Io son Divino - Io son l'amore

I am divine - I am love.

Words from Umberto Giordano's La Mamma Morta from his opera Andre Chenier. It describes how Madeleine de Coigny, a Parisian noble-woman, witnessed when she was young how a mob of angry revolutionists killed her mother at her doorstep then set fire to her home. She was saved by her loyal maid, Bersi, who raised her and "bargained her beauty" for her.

Surrounded by fear, hunger, poverty and illness, Madeleine was visited by love -

Vivi ancora! Io son la vita!

Ne' miei occhi è il tuo cielo! Tu non sei sola!
Le lacrime tue io le raccolgo! Io sto sul tuo cammino e ti sorreggo!

(You must live! I am life!
Heaven is in my eyes!
You are not alone!
Let your tears fall on my breast!
I will walk with you and be your support)

Sorridi e spera! Io son l'amore!
Tutto intorno è sangue e fango?
Io son divino!

Io son l'oblio!
Io sono il dio che sovra il mondo scendo da l'empireo,

Fa della terra un ciel!
Io son l'amore, io son l'amor, l'amor"

(Smile and hope! I am love!
Is everything around you blood and mud?
I am divine!

I am oblivion!
I am the god who descends from heaven to earth
And makes of earth a heaven

I am love, love, love)

In this aria, Madeleine, who has fallen in love with Andre Chenier and his ideals, pleads with a revolutionary general for the sake of Chenier. She describes how love has saved her at her saddest moments, how love had come to her to offer her hope and oblivion from her troubles. But by the end of the opera, she ascends the gallows (guillotine, actually) with Chenier....

This is one of my favorite arias, and I think I first heard it when I was at Tower Records Makati, they were playing the soundtrack of Philadelphia (where Tom Hanks plays this for the homophobic, opera-ignorant Denzel Washington). When I went to the States, I saw a 2-CD collection of Maria Callas recordings and I bought it. This is track 14. That was 5 years ago, and to this day, it still manages to capture my heart and move me in ways I can't really describe.

The aria is about the saving power of love. We all know that love can be anyone's salvation. Take Eric, the Phantom of the Opera, for instance. Witnessing how Christine would have gladly given her life and freedom for Raoul, he lets them go.

This, I think, is the main reason why people want to be in love - why I want fall in love. I need to be saved from a life of blood and mud. It's difficult to describe the feelings this aria arouse in me without hearing it (so people with MP3s, please download it, check for the lyrics and translations also). That lone, lovely, immensely emotional cello accompanying Madeleine's pleas is as heart-wrenching as is humanly possible. That is the perfect description I can give for what I feel. Immensely alone. (wow... point of illumination in progress....)

I need to fall in love. Like Madeleine, I need my Chenier, and if I cannot have him, I might as well have my head cut off. I remove all pretentions of not wanting love. I need to be honest with myself - I need a leading man in my opera. I don't want this to turn into a lonely Vagina Monologue; I would take even the most self-obsessed, pseudo intelligent man I could find, love him with all my heart, have him break my heart, and then turn this opera into Medea where I destroy the very nature of our love, by destroying what we had created together. I would even take a womanizer, then show him the nobility of my heart by letting him go so that he can be happy - the my life would mirror that of Norma. I could take a man forced to make my lover, while I love another man - then I would go insane and kill him, then I'd kill myself so that I'd be like Lucia di Lammermoor. I could take a lover who hates my family so that I could spurn them, have them curse me, so I would need to hide somewhere, forever cursed like Leonora in La Forza del Destino....

On the other hand, the second part of the aria is not quite as sad as the first, but it is in no way less emotional. In fact, from the time Madeleine utters Porto sventura a chi bene mi vuole... Fu in quel dolore... (I bring misfortune to those who love me... In this sorrow) up until the end when love exclaims her powers, Callas' voice continually ascends, lending further emotion to the song. This is the feeling that I get at the very thought of being in love - excited, frantic, anticipative but dreadful as well.

Why am I so afraid of love? Madeleine answers this as well... Love, whether its presence of the lack thereof, brings a person to oblivion - straight to the guillotine. It is love that saved Madeleine de Coigny, but it is also love that destroyed her.

Still, without love Madeleine would not have been saved by her mother, or by Bersi. Taking love from Madeleine would be like taking the cello out of the aria - it would make it hollow, bland, and useless. And Andre Chenier would not be Andre Chenier if not for Madeleine's love... This is the power of love.

Without Alfredo Germont, Violetta would keep the pretense of being a happy courtesan, content on throwing parties and entertaining friends. No older Germont would approach her, asking her to give up her happiness for the sake of Alfredo's younger sister. There would be no drama, as Violetta wilts away with consumption; she would not be waiting for Alfredo to return to her, so that she may live still. She would fall dead on the floor with only her maid and companion. Without love, Violetta Valery - the one who strayed - would not be La Traviata...