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I was rather surprised when a search of Youtube yielded something different for the search phrase “Di rigori armato il seno”. To be more precise, the result was in perfect agreement with the search phrase but it was not my favourite tenor aria of the Italian singer from the “Der Rosenkavalier” (“The Knight of the Rose”) by Richard Strauss. It was a soprano aria sung in a rather old style; the gestures of the singer were rigid and probably tried to convey some symbolical messages.
It turned out that this version of the aria “Di rigori armato” belongs to the work “Ballet des nations” by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The latter was written to the play “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme” (“The Middle-Class Aristocrat”) by Molière in the 17th century.
The tune of this soprano aria is different to that of the version by Strauss but the lyrics appear to be the same. The Wikipedia mentions that Strauss and his librettist (otherwise a serious poet), Hugo von Hofmannsthal, used some parts of the “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme”. It seems that the lyrics finally found their ways to the “Der Rosenkavalier”.
But I am not a historian specialized to opera so I will not pursue this connection further. I suggest that we should simply listen to both versions of the “Di rigori…”.
Let Strauss’s version be the first to come – this time in an apparently strange direction. The usual framework is this: the still attractive wife of a marshal in Vienna opens her drawing room to her visitors. Among the latters an Italian singer arrives who – in the name of an admirer – sings the serenade “Di rigori…” to the lady: I thought my heart would resist to love; but how could even an icicle resist to a fiery arrow?
But hey, why does this aria end on a long but low note? In this unusual interpretation you get a stunning high end note.
Now we concentrate on Lully’s version. The same content – love is eternal – but with another music. I like this, too. It is also nice but in a more classical sense. How do you think?
Of course, I feel a bit ashamed as an opera fan. So come old guys, Lully, Grétry, Gluck, from the early period of opera!