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L'Elisir d'amor - Io son ricco e tu sei bella  
(The Elixir of Love - I'm rich, and you are beautiful)
Extract from the opera (melodramma giocoso) L'Elisir d'amor (The Elixir of Love) in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti (1832). Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto according to Eugène Scribe’s French libretto for Daniel-François-Esprit Auber’s Le Philtre (The Love Potion, 1831).
Barcarole a due voci sung by the duet Dr. Dulcamare (bass), Adina (soprano) at act II, scene 1 (n° 7 à 10).
| Dulcamare |
Io son ricco e tu sei bella,
Io ducati, e vezzi hai tu.
Perché a me sarai rubella?
Nina mia, che vuoi di più? | | I’m rich, and you are beautiful,
I’ve got ducats (1) and you’ve got charm.
Don’t refuse me,
Girl mine, what more could you want? |
Adina |
Qual onore! Un senatore
Me d’amore supplicar!
Ma, modesta gondoliera,
Un par mio mi vuo’ sposar. | | What an honour! A senator
Begging for my love!
But I’m a modest girl,
And one of my own kind wants to marry me! |
Dulcamare |
Idol mio, non più rigor,
Fa felice un senator. | | My idol, don’t be cruel,
Make a senator happy. |
Adina |
Eccellenza! troppo onor,
Io non mer’to un senator. | | Excellency! [It’s] too great an honour,
I don’t deserve a senator. |
Dulcamare |
Adorata barcarola,
Prendi l’oro e lascia amor.
Lieve è questo, lieve è vola,
Pesa quello e resta ognor. | | My dear barcarole (2),
Take the gold and forget the love.
Light is this one, light it flies,
But gold lasts for ever. |
Adina |
Qual onore! Un senatore
Me d’amore supplicar!
Ma, Zanetto (3) è un giovinetto
Che mi piace e vo sposar. | | What an honour! A senator
Begging for my love!
But Zanetto is the young boy
I like and I’m going to marry. |
Dulcamare |
Idol mio, non più rigor,
Fa felice un senator. | | My idol, don’t be cruel,
Make a senator happy. |
Adina |
Eccellenza! troppo onor,
Far felice un senator. | | Excellency! [It’s] too great an honour,
To make a senator happy. |
1. From the Italian ducato, gold coin bearing the effigy of a duke, particularly from the doges of Venice.
2. Play on words between barcarole (from the Italian barcarolo, gondolier), meaning the romantic musical form, and the Adina’s station, which is the daughter of a gondolier.
3. Adina’s fiancé (see one of my own kind wants to marry me).
This text may be compared with the one of duet la Périchole, Piquillo (Song of Confession), in act III, scene V of the opéra bouffe La Périchole (by Jacques Offenbach, libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy) :
| la Périchole |
Tu n’es pas beau, tu n’es pas riche,
Tu manques tout à fait d’esprit ;
Tes gestes sont ceux d’un godiche,
D’un saltimbanque dont on rit.
Le talent, c’est une autre affaire :
Tu n’en as guère, de talent...
De ce qu’on doit avoir pour plaire,
Tu n’as presque rien, et pourtant... | | You are not handsome, you are not rich,
You are lacking completely in wit;
Your gestures are those of a clumsy oaf,
Of a travelling performer which one laughs.
The talent, it’s another matter:
You hardly have any, of talent...
Of what one must have to like,
You do not have almost anything, and yet... |
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© 2001-2024 Jean-Gabriel Maurandi.
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