Acerba Voluttà – Adriana Lecouvreur

Bitter pleasure, sweet torture,

Slow agony, quick offense,

Blaze, frost, tremor, restlessness, fear,

For the lover who waits expectantly!

Every echo, every shadow in the kindling night

Conspires against the impatient soul:

Everything is suspended between doubt and desire,

One moment is an eternity…

Will he come? Has he forgotten me? Will he hasten to me? Or will he turn back?

Here he comes!...No, it is the sound of the river,

Mixed with the sighs of a dormant tree….

O vagabond eastern star,

Do not set: smile on the universe,

And guard my love, if he does not mind the way!...

Elena Obraztsova sings the aria of Princess d'Bouillon from Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur.

Tokyo, 1980.