The Elixir of Love: “Una furtiva lagrima”

Composer: DONIZETTI, Gaetano
  • This aria is from Donizetti’s comic opera L’elisir d’amore, which premiered in Milan in 1832.1
  • Donizetti composed this opera over a period of only six weeks.2
  • Synopsis from The Metropolitan Opera
  • This aria: Nemorino sings “Una furtiva lagrima” (A Furtive Tear) in Act II: 3 he has just received attention from other women, and Adina has noticed this and become jealous. Nemorino sees that Adina is holding back tears, and this gives him hope that she has feelings for him.4
  • Aria text

Sources

  1. Mary Ann Smart and Julian Budden, “Donizetti, (Domenico) Gaetano,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed September 4, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000051832.
  2. William Ashbrook, “Elisir d’amore, L’,” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed September 4, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000901438.
  3. “Una furtiva lagrima – Romanza,” The Aria Database, accessed September 4, 2019, http://www.aria-database.com/search.php?individualAria=384.
  4. Ashbrook, “Elisir d’amore, L’,” Grove Music Online.

Cut IDs

15343 19032 19270 21413 23641 23894 44202 45620