Dame Margaret Price: Mozart - Cosi fan tutti, 'Per pietà, ben mio'

Dame Margaret Berenice Price, DBE (13 April 1941 -- 28 January 2011) was a Welsh soprano. Her father, a talented amateur pianist, was opposed to a musical career, and hence she never attended a young Eisteddfod and was aiming for a career as a biology teacher. She was educated at Pontllanfraith Secondary School, near Caerphilly. At 15, her school music teacher organised an audition with Charles Kennedy Scott, who convinced her to study with him at Trinity College of Music in London and obtained a scholarship for her. Over the next few years, Price was trained as a mezzo soprano. Price was most famous for her Mozart portraits, especially Fiordiligi, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, the Contessa in The Marriage of Figaro (after having sung Cherubino and Barbarina at the beginning of her career), and Pamina in The Magic Flute. Additionally, she sang Verdi roles, such as Amelia (Un ballo in maschera, a role she also recorded with Luciano Pavarotti), Elisabetta (Don Carlos) and Desdemona (Otello), her debut role at the Met, as well as the title role in Aida (also with Pavarotti in San Francisco, which was preserved on video), Richard Strauss's Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Adriana Lecouvreur by Cilea. Price retired to a 160-year-old farmhouse on Ceibwr Bay, part of Moylegrove near Cardigan, Ceredigion, overlooking the Irish Sea. From there, she successfully bred and showed Golden Retrievers, having the rear seats of her Chrysler removed to create what she termed a "dogmobile." She came out of retirement once to perform at a Poppy day concert at her local church, something she later commented on: "It was the most nerve-racking occasion of my life. Never again will I sing in public." Price was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her services to music in 1993... en.wikipedia.or...
Lyrics & English Translation
He is leaving...Listen!
Ah, no... let him leave,
let the accursed object of my weakness be
removed from my sight.
In what a trial the cruel man has placed me...
This is a reward well deserved by my faults.
In such moments should I have listened
to the sighs of a new lover,
should I have made sport of another's laments?
Rightly you condemn this heart to punishment,
just love!
I burn, and my passion is no longer the result
of a virtuous love;
it is agitation, torment, remorse, repentance,
fickleness, perfidy, and betrayal!
In the name of pity, my beloved, pardon
the error of a loving soul;
among these shadows and these groves,
oh God, it will always be hidden!
my courage and my constancy
will destroy this wicked desire,
and will erase the memory
that makes me feel shame and horror.
To whom did this vain, ungrateful heart
fail in loyalty?
You were owed a better recompense,
my dearest, for your purity.
A link to this wonderful artist's personal website: www.allmusic.co...
Please Enjoy!
I send my kind and warm regards,