Siam navi all’onde algenti (Vivaldi) Blandine Staskiewicz

"Siam navi all'onde algenti" from Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade

from the recording Tempesta: Opera arias by Handel & Vivaldi
Blandine Staskiewicz, mezzo-soprano with Les Ambassadeurs
Alexis Kossenko, conductor

Siam navi all'onde algenti
lasciate in abbandono:
impetuosi venti
i nostri affetti sono:
ogni diletto è scoglio:
tutta la vita è un mar.

Ben, qual nocchiero, in noi
veglia ragion; ma poi
pur dall'ondoso orgoglio
si lascia trasportar.

TRANSLATION:
We are like ships on the silver waves,
drifting out of control;
like capricious winds are our affections,
every pleasure is a rock,
the whole of life a sea.

Like a steersman reason
keeps good watch over us, but then
on the swell of pride
we let ourselves be carried away.

CD available from Glossa:
http://www.glossamusic.com/glossa/ref...

Art in the video by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (1817-1900)