One secret tear welled up in her eye:
she seemed to envy those carefree girls:
why should I look any further?
why should I look any further?
She loves me, yes, she loves me,
I can see it, I can see it.

For just one moment to feel the beating of her dear heart!
To blend my sighs for a little with hers!
The heartbeat, to feel the heartbeat!
To blend my sighs with hers.
Heavens, I could die;
I ask for nothing more, for nothing.
Ah, heavens, I could die;
I ask for nothing more,
I could die, I could die of love.

Una furtiva lagrima, from the opera L'elisir d'amore by Gaetano Donizetti, performed by Luciano Pavarotti, English Chamber Orchestra.

Thank you carmina, this is beautiful... and, actually I wish I had seen this thread and downloaded it a bit earlier - it would have gone perfectly with my dawn-watching, which I will now describe to you:

First of all, there was this huge, huge (like, star-of-Bethlehem-huge) solitary star that really was like a glittering diamond in a violet sky (must have been Venus - but, wowee!)... then, as the sun began to rise, the sky acquired a much different aspect than the deep, dramatic, chiaroscuro dawns I've been seeing through the winter; it was a soft, pale, flowing, shimmering pastel turqoise and coral that seemed to melt the darkness all at once. So lovely.

(c., this view is from Aristotelous overlooking Athonos, facing Hortiatis)

Mmmm.... bellissima!

You just sealed it. My next set is going to be exclusively Italian. We got yer Puccini, we got yer Rossetti, we got yer Mina, yer Bobby Solo right here.

Un solo istante i palpiti/Del suo bel cor sentir
, always so beautiful. and Pavarotti, his pathetic neverending twilight notwithstanding, had such a beautiful timbro, such force...

and the opera itself is a massive crowd-pleasure, Donizetti himself was surprised by the success of la Prima in Milan, where he had sometimes been booed (tuff tuff crowd at La Scala, same as it ever was)

Maestro Bergonzi sang an awesome Elisir with Anna Scotto, Gianandrea Gavazzeni conducting. if you want to watch the opera, there's a pretty good dvd of it, Pavarotti-Battle, Levine conducting. nowadays, Juan Diego Florez is a very cool Nemorino.

Venus over Thermaicos. Nice, taz. Very nice. With your description I could trace the morning misty "smell" of Saloniki port, very inducive.

millie, include Albinoni please--if you need I'll send you.

matteo, thank you for the suggestions. Donizetti is not done often in the Met, but I hope to catch it elsewhere. And I am getting more and more opera dvd's recently. If I may, Woody Allen's latest movie ("Match Point")soundtrack includes a superb interpretation of Una furtiva lagrima by Caruso. Superb.

>>Donizetti is not done often in the Met, but I hope to catch it elsewhere.

?????????

Um, this season alone, the MET already hosted at least three Donizetti operas I can recall:

L'Elisir d'Amore (with Vargas), Don Pasquale (with Florez and Netrebko), and Lucia di Lammermoor (Vargas again!)

He is very popular at the MET this season, and always has been, actually. I wouldnt worry about going anywhere to hear his opera live.

Otherwise, i second matteo's suggestion for Florez's or Bergonzi's Nemo. Una Furtiva i can't seem to digest, but Florez is the only sugar to that ubiquitous canzone.