MAGDA OLIVERO - O mio babbino caro

This aria, from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, besides being a very popular encore in concerts, is often a show piece for sopranos to express their feelings. Most of the time they “milk“ the aria by deliberately stretching the tempi totally out of context. Puccini specified andantino ingenuo, not largo, not adagio, not even andante. The aria ask for a gentle but moving tempo expressing Lauretta’s eagerness to go to Porta Rossa to buy a wedding ring. Magda Olivero first sang the role in 1933 at the age of 23. This rendering of the aria is part of a concert she gave at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in 1968. She sings it like a young girl in love, begging her father to let her go and buy the “anello“. Quest’aria, tratta da Gianni Schicchi di Puccini, oltre ad essere un bis molto popolare nei concerti, è spesso un pezzo di spettacolo per i soprani per esprimere i loro sentimenti. Il più delle volte “mungono“ l’aria allungando deliberatamente i tempi in modo