Loved the first song Jane fairfax sings in the BBC version of EMMA. I'm pretty sure it is Italian. Does anyone know the name of this piece. Thanks.
shareI have been looking for the song as well and have had no luck as of yet. If I find anything out, I will post it here.
The text is a famous Italian verse, set many times by various composers, "Mi lagnero' tacendo."
Rossini (of "The Barber of Seville" fame) set the text to several different musical treatments, although I'm not sure if the version sung in the film is one of his or not.
I have confirmed this. The song Jane sings is "Mi lagnerò tacendo" set to music by Rossini. The music is the third of the six settings in Musique anodine.
You can listen to a sample of it here (it's track 15 on the CD):
http://www.amazon.com/Songs-of-Rossini/dp/B001GPI5W8/ref=dm_cd_album_l nk?ie=UTF8&qid=1190049781&sr=1-1
Here is an excerpt from http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-07162007-010404/unrestrict ed/SongsofGordigiani.pdf:
"From Rossini’s perspective, his settings of Metastasio's 'Mi lagnerò tacendo' were life-time favorites. During his twenty-five years, Rossini set the text nearly fifty times. His love for the poem culminated in his Musique anodine, a collection of six settings of the Metastasian text that Rossini composed for his wife in 1857."
Jane's singing this song is actually an anachronism, since the music was not composed until 1857.
Mi lagnerò tacendo
Mi lagnerò tacendo
della mia sorte amara;
ma ch’io non t’ami, o cara,
non lo sperar da me.
Crudel! In che t’offesi?
Farmi penar, perché?
Mi lagnerò tacendo, ecc.
Pietro Metastasio
In silence shall I lament
In silence shall I lament
my unhappy lot;
but do not hope, my dear,
for me not to love you.
Cruel one! How did I offend you?
Why do you make me suffer?
In silence shall I lament, etc.
Translation © 2005 Susannah Howe
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