'Sull'aria...che soave zeffiretto' (On the breeze...What a gentle little Zephyr) is a duettino, or a short duet, from act 3, scene X, of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's operaThe Marriage of Figaro, K. 492, to a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. In the duettino, Countess Almaviva (a soprano) dictates to Susanna (also a soprano) the invitation to a tryst addressed to the countess' husband in a plot to expose his infidelity.
- Shawshank Redemption Figaro Aria
- Shawshank Redemption Aria
- Shawshank Redemption Sull'aria
- Opera Music From Shawshank Redemption
Music[edit]
The duet is scored for oboe, bassoon, and strings.[1] Its time signature is 6/8, its key is B-flat major, and it is 62 bars long; the tempo indication is allegretto. During the first part of the duet (bars 1–37), the Contessa dictates the title and the three lines of the letter and, after a pause, Susanna repeats the lines as she writes them. In the second part, the Contessa and Susanna read alternate lines with a slight overlap (bars 38–45) until they finish in a true duet with their conclusion. The duet has a vocal range from F4 to B♭5 for Susanna and from D4 to G5 for the Contessa.
Libretto[edit]
Stephen King’s novella “ Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption ” rounded up as The Shawshank Redemption. Its mix of the cold gray and bleak existence within prison walls buoyed by the light of hope resounded like few before. The adaptation accomplished another rare feat. The Shawshank Redemption is a story about a man named Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins), who is wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife, and is therefore sent to Shawshank Prison to serve two life sentences back to back. While he is there, he must deal with those that despise him, brutal guards, and a corrupt warden. This is dark, horrible stuff, and Thomas Newman knows it. The Shawshank Redemption. Broadcasts a Mozart aria over the intercom. Red, like other inmates, is transfixed by the surprise of the heavenly voices pervading the prison yard: “It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage, and made those walls dissolve away. And for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank. The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Soundtracks. Soundtrack Credits. If I Didn't Care by Jack Lawrence Performed by The Ink Spots Courtesy of MCA Records. Duettino - Sull'aria from opera 'Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)' Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus.
'Canzonetta sull'aria' | 'A little song on the breeze' (the title) | |
| and both conclude: | Ei già il resto capirà. | And the rest he'll understand. |
The dialogue, without the re-reading of the letter:
Shawshank Redemption Figaro Aria
| Contessa: | Canzonetta sull'aria... | A little song on the breeze... |
| Susanna:– | –Sull'aria... | –On the breeze... |
| Contessa: | Che soave zeffiretto... | What a gentle little Zephyr... |
| Susanna: | –Zeffiretto... | –A little Zephyr... |
| Contessa: | Questa sera spirerà... | This evening will sigh... |
| Susanna: | –Questa sera spirerà... | –This evening will sigh... |
| Contessa: | Sotto i pini del boschetto. | Under the pines in the little grove. |
| Susanna: | –Sotto i pini... | –Under the pines... |
| Contessa: | Sotto i pini del boschetto. | Under the pines in the little grove. |
| Susanna: | –Sotto i pini...del boschetto...— | –Under the pines...in the little grove.... |
| Contessa: | Ei già il resto capirà. | And the rest he'll understand. |
| Susanna/ Contessa: | Certo, certo il capirà. | Certainly, certainly he'll understand. |
Shawshank Redemption Aria
Both then re-read the letter.
Shawshank Redemption Sull'aria
In popular culture[edit]
In the 1994 film, The Shawshank Redemption, prisoner Andy Dufresne defies Warden Sam Norton by playing an excerpt of this song over the prison's public address system. Norton sentences Dufresne to solitary confinement as a result. Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding remarks in his voice-over narration: 'I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. ... I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful it can't be expressed in words, and it makes your heart ache because of it.'[2] This is ironic as the opera characters are singing about a duplicitous love letter to expose infidelity, and Dufresne's wife's affair is the event which indirectly leads to his imprisonment. The duettino, sung by the sopranos Edith Mathis and Gundula Janowitz, appeared in the film's soundtrack.[3] It was nominated as one of 400 songs in consideration for the American Film Institute's list of 100 top movie songs, although it did not win a place on the list.[4]
References[edit]
Opera Music From Shawshank Redemption
- ^Le nozze di Figaro, act 3, scene X, Canzonetta sull'aria 'Che soave zeffiretto', Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
- ^The Shawshank Redemption at Wikiquote
- ^Tommasini, Anthony; Woolfe, Zachary; Allen, David (December 25, 2014). 'Onward, Elektra, Ariadne and Octavian'. The New York Times. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
- ^100 Greatest Songs in American Movies – The 400 Nominees
External links[edit]
| Italian Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
- 'Sull'aria...che soave zeffiretto', orchestral score with Italian and German text (larger version)