Nessun Dorma

Today I took the day off. I caught up on reading, sleeping, a little bit of work… and I found myself too zombie-like to make it to the Symphony (they were playing Zeppelin) with a new friend. While I was catching up on feeds, I found this and was blown away.

I’m quite ignorant of opera, but Nessun Dorma is one of those arias that sends chills up my spine. I have a 3 tenors CD and I can listen to it over and over again and each time it packs the same amount of emotion and makes the hair on my neck stand up. Nessun Dorma is an aria in The Italian libretto of Turandot by G. Ricordi & Co, ©1926.

You can imagine my amazement when I viewed Paul Potts, a mobile phone salesman in the UK, making an attempt at this aria on a UK talent show. The result was incredible – no doubt Paul Potts will soon be a star:

I found a translation of the aria online by Mark D. Lew:

The Prince
Nessun dorma, nessun dorma … Tu pure, o Principessa, Nella tua fredda stanza, Guardi le stelle Che tremano d’amore E di speranza.	No one sleeps, no one sleeps… Even you, o Princess, In your cold room, Watch the stars, That tremble with love And with hope.
Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me, Il nome mio nessun saprà, no, no, Sulla tua bocca lo dirò Quando la luce splenderà, Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzio Che ti fa mia.	But my secret is hidden within me; My name no one shall know, no, no, On your mouth I will speak it* When the light shines, And my kiss will dissolve the silence That makes you mine.
Chorus
Il nome suo nessun saprà E noi dovrem, ahimè, morir.	No one will know his name And we must, alas, die.
The Prince
Dilegua, o notte! Tramontate, stelle! All’alba vincerò!	Vanish, o night! Set**, stars! At daybreak, I shall conquer!

* “Dire sulla bocca”, literally “to say on the mouth”, is a poetic Italian way of saying “to kiss.” (Or so I’ve been told, but perhaps a native speaker can confirm or deny this.) I’ve also been told that a line from a Marx Brothers movie — “I wasn’t kissing her, I was whispering in her mouth” — is a conscious imitation of the Italian phrase.

** “Tramontate” literally means “go behind the mountains”, but it’s the word Italians use for sunset and the like. It’s also a word Turandot uses after Calaf kisses her: “E l’alba! Turandot tramonta!” (“It’s dawn, Turandot descends!”) This suggests yet another mythopoetic theme which pervades the Turandot libretto — the sun god’s defeat of the moon goddess — but I won’t get into that….

Copyright © 1997, Mark D. Lew

Hat tip to Stefanie!

About Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in inbound marketing leveraging social media, blogging, search engine optimization, pay per click and public relations. Their clients include Webtrends, ChaCha and many more. Douglas is also the author of Corporate Blogging for Dummies.

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http://blog.assembleron.com/ Nick Halstead

It is not normally a show I would contemplate watching (it’s on ITV which is a pretty sure sign its trash TV here in the UK). But I happened to catch that episode of the show and I was also blown away. The guy has now made it through to the semi-final I believe.

The british are always rooting for the under-dog so I think Paul has a great chance to win.

http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr

Well, I think Simon can make any show terrible. He should stick to just coming up with the ideas and let someone else be the on camera talent. With the millions he’s making, you’d think he could afford more than a t-shirt!

http://www.optimiced.com Michel

I saw the video yesterday. It was impressive!

I wish him luck – such a talent shouldn’t get wasted… C’mon, he can be compared to Pavarotti!

http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr

Actually, for as famous he is, Pavarotti isn’t really the greatest tenor out there… I think he was really just the first super-famous one. His voice begins to get quite shallow on those powerful high notes. I have the Three Tenors CD and he actually doesn’t sound as good to me as those two other guys. (Can’t remember there names! See?!)

Thanks for stopping by Michel!

http://www.blackinbusiness.org JD

Doug, really good, culture is a wonderful thing, symphony playing hard rock, only in Indy, are they passing joints around?
http://www.optimiced.com Michel

Dropped by, I think first found one of your plugins for WordPress… then checked some other posts around:)

BTW, first time I see someone who have disabled rel=”nofollow” for comments;-) This is really curious…

As to Pavarotti, I am a big fan of his, but never been on a concert live… that’s a pity. He has really great voice:)

The other two guys are Placido Domingo and Jose Careras:)

Cheers, M.

http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr

Hi Michel,

Yes, I’ve disabled nofollow for a couple reasons:
1. I moderate comments and don’t let trash or spam come through.
2. My blog is really to encourage folks to utilize technology, so providing an incentive for folks to comment is important.

Nofollow really started when folks were simply trying to spam their way to the top of search engines. Since I control the comments, I don’t need to have nofollow on. As well, my visitors’ comments add so much color to my blog that I’d like to think of it as their ‘home’ as well!

Why shouldn’t people be rewarded for their participation? Nofollow is something that really needs to go away. Perhaps the worst case of it is Wikipedia… the very people that participate and build out the content are not provided any incentive to do so!

Thanks! Domingo and Careras! I think Careras has the smoothest voice of the three. My grandfather is a stickler of opera and symphony and is able to discern the difference just by listening. I’m afraid I’m not that skilled yet, but Paul Potts seems to be on his way!

Thanks again for stopping by! Hope to hear from you again.
John Rupert

If you are going to respond to someone; please use accurate information. The gentleman you refer to is, Jose Carreras, not Jose Careras. You wouldn’t like someone to misspell your name, would you?

http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr

Doh!

Thanks, John! I didn’t stop to double-check the spelling. Quite honestly, though… folks misspell my name all the time. It doesn’t bother me too much (except that they can’t find my site!).

Lucky for me, I never professed to be an expert at this. I only know what I feel when I listen to music… or Carreras.

I won’t forget how to spell it. Mr. Carreras, if you’re reading this – I humbly apologize.

Doug

http://www.optimiced.com Michel

Sure, you’re welcome!

And why not pass by again;-)

I’m interested mostly in CSS/XHTML/graphic design (Fireworks), but also in WordPress and here I see a lot of interesting topics:)

Good luck:)
http://blog.assembleron.com/ Nick Halstead

Just watched the final (only because Paul was on it) and he won! Is great to see the british public respect such a great talent even its outside of most peoples normal interests.

http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr

Awesome! I can’t wait to see what happens next. The British do have great taste (my grandfather I spoke of earlier is retired in Florida but he and my late grandmother were British Subjects)! I hope a little bit rubbed off on me.

http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr

Semi-finals video
http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr

And the win!
Jared

I’m not trying to spam, but this was the first video of this I was linked too. I understand the underdog aspect, but I find this incredibly hard to listen to, grating at times. It’s incredibly breathy, short, brief, and even gets vulgar at times. That last note is horrendous, and a weak-kneed salute to modesty. Taken with the story, this is everything Calaf is not! I think anyone reading along with the lyrics realizes how silly this is to be mentioning him with any major (or minor) tenor.
To join the debate of the three tenors up a bit, Pavorotti was the worst of the three tenors, in my book. Hoping to spur up a Nessun Dorma debate, here’s a vid of the only person to ever embody Calaf. Lauri-Volpi, the US original, and DiStefano came close, but no one compared to the master, Franco Correlli.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvDKdnPWdb8
Also, here’s a live recording that ended up on youtube; from the sound of the audience, i’d guess it was at La Scala. People talk about Potts bringing them to tears (::cough::) but just listen to Correlli’s pianissimo–it doesn’t weaken knees, it breaks them.
http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr

Jared,

Thanks so much for the lesson and taking time out to add the links. I would have very much liked to have heard Correlli with modern acoustics.

I still think Potts was remarkable for someone who sells phones – I’m curious to see what happens with some of the best trainers and coaches at his disposal. Potts just signed a £1million record deal, so I think some others are seeing some opportunity there as well!

Thanks again!
Doug
John Rupert

So much for Mr. Potts signing a Million Pound deal. By the way, these people had lives and names. The name is not Correlli, but, CORELLI. One “r” and two “l’s.”
Corelli had a brilliant voice and would rank him near Pavarotti. However, no tenor born in the twentieth century could come close to the BRILLIANT TONALITY of voice, of that of LUCIANO PAVAROTTI.

http://marketingtechblog.com Douglas Karr

Hi John,

I definitely have an amateur ear when it comes to listening to tenors, so I can’t state with any authority who is best. I believe I may have missed out on Luciano Pavarotti’s best years. I wish I had the opportunity to hear him live while he was in his prime.

Thanks for the corrections of Corelli and Carreras. I didn’t check the spelling on either and should have. I simply copied what was written. I’ll use more caution next time.

Regards,
Doug