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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
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