Text of Handel's Nel dolce dell' oblio
George4767
voice, has been playing Handel's Nel dolce dell' oblio. We have the music
well in hand but have no translation of the Italian words. If someone
could supply us with a translation of the text, or tell us where to get
one, we would be most appreciative.
George Wadelton
georg...@aol.com
A. J. GODZIEBA
Here's one translation of Handel's "Nel dolce dell' oblio" ("Pensieri
notturni di Filli"), HWV 134
Source: Handel: Kantaten und Triosonaten
Musica Alta Ripa
MD+G L 3399
NEL DOLCE DELL' OBLIO
Although Phyllis my adored
rests in the sweetness of slumber,
she is awake amid her thoughts, and in that repose
Amor never ceases in various ways
to disturb her peace while she sleeps.
[Aria:] Since sleep depicts for her
the likeness of her beloved,
in her repose it never
suggests the embracing of her chains.
So faithfully does she abide to the adoring heart,
and in the shadows she breathes
the light of that sun she yearns.
[Aria:] Deception has its pleasure
if her thoughts, moved by affection,
regard as true what they do not know.
But if then
such an error reawakens,
the thought repeats to us:
deception has its pain.
(Translation: Susan Marie Praeder)
(Great piece, by the way: the recorder part of the first aria
was the first recorder piece I ever memorized.)
(P.S.: My Italian is *very* rudimentary, so I have no way of guaranteeing that this translation is completely accurate. My disclaimer, if you will.)
Tony Godzieba
Villanova University
godz...@ucis.vill.edu
Lorna Robertson
GEORGE
Here is another translation of the words of Handel's "Nel dolce del'oblio".
It is from the edition by Walter Bergmann and Edgar Hunt published by
Schott & Co., London 1952 as item 8 in their Series for Voice and Recorder
(RMS 464). The translation itself is by Norman Platt.
The words probably refer to the Phyllis of Greek mythology, a Thracian
king's daughter who killed herself for love and was turned into an almond tree.
If you enjoy playing this cantata, another in similar vein is Vivaldi's
"All'ombra di sospetto" (From the shadow of suspician), originally scored
for soprano, flute and continuo, which goes perfectly on an alto recorder
without the need to alter a single note. It has been edited and published
(ca 1979) by Meneve Dunham of Clark College, Dubuque, Iowa. It deserves to be
better known.
NICHOLAS LANDER
c\- lo...@uniwa.uwa.edu.au
NEL DOLCE DEL' OBLIO
[Recitative]
In sleep's sweet oblivion while you are lying my beloved Phyllis
watches with her thoughts in night's stillness, Love will not let her
rest, but like a phantom still disturbs all her peace with anxious dreaming.
[Aria]
Round her restles bed are hov'ring
visions of her well beloved.
Dreaming, she sees her love and hastens
to embrace the chains that bind him.
[Recitative]
Thus faithful she lives to the heart she loves. And though lying in
darkness he draws life from that sun for which he is sighing.
[Aria]
To embrace in sleep's deceiving
that dear form for which we're grieving,
O delight past all believing.
But to wake from this dream of joy and gladness
and discover all was madness
past believing is our sadness.