Luigi Venzano: Grande Valzer
Title page of early (first?) edition
Luigi Venzano was born in 1814 in Genoa and died there in 1878. He was a cellist, conductor, and one of the many minor composers who kept Italian theaters supplied with fresh works in the era of Verdi. Several of his operas, especially comedies, met with success, but none established itself in the standard repertory. This waltz, however, did so decisively.
It was composed for Josefa Fernández (1821-1866), who had a short but very brilliant career as a prima donna under her married name as Joséphine Gassier. She was the original Annetta in the Ricci brothers’ popular comic opera Crispino e la comare, which is on Teatro Nuovo’s wish list for future seasons, and she sang Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia all over the world. Like many high sopranos, she preferred to insert a substitute aria into the Lesson Scene; Venzano produced this one for her performances in his native city in 1850, and its success was such that it was adopted by a long list of divas including Adelina Patti, Marcella Sembrich, and Luisa Tetrazzini.
There were several published versions of the “Grande Valzer,” some of which have a different initial slow movement; the one recorded here is found in what seems to be the earliest printed edition. We don’t know who wrote the words. Those for the adagio were obviously “going around,” appearing in at least three different operas (ostensibly by different librettists) performed in the 1830s. Those for the waltz itself seem to be a compressed version (a line seems missing) of some pre-existing text that has not yet been traced.
Teresa Castillo and Adam Nielsen
Da te lontano e vivere,
Tenero mio sospiro,
E non morir fra i palpiti,
Come il mio cor potrà?
Sei l’aura che respiro,
Il sol degli occhi miei;
L’alma dell’alma sei,
La mia felicità.
Ah! che assorta in dolce incanto
Fra le gioie dell’amor,
Sento il core palpitar!
Or che sono a te d’accanto
Ah! di più non so bramar!
To be far from you, and yet to live,
Dear sigh of my soul,
And not to die in palpitations,
How could my heart do it?
You are the air I breathe,
The sun that lights my eyes;
You are the soul of my soul,
My very happiness.
For rapt in sweet enchantment,
surrounded by the joys of love,
I feel my heart pounding!
Now that I am by your side,
I know not what to wish for more!