Texts & Translations Cinque…dieci..venti from Le nozze di Figaro Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the most well known composers ever. A child prodigy, Mozart began composing at the age of 5 and wrote over 600 works. Le nozze di Figaro, one of his most famous operas, follows Figaro and Susanna, who are both servents to the Count and Countess Almaviva, and there tumultouous journey to the altar. They hatch a scheme to foil the Count’s attempts of seducing Susanna before her wedding day. This duet begins the opera as Figaro is measuring the pair’s new room for a bed. Susanna enters excited about the veil she made for the occasion herself. Then, the two sing of their excitement to be married. Figaro: Cinque… dieci.... venti… trenta… trentasei…quarantatre
Figaro: Five…ten…twenty…thirty… Thirty-six…forty-three
Susanna: Ora sì ch’io son contenta; sembra fatto inver per me. Guarda un po’, mio caro Figaro, guarda adesso il mio cappello.
Susanna: How happy I am now; you’d think it had been made for me. Look a moment, dearest Figaro. look here at my cap!
Figaro: Sì mio core, or è più bello, sembra fatto inver per te.
Figaro: Yes, dear heart, it’s better that way. You’d think it had been made for you.
Tutti: Ah, il mattino alle nozze vicino quanto è dolce al mio/tuo tenero sposo questo bel cappellino vezzoso che Susanna ella stessa si fe’.
Together: Ah, with our wedding day so near how pleasing to my/your gentle husband is this charming little cap which Susanna made herself.
Sieben frühe Lieder Alban Berg (1885-1935) Alban Berg was a highly influential composer and a central figure in the Second Viennese School. This group—led by Arnold Schoenberg and including his students Alban Berg and Anton Webern—redefined the direction of Western classical music in the early twentieth century. They moved away from traditional tonal harmony, instead exploring atonality, and eventually developed the revolutionary twelve-tone method, a system that organizes all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale in a structured, non-hierarchical way. Berg’s Sieben frühe lieder, or seven early songs, bridge the gap between late Romantic era and the emerging twelve-tone techniques. These songs use lots of natural imagery and text painting where the piano portrays the sung words through its motion.