Monteverdi: Lamento della Ninfa

Helen Charlston and Toby Carr perform Claudio Monteverdi’s ‘Lamento della Ninfa’ with members of The Gesualdo Six as part of London Sound Gallery.

Watch the complete concert performance: https://london-sound-gallery.tidze.com.

The London Sound Gallery online series will be broadcast in stunning 4K on Sundays at 5pm from 25 October to 29 November. Ticket holders will be able to watch on-demand from the date of broadcast until 1 January 2021.

The London Sound Gallery festival themes include new beginnings and reconnection: in this spirit, The Gesualdo Six are delighted to be collaborating with each artist as part of their programme.

- - -
Monteverdi: Lamento della Ninfa (Lament of the Nymph)

The god Phoebus had still to light
The great fires of the dawn
When the nymph left her dwelling.

Her face a pale temple in its ruins of grief;
Her cries – a heart, rending.

Hither and thither she went,
Stumbling through flowers,
Grieving the love she had lost:

Hear me, O Love, she begged the heavens,
– stock still now, rooted to the spot –
What happened to that traitor’s vow,‘
Togetherness and trust’?''
I just want him back,
But as he was before.
If you cannot – then kill me;
I cannot bear this agony. 

No more will I listen to his sighs,
Unless we are separated by a thousand seas
No! No longer will I martyr myself for this. 
I am destroying myself because of him,

And the worse it is, the more gorged,
The more satisfied he seems.
If I were to flee from him,
Perhaps then he might come begging?

That woman’s eyebrows
May be arched more perfectly than mine,
But sealed within my breast,
O Love,Lives a faithfulness still fairer. 

And that woman’s mouth will never open
To give such kisses as I can give!
(Hush! Say nothing – you know only too well!)

With these cries she cast
Her anguish to the heavens.
And so it is that in the heart of every lover
Burns, side-by-side, love’s flame and ice.

#LondonSoundGallery #classicalmusic