Puccini loves his pious women, after all. Mimì is talking herself up to Rodolfo here, and that bit about praying is an important detail to include. The rallentando is only poco, and it should feel like a bit of a surprise on the word “ma”. There’s room for you to breath after “messa”, but maintain the feeling of continuing, in time, as you take that breath. Technically, everything right before “ma prego assai” is still a tempo. One final detail: be sure you’re really vibrating on the “-ma-” syllable in “primavera” it’ll let you do more with the stretchy tempo, and it will sound more beautiful. It’s more for the orchestra than for the soprano, but you should feel a sort of snap back into time, like an elastic band without this sense of a tempo, the stretchy effect of the ritardando loses its power. There’s an implied a tempo at the start of the last bar of this line. Often the ritardando starts at “di”, not “primavera” it’s less rushed that way, but be sure you recognize the difference in case you meet a conductor who wants to be more strict to the score.For example, “storia” is more important than “la”. The eighth notes shouldn’t be too equal try speaking the text first to find the Italian pulse in it, and then find the important syllables. It means you can take the rhythm with a grain of salt. There are a few moments of speech-like intoning in Mimì’s aria it’s about being parlando, as close to recitative that Puccini really gets.It shouldn’t be the whole point of the gesture, just know that you have the time to really get to where you’re going on the first vowel, before shifting to the next. This is a subtle stylistic difference between Italian portamentos, and the kind you’d find in Massenet, for example. It’s almost like you get to the E early, and you’re already sustaining that same pitch when you change to the word “Mimì”. In the first measure, take care to get spinning on the first B-flat, with a nice vowel as you get to the top, you’ll actually be singing that E-natural while still on the “-no” of “chiamano”. The trick with this style of portamento is to make sure it’s fully sung, on the initial vowel. He writes down everything you need to know, like this portamentos. But along with your teachers and coaches, we can offer a few starting points as you get to work on this delicious bit of music. Puccini’s scores are rich in detail, and he doesn’t leave much to the imagination. The aria is Mimì’s response to Rodolfo’s “Che gelida manina”, and together, they form one of opera’s most amazing moments of “getting to know you”.
#La boheme opera arias series
Aria guides: Mi chiamano Mimì How-To Jenna Simeonov Next up in our series of Aria Guides: Mimì’s first aria from Puccini’s infamous La bohème.