Although originally set in Milan somewhere around 1827 for soprano, "Torna, vezzosa Fillide" seems to have become somewhat a staple for tenors (similar to Rosina passing to sopranos). While proving a fact that time rewrites the composer's music in one way or another, this concert aria also constitutes, for me, one of Bellini's most openly dramatic pieces, further highlighted by the composer's care for the melody. The piece is set in three movements, though it is not truly as simple as that. The aria is centered around three main musical ideas, each of which, though seemingly independent, are elaborately connected into a scene of rare contrasts. The piece starts innocently enough with a gentle, Rossinian cantabile (the A section), as the hero sings of his love for Fillide whose absence "brings sadness to this shepherd's heart". Nothing makes the listener fell anything but completely contented: we are transported to a rather typical for opera Arcadian setting where the pastor will surely find his love. Or will he? After a repeat of the A section, the mood moves to the minor, the music becoming unsettled and intense, the verses now talk of Fillide's suffering and the suffering of her lover. This constitutes the central B section. The text begins to sound slightly macabre, especially with such an urgent accompaniment: the hero, singing in triplets and sixteenths, accounts how he is desperately trying to find his lover, water (the shore, the river) being a central motive. The <b>...</b>
Bellini
coloratura
classical
belcanto
