Another one from SERSE (Xerxes) is Amastre, the Princess of a neighbouring kingdom...  she's betrothed to Xerxes, but since he has failed to honour the match she arrives in his kingdom in disguise (as a male soldier in Xerxes's army) to find out what's been going on. In the best opera seria traditions she puts off the disguise in the final scene, and Xerxes immediately forgets his imagined attachment to Romilda, and marries Amastre instead.

Have we had Gilda yet?  We were asked to assess the success or failure of the disguise: hers leads to her own murder so it must be the most wretched of "successes"   [Sparafucile has seen her in Act I Sc ii, as he tells Rigoletto, so he certainly knows her undisguised appearance - it's a moot point whether he recognises her in disguise and kills her anyhow, or whether he's fooled by the disguise]


Linda Richardson as Gilda, Alan Opie as Rigoletto - (photo-link from Ruth's 2003 reviews)

Agreed on COSI, I simply can't suspend my disbelief to that level, and it impinges on my ability to enjoy the piece - and agreed about BALLO too. However, licht-machtige Wotan might realistically have recourse to a better costumier than Escapade in Camden High Street, and if we can accept that he turned Alberich into a toad two operas ago then his own changeling powers don't really strike me as beyond veracity   [It's a "tell" of Mime's character that he does stupid things against his own interest because of his own blockheadedness - he fails to recognise the Wanderer or to bother interesting himself in the identity of this threatening stranger... he blurts out to Siegfried how much he hates him, even though he still needs Siegfried temporarily to slay Fafner.]  Of course, in many RING cycles he might very well not recognise the Wanderer because a different bass-baritone has taken over the role by the third opera .

Song 1 is horrible Kaspar in Der Freischutz.  I hope I haven't got it permanently on itunes now.

Yes, it is Kaspar. Why the drinking song?
Yes to Iago too!

iTunes - it depends on whether you clicked on 'open file' or 'save file'. If in doubt, right click on it and then delete (as I did for Syd's snatch test).

A drinking pedant (and thoroughly interested lurker on this thread, I hasten to add) writes:

I think the correct colonial term for midday drinking is 'the sound of the noon-day gun'. The sun passes over the yardarm at 6pm, doesn't it?

Song 4 is Vivat Bacchus from the Mozart I haven't heard for decades, which is never called The Abduction from the Harem, or in Victorian parlance Il Seraglio.

The comic servant is trying to get the bass overseer, Osmin, pissed (against his religion as I now realise) to make the getaway easier.

Thank you martle.  I was confused about references to yard arms when I had barely finished my elevenses.

Bless you, IGI, Song 5 is the brindisi from Lucrezia Borgia, which I mentioned above.

A young chum of the hero (mezzo breeches part) encourages everyone to toss of ftheir bumpers, unaware that the hero's mum has characteristically laced the stuff with something nasty.

She's a bit put out to find she has just poisoned her son and offers him an antidote (for the second time in the course of the plot, I think) but he high-mindedly refuses, disenchanted to find the mystery woman he has adored is A his mum B a serial poisoner and C sung by Dame Joan Sutherland.

I was going to mention it if you didn't.  I have a recording of the brindisi sung by of all singers Dame Clara Butt.  Makes a change from Land of Hope and Glory and Where Corals Lie.

There is a drinking song for a poisoned drink in a work scheduled next season for ROH.  Any suggestions?