Tutto è sciolto “All is lost now” (2019) - 2¼'
for high voice solo and piano, or
medium voice solo and piano
COMPOSER'S NOTE
Tutto è sciolto (“All is lost now”) is taken from an aria in the second act of La Sonnambula (“The Sleepwalker”), an opera by Vincenzo Bellini, one of Joyce’s favorite operatic composers. The aria is sung by Elvino who is distraught by the discovery of his fiancée, Amina, in Count Rodolfo’s bedroom, which she entered while sleepwalking. The title hints at the emotional turmoil of a failed seduction of a young girl Joyce once knew.
The musical reference also appears in the "Sirens" episode of Joyce's novel, Ulysses. The aria reminds the protagonist, Leopold Bloom, of his wife's unfaithfulness, just like Elvino in Bellini's opera feels deceived by his future wife. In my setting, I endeavored to instill an air of Celtic melancholy reflective of the emotions Leopold experiences in that episode.
Tutto è sciolto is available for high voice (soprano or tenor) and medium voice (mezzo-soprano or baritone). It is also part of my collection of ten art songs on poems by James Joyce that I wrote during the winter and spring of 2019:
Ten Poems of James Joyce (High Voice & Piano)
Ten Poems of James Joyce (Medium Voice & Piano)
THE TEXT
A birdless heaven, sea-dusk and a star
Sad in the west;
And thou, poor heart, love’s image, fond and far,
Rememberest:
Her silent eyes and her soft foam-white brow
And fragrant hair,
Falling as in the silence falleth now
Dusk from the air.
Ah, why wilt thou remember these, or why,
Poor heart, repine,
If the sweet love she yielded with a sigh
Was never thine?
James Joyce, 1882 - 1941