Scene4 Magazine: Dialogue- "Azucena's Lament" | Griselda Steiner | June 2013 | www.scene4.com

Griselda Steiner

perspectives
writings: dialogue

June 2013

Lyric Solo from the Musical HYPATIA

AZUCENA
"Out to kiss me in a last farewell                                      
Wildly did the crowd revile her                             
They shrieked like a mob of mad women                      
and with a hellish lust for blood                                                                           

They tied her to a stake then        
She called for Death to take her
 "Avenge my death," she cried
Her words burn in my heart forever
Words she spoke and died"
(From the libretto of "Il Trovatore" by Salvadore Cammarano)


"IL TROVATORE"
(The Troubadour), an opera by Guiseppe Verdi (1853), presents a complex story of familial guilt and revenge that takes place in 15th century Spain. Azucena's mother, a gypsy, is deemed guilty of placing a curse on the Count Di Luna's son by glancing  at him and is burnt at the stake.   Azucena throws a child into the fire with her mother and although it is believed she threw in the count's son, she had thrown in her own.  She raises the count's son, Manico,  who becomes an officer. Years later the count's other son vows revenge and at the end of the play kills Manrico not knowing he was his brother.   Azucena declares  '"He was your brother... You are avenged, oh mother!".

Azucena is one of the great opera heroines in my musical HYPATIA   When the Old Diva wanders the grand opera stage where she performed during her career, her deepest wish is that the Heroines she portrayed be set free from their tragic plots.  After she trips on a trap door, she is visited in a dream by Hypatia, Crown Priestess of Destiny, who proclaims, "Souls born from man's imagination, challenge the premise of your creation.  Stop you can be free - You can change your destiny."


SCENE: A tall  red flame is depicted on a narrow flat hanging center stage.  Azucena enters trailed by a blue translucent scarf that blows behind her like ocean waves.  She carries a large water vessel with which she continually tries to put out the fire, but because the water vessel is empty she fails.

AZUCENA'S LAMENT

Oh waters of the world
Quench the embers before they burn
                         
I Azucena
In my opera
Il Trovatore

I was led to avenge
My mother's tragic death
They claim her gypsy's gaze
Caused a noble infant's death

The infant a Count
They built a fire
My mother's vain life
A funeral pyre
             
In the plot as the fire burns
My Mother's life - a funeral urn

In the plot as the fire burns
I steal the Count's infant brother
In the plot as the fire burns
Instead of him, I throw my own son in
                       
In the plot as the fire burns
My life blood in flames - who's to blame
                         
In the camp on the mount
As mine I raise the Count
And through the quick twists of plot
My revenge must tie the knot
                                                                                                                         
Declared enemies
One gainst the other
Brother kills brother
I avenge my mother

Why the gypsy's gaze
As innocent as yours
Men think an omen
Fate is left to gorge

And woman's intuition
Her most powerful gift
Men believe bears evil
That breaks their world adrift

In this thought alone
My sad fate was borne
If that thought was gone
My mother would not have burned
             
Oh waters of the world
Quench the embers before they burn

Share This Page

View other readers' comments in the Readers Blog

©2013 Griselda Steiner
©2013 Publication Scene4 Magazine

gsphoto-crs
Griselda Steiner is a poet, dramatist and free-lance writer living in New York City. A member of the Playwrights and Directors Unit of the Actors Studio from 2007 through 2009, she has written the play MARY M and the MAD PROPHET, the musical HYPATIA and screenplay THE GODDESS IN EXILE.
For more of her commentary and articles, check the Archives

 

Scene4 Magazine - Arts and Media

®

June 2013

Cover | This Issue | inFocus | inView | reView | inSight | inPrint | Perspectives | Books | Blogs | Comments | Contacts&Links Masthead | Submissions | Advertising | Special Issues | Contact Us | Payments | Subscribe | Privacy | Terms | Archives

Search This Issue

 Share This Page

feed-icon16x16-o RSS Feed

Scene4 (ISSN 1932-3603), published monthly by Scene4 Magazine - International Magazine of Arts and Media. Copyright © 2000-2013 AVIAR-DKA LTD - AVIAR MEDIA LLC. All rights reserved.

Now in our 14th year of publication with
comprehensive archives of over 7500 pages 

HollywoodRed-1
greenlight-ad1
Character Flaws by Les Marcott at www.aviarpress.com
Gertrude Stein-In Words and Pictures - Renate Stendhal
Scene4 Magazine - Thai Airways | www.scene4.com