Donizetti, "Una furtiva lágrima"

The vocal style known as bel canto was born in the 17th century, flourished during the 18th century and will reach its maximum splendour and development in the first third of the 19th century, with the works of the Italian maestros Gioacchino Rossini (n. 1792), Gaetano Donizetti (n. 1797) and Vincenzo Bellini (n. 1801). They managed to combine the purity of the voice and technical virtuosity of baroque bel canto with a new eloquence that early romanticism began to encourage: the expression of human emotions.

Rossini, the older, surprised half the world when he decided to leave the stage forever, after composing his last opera in 1829. But doing so, he left the way open to his colleagues so that they cemented their own style.
Especially for Donizetti, because when his very young comrade Vincenzo Bellini left this world, Gaetano was in the stage of his life when his fame and reputation were on the top.

Gaetano Donizetti (1797 - 1848)

By 1835, the year of Bellini's death, Gaetano Donizetti had composed four of his greatest works, if not evenly greeted by critics, at least popularly successful: Anna Bolena, L'elisir d'amore, Lucia di Lammermoor and Lucrezia Borgia, and he was yet to compose La fille du régiment, another great success, both public and critical.

L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of love), a two-act comic opera premiered in Milan in 1832, is one of Donizetti's works most frequently performed today. His most famous aria is the romanza for tenor, Una furtiva lágrima, from Act II (A furtive tear). Such is its resonance today that Woody Allen did not hesitate to include it in the soundtrack of his 2005 movie "Match Point," which led another director to do the same in a more recent film, "Lovers."

Nemorino, a naive peasant in love with a rich and wealthy girl, has fallen into the deception of a charlatan who travels town after town selling a magic potion to conquer the heart of the one beloved, which is nothing more than a few deciliters of cheap wine – "the elixir of love". Nemorino has had a good drink just to verify that it has not had any effect on his beloved. But despite this, he believes that his beloved let out a tear when she saw him go away, disenchanted. A sign that she loves him, he thinks, and because of that he sings.

The rendition, the best available, by far ... Pavarotti, greeted for a minute and a half's applause.