Richard Wagner (1813-1883):
Wie Todesahnung Dämm?rung deckt die Lande?O! du mein holder Abendstern
(from Tannhäuser) (1845)
Text: Richard Wagner
Original Key/Recorded Key (aria): G Major
Teach-Track begins: m. 1 of recitative
Accompaniment Track begins: m. 1 of recitative
Pianist: Daniel Michalak
WARNING: Many editions of this aria (e.g. both Schirmer baritone anthologies, as well as the Schirmer complete piano-vocal score) mistakenly give the metronome marking of the opening recitative (?Wie Todesahnung?) as an impossibly slow quarter-note = 46. It is in fact supposed to be half-note = 46 (i.e., twice as fast), as a glance at p. 363 of either the Dover (1984) or Peters (1982) full score of Tannhäuser reveals.
When performing this aria with piano, the next-to-last measure (of the anthologized version) should probably be repeated, as we have done in the present recording. Otherwise the ending seems too abrupt--partly because in the opera itself, the orchestra immediately picks up the singer?s gorgeous melody and continues playing it in an extended postlude. (Ironically, this actually explains why the anthologized version ends so abruptly: in the original score the cellos pick up the theme just one measure after the soloist?s last note, and 19th-century editors, perhaps reluctant to ?rewrite? the music in any way, preferred to simply stop on the downbeat of that measure.)
Notes © 1999 by Daniel O. Michalak
Wie Todesahnung Dämmrung deckt die Lande,
Like a premonition of death twilight covers the land,
umhüllt das Tal mit schwärzlichem Gewande;
shrouding the valley with a blackish cloak;
der Seele, die nach jenen Höhn verlangt,
the soul, which for those heights strives,
vor ihrem Flug durch Nacht und Grausen bangt.
Of its flight through night and horror fears.
Da scheinest du, o lieblichster der Sterne,
There shine you, oh most lovely of stars,
dein Sanftes Licht entsendest du der Ferne;
your gentle light send you into the distance;
die nächt'ge Dämmrung teilt dein lieber Strahl,
the night?s darkness divides your dear light,
und freundlich zeigst du den Weg aus dem Tal.
And in a friendly manner show you the way out of the valley.
Aria
O du, mein holder Abendstern,
Oh you, my lovely evening star,
wohl grüsst'ich immer dich so gern:
warmly have greeted I always you so gladly:
vom Herzen, das sie nie verriet,
from a heart, that her never has betrayed,
grüsse sie, wenn sie vorbei dir zieht,
greet her, when she by you passes,
wenn sie entschwebt dem Tal der Erden,
as she rises from the valley of the earth,
ein sel'ger Engel dort zu werden!
A blessed angel there to become!