Mandelshtam/Zelenaia: Caesonia's Lullaby from "Caligula's Favorite Play"

Osip Mandelshtam/Margarita Zelenaia: "Caesonia's Lullaby" from "Caligula's Favorite Play",
2-act opera freely inspired by “Caligula” by Albert Camus (copyright © Editions Gallimard)
Libretto by Eric Nicolas and Igor Tsunsky

Performed by Margarita Zelenaia: vocal, piano

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✨ Also listen to:
• “What a Life!” →    • Margarita Zelenaia: "What a Life!", a...  
• “Despair”, the Third Scene from Caligula’s Favorite Play, 2-act opera →    • Margarita Zelenaia: "Despair", the Th...  
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"Caesonia's Lullaby" (from the Final scene of the opera) is the aria of a woman who deeply loves Caligula, who understands who she loves - a monster, a dictator. Since she is much older than him, she loves him, rather with a mother's love. Beginning as a lullaby, which contains so much warmth, care, desire to support her beloved, it turns into a desperate cry. After all, Caesonia knows in advance that he will not spare her, he will kill her as mercilessly as all the others.

"Колыбельная Цезонии" (из финальной сцены оперы) - это ария женщины, глубоко любящей Калигулу, понимающей кого она любит - монстра, диктатора. Поскольку она значительно старше , она любит его, скорее материнской любовью. Начинаясь с колыбельной, в которой заложено столько тепла, заботы, желания поддержать любимого, ария переходит в отчаянный плач, - Цезония знает заранее, что Калигула не пожалеет её, убьёт также безжалостно, как и всех других.

CAESONIA:
O, sleep tired love is taunting you;
You’re too long away from bed.
Take all of the sorrows, haunting you,
And fold them beneath your head.
Pull sleep like a cloak around you, love;
It all will be over soon.
This sad little earth you’ll float above,
And dream your way to the moon!

EMPEROR:
But can you not hear those clanking blades?
No, everything’s calm.
Listen! Can’t you hear it? Something’s coming!

CAESONIA:
O, dear one, poor dear one,
It’s true, I’ve grown afraid of you too.
I would think it’s enough!
You kill. I’m by your side while you do,
And now they are going to kill you!
For what?
What has the point of this all been?
To prove that you are free?
So what?
So long I’ve known you –
Grief and rage still own you!
Poor boy…
Madness!
I’ve made excuses for such crime,
Washed such blood from your hands.
Still, I’d give anything
If the Gods would redeem us.