Octavian
Mir ist die Ehre widerfahren, daB ich
der hoch- und wohlgeborenen Jungfer Braut
in meines Herrn Vetters Namen,
dessen zu Lerchenau Namen,
die Rose seiner Liebe überreichen darf.

Sophie
Ich bin Euer Liebden sehr verbunden.
Ich bin Euer Liebden
in aller Ewigkeit verbunden.
Hat einen starken Geruch.
Wie Rosen, wie lebendige.

Octavian
Ja, ist ein Tropfen
persischen Rosenöls darein getan.

Sophie
Wie himmlische, nicht irdische,
wie Rosen vom hochleiligen Paradies.
Ist Ihm nicht auch?
Ist wie ein GruB vom Himmel.
Ist bereits zu stark,
als daB man’s ertragen kann.
Zieht einen nach,
als lägen Stricke um das Herz.
Wo war ich schon einmal
und war so selig?

Octavian
Wo war ich schon einmal
und war so selig?

Sophie
Dahin muB ich zurück,
und müBt’ ich völlig sterben auf dem Weg!
Allein ich sterb’ ja nicht.
Das ist ja weit. Ist Zeit und Ewigkeit
in einem sel’ gen Augenblick,
den will ich nie vergessen bis an meinen Tod.

Octavian
Ich war ein Bub,
da hab’ ich die noch nicht gekannt.
Wer bin denn ich?
Wie komm’ denn ich zu ihr?
Wie kommt denn sie zu mir?
Wär’ ich kein Mann,
die Sinne möchten mir vergeh’n
Das ist ein seliger Augenblick,
den will ich nie vergessen bis an meinen Tod.

Soprano: Pamela Andrews
Mezzo-Soprano: Ellen Malone
Pianist: Alan Hicks

Filmed and recorded in Llewellyn Hall, Canberra, by the Australian National University, November 2010, on behalf of Pamela Andrews.

Edited for YouTube by JRR4FILM Productions.

© JRR4FILM Productions 2011

Real! Who wants real?
I know I don’t want it. I want magic!
Magic! Yes! That’s what I want!
That’s what I try to give to people.

Real! Who wants real?
I know I don’t want it. I want magic!
Magic! Yes! That’s what I want!
That’s what I try to give to people.

I do misrepresent things.
I don’t tell the truth.
But I tell what ought to be the truth.
What it ought to be.

Yes, magic. Magic’s what I try to give to people.
If that’s a sin,
If that is such a sin, then let me be… damned for it!
Don’t turn on that light!

It’ll all look so ugly in that light.
Why not see by candlelight… or moonlight, or by starlight?
They are bright enough to see by.
Sometimes too bright.

Soprano: Pamela Andrews
Pianist: Alan Hicks

Filmed and recorded in Llewellyn Hall, Canberra, by the Australian National University, November 2010, on behalf of Pamela Andrews.

Edited for YouTube by JRR4FILM Productions.

© JRR4FILM Productions 2011

André George Previn (born Andreas Ludwig Priwin) was born in Berlin, Germany, but became a naturalised American citizen after moving as a young boy to Los Angeles with his Jewish Russian family to escape the Nazis. He has won four Academy Awards, ten Grammys, and is a pianist, conductor and composer. A Streetcar Named Desire is an opera composed by Previn in 1995, with the libretto by Philip Littell. It is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Tennessee Williams (1947) and received its premiere at the San Francisco Opera during the 1998-99 season. The play is about a culture clash between two very strong characters: Blanche DuBois, a Southern Belle, and Stanley Kowalski, a dominating, physically and emotionally abusive man from the industrial working class. Blanche lives a life of grandeur and pretense, alluding to a life of virtue and culture, which, in reality, masks a serious alcohol problem. Blanche has arrived at the apartment of her sister, Stella Kowalski, who has a complex relationship with her husband, Stanley, based on a sexual chemistry that Blanche doesn’t understand. Stella welcomes Blanche with much apprehension, as she doesn’t think that Blanche and Stanley will get along — and she’s right. The situation worsens as Stanley discovers Blanche’s true past, and attempts to “unmask” it to her; the final collision that the two characters face is a scene in which Stanley rapes Blanche, which results in a nervous breakdown for her. In the closing moments, Blanche utters her signature line to the kindly doctor who leads her away: “Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”

The sun has fallen and it lies in blood.
The moon is weaving bandages of gold.
O black swan, where, oh, where is my lover gone?
Torn and tattered is my bridal gown,
And my lamp is lost, and my lamp is lost.

The sun has fallen and it lies in blood.
The moon is weaving bandages of gold.
O black swan, where, oh, where is my lover gone?
Torn and tattered is my bridal gown,
And my lamp is lost, and my lamp is lost.

With silver needles and with silver thread,
The stars stitch a shroud for the dying sun.
O black swan, where, oh, where has my lover gone?
I had given him a kiss of fire,
And a golden ring, and a golden ring.

Don’t you hear your lover moan?
Eyes of glass and feet of stone,
Shells for teeth and weeds for tongue,
Deep, deep, down in the river’s bed,
He’s looking for the ring.
Eyes wide open, never asleep,
He’s looking for the ring, looking for the ring.

The spools unravel and the needles break,
The sun is buried and the stars weep.
O black wave, O black wave, take me away with you.
I will share with you my golden hair,
And my bridal crown, and my bridal crown.

Oh, take me down with you.
Take me down to my wand’ring lover
With my child unborn, with my child unborn.

Soprano: Pamela Andrews
Mezz-Soprano: Bronwyn Douglass
Pianist: Alan Hicks

Filmed and recorded in Llewellyn Hall, Canberra, by the Australian National University, November 2010, on behalf of Pamela Andrews.

Edited for YouTube by JRR4FILM Productions.

© JRR4FILM Productions 2011

Bravo!
And after the theatre, supper and dance. Music! Umpapa, umpapa,
Up in the sky, someone is playing a trombone and a guitar.
Red is your tie, and in your velvetine coat, you hide a star.
Monica, Monica, dance the waltz; Monica, Monica, dance the waltz.
Follow me, moon and sun; keep time with me; one, two, three, one.

Bravo! And after the theatre, supper and dance. Music! Umpapa, umpapa,
Up in the sky, someone is playing a trombone and a guitar.
Red is your tie, and in your velvetine coat, you hide a star.
Monica, Monica, dance the waltz; Monica, Monica, dance the waltz.
Follow me, moon and sun; keep time with me; one, two, three, one.

If you’re not shy, pin up my hair with your star, and buckle my shoe.
And when you fly, please hold on tight to my waist; I’m flying with you. Oh,
Monica, Monica, dance the waltz; Monica, Monica, dance the waltz.
Follow me, moon and sun,
Follow me, follow, follow me, follow me, follow, follow me.

What is the matter, Toby? What is it you want to tell me?
Kneel down before me, and now, tell me…

Monica, Monica, can’t you see, that my heart is bleeding, bleeding for you?
I loved you, Monica, all my life, with all my breath, with all my blood.
You haunt the mirror of my sleep; you are my night.
You are my light, and the jailer of my day.

How dare you, scoundrel, talk to me like that! Don’t you know who I am?
I’m the Queen of Aroundel! I shall have you put in chains!

You are my princess, you are my queen, and I’m only Toby, one of your slaves,
And still I love you and always loved you with all my breath, with all my blood.
I love your laughter; I love your hair; I love your deep and nocturnal eyes.
I love your soft hands, so white and winged; I love the slender branch of your throat.

Toby, don’t speak to me like that! You make my head swim.

Monica, Monica, fold me in your satin gown.
Monica, Monica, give me your mouth;
Monica, Monica, fall in my arms.

Why, Toby! You’re not crying, are you?
Toby, I want you to know that you have the most beautiful voice in the world!

Soprano: Pamela Andrews
Pianist: Alan Hicks

Filmed and recorded in Llewellyn Hall, Canberra, by the Australian National University, November 2010, on behalf of Pamela Andrews.

Edited for YouTube by JRR4FILM Productions.

© JRR4FILM Productions 2011

The trees on the mountains are cold and bare.
The summer jes’ vanished, an’ left them there
Like a false-hearted lover, jes’ like my own
Who made me love him, then left me alone.

The trees on the mountains are cold and bare.
The summer jes’ vanished, an’ left them there
Like a false-hearted lover, jes’ like my own
Who made me love him, then left me alone.

The coals on the hearth have turned gray and sere.
The blue flame jes’ vanished an’ left them there,
Like a false-hearted lover, jes’ like my own
Who made me love him, then left me alone.

Come back, o summer, come back, blue flame.
My heart wants warmin’, my baby a name.
Come back, o lover, if jes’ fer a day.
Turn bleak December once more into May.

The road up ahead lies lonely an’ far.
There’s darkness around me an’ not even a star
To show me the way, or lighten my heart.
Come back, my lover, I fain would start.

The pore baby fox lies all cold in his lair.
His mama jes’ vanished an’ left him there,
Like a false-hearted lover, jes’ like my own,
Who made me love him, then left me alone.

Come back, o summer, come back, blue flame!
My heart wants warmin’, my baby a name.
Come back, o lover, if jes’ fer a day.
Turn bleak December once more into May.

Come back! Come back! Come back!

Soprano: Pamela Andrews
Pianist: Alan Hicks

Filmed and recorded in Llewellyn Hall, Canberra, by the Australian National University, November 2010, on behalf of Pamela Andrews.

Edited for YouTube by JRR4FILM Productions.

© JRR4FILM Productions 2011

The sky’s so dark and velvet-like
and it’s all lit up with stars.
It’s like a great big mirror
reflectin’ fireflies over a pond.
Look at all them stars, Little Bat.
The longer y’ look, the more y’ see.

Ain’t it a pretty night!

The sky’s so dark and velvet-like
and it’s all lit up with stars.
It’s like a great big mirror
reflectin’ fireflies over a pond.
Look at all them stars, Little Bat.
The longer y’ look, the more y’ see.
The sky seems so heavy with stars
that it might fall right down out of heaven
and cover us all up in one big blanket of velvet
all stitched with diamon’s.
Ain’t it a pretty night.
Just think, those stars can all peep down
an’ see way beyond where we can:
They can see way beyond them mountains
to Nashville and Asheville an’ Knoxville.
I wonder what it’s like out there,
out there beyond them mountains
where the folks talk nice,
an’ the folks dress nice
like y’ see in the mail-order catalogs.
I aim to leave this valley someday
an’ find out fer myself:
To see all the tall buildin’s
and all the street lights
an’ to be one o’ them folks myself.
I wonder if I’d get lonesome fer the valley though,
fer the sound of crickets an’ the smell of pine straw,
fer soft little rabbits an’ bloomin’ things
an’ the mountains turnin’ gold in the fall.
But I could always come back
if I got homesick fer the valley.
So I’ll leave it someday an’ see fer myself.
Someday I’ll leave an’ then I’ll come back
when I’ve seen what’s beyond them mountains.
Ain’t it a pretty night.
The sky’s so heavy with stars tonight
that it could fall right down out of heaven
an’ cover us up, and cover us up,
in one big blanket of velvet and diamon’s.

Soprano: Pamela Andrews
Pianist: Alan Hicks

Filmed and recorded in Llewellyn Hall, Canberra, by the Australian National University, November 2010, on behalf of Pamela Andrews.

Edited for YouTube by JRR4FILM Productions.

© JRR4FILM Productions 2011

Youth, large, lusty, loving–youth full of grace, force, fascination,
Do you know that Old Age may come after you with equal grace,
force, fascination?

Day full-blown and splendid-day of the immense sun, action,
ambition, laughter,
The Night follows close with millions of suns, and sleep and
restoring darkness.

(Walt Whitman)

Soprano: Pamela Andrews
Pianist: Alan Hicks

Filmed and recorded in Llewellyn Hall, Canberra, by the Australian National University, November 2010, on behalf of Pamela Andrews.

Edited for YouTube by JRR4FILM Productions.

© JRR4FILM Productions 2011

Alleluia!

Soprano: Pamela Andrews
Pianist: Alan Hicks

Filmed and recorded in Llewellyn Hall, Canberra, by the Australian National University, November 2010, on behalf of Pamela Andrews.

Edited for YouTube by JRR4FILM Productions.

© JRR4FILM Productions 2011

Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:
The firefly wakens: waken thou with me.

Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:
The firefly wakens: waken thou with me.

Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost,
And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.

Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars,
And all thy heart lies open unto me.

Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves
A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me.

Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,
And slips into the bosom of the lake:
So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip
Into my bosom and be lost in me.

(Lord Alfred Tennyson)

Soprano: Pamela Andrews
Pianist: Alan Hicks

Filmed and recorded in Llewellyn Hall, Canberra, by the Australian National University, November 2010, on behalf of Pamela Andrews.

Edited for YouTube by JRR4FILM Productions.

© JRR4FILM Productions 2011

There was a Serpent who had to sing.
There was. There was.
He simply gave up Serpenting.
Because. Because.

There was a Serpent who had to sing.
There was. There was.
He simply gave up Serpenting.
Because. Because.
He didn’t like his Kind of Life;
He couldn’t find a proper Wife;
He was a Serpent with a soul;
He got no Pleasure down his Hole.
And so, of course, he had to Sing,
And Sing he did, like Anything!
The Birds, they were, they were Astounded;
And various Measures Propounded
To stop the Serpent’s Awful Racket:
They bought a Drum. He wouldn’t
Whack it.
They sent, —you always send, —to Cuba
And got a Most Commodious Tuba;
They got a Horn, they got a Flute,
But Nothing would suit.
He said, “Look, Birds, all this is futile:
I do not like to Bang or Tootle.”
And then he cut loose with a Horrible Note
That practically split the Top of his Throat.
“You see,” he said, with a Serpent’s Leer,
“I’m Serious about my Singing Career!”
And the Woods Resounded with many a Shriek
As the Birds flew off to the end of Next Week.

(Theodore Roethke)

Soprano: Pamela Andrews
Pianist: Alan Hicks

Filmed and recorded in Llewellyn Hall, Canberra, by the Australian National University, November 2010, on behalf of Pamela Andrews.

Edited for YouTube by JRR4FILM Productions.

© JRR4FILM Productions 2011