Un bel di

[Dave2002]

This article about Madam Butterfly is illuminating.

http://dropera.blogspot.com/2019/03/un-bel-di-and-six-notes-that-blow-my.html

Unfortunately the people who have commented on the blog post have hijacked Glenn's thread - really sad that he's not noticed and blocked them.
Don't bother to read past the initial post.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Looks very interesting and Ill have to come back to it again for careful reading (its Saturday morning!). On a very quick scan, I probably haven't the skills to analyse opera or other forms, and I'm not sure, in any case, I want to start going "under the bonnet" of the music I experience in the opera house and on record. OTOH I'm always in awe of analysis of the roots / musical forms inherent in, for example, Beatles music, but that is transitory.

I also disobeyed your suggestion not to look at any of the discussion / comments - hijacked, yes - on a mere scan - completely spammed I would say, and yes you are of course correct, not worth looking at.

[gradus]

Interesting piece thanks for posting it.
Hearing this aria as a teenager -probably Joan Hammond - on the radio it made little emotional impact as it was presented as a soprano recital aria divorced from context. Not until much later did I come to hear it in context and realised what a powerful piece Puccini had created. There is so much emotional depth and subtlety in Puccini's score that I can't be alone in finding it extraordinarily moving, from first to last. No surprise then that I have never attended a performance that didn't leave me in tears.