu la sua vision,
qual dolce sorriso
che più lieta fa,
col suo brillar, la nostra gioventù.

Ma fu molto breve in me
la dolcezza di quel ben
svanì quel bel sogno d'or
lasciando in me il dolor.

Cupo è l'avvenir,
sempre più tristi i dì,
la gioventù passata sarà,
rimpianto mi resta sol,
sì, rimpianto amaro e duol nel cor!

O raggio di sole
Sul mio cammino, ahimè, non brilli più
Mai più, mai più

Like a golden dream
sculpted in my heart,
the memory still of that love
that no longer exists

It was the vision of her,
that sweet smile
that makes our youth more pleasant
with its shine.

But it was very brief in me
the sweetness of that gift vanished,
that beautiful dream of love
leaving pain in me.

Dark is the future;
the days grow always sadder;
my youth will be over;
only regret remains to me,
yes, bitter regret and pain in my heart!

O sunbeam,
on my pathway, alas, you no longer shine,
never again, never again.

English translation © MMX Leonardo A. Ciampa. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Methuen Hymn Festival for Haiti Relief

Christ Lutheran Church in Natick, MA
The Rev. Rebecca J. Bourret, Pastor
Leonardo Ciampa, Music Director

invites you to lend your voices
to an unforgettable

HYMN FESTIVAL

A fundraiser to benefit
Lutheran Disaster Response
efforts in Haiti

Renowned organist
LEONARDO CIAMPA
plays the Great Organ of Methuen

SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 2010, at 4 p.m.
Methuen Memorial Music Hall
192 Broadway (Route 28) in Methuen, MA

Tickets: $12 ($8 for seniors & students)

For tickets or other information, call
Christ Lutheran Church, (508) 315-3170 X4
or e-mail music@christnatick.org