Single Round - Dvořák - Rusalka, Op. 114, Act 1: Du lieber Mond, so silberzart, "Song to the Moon" (Sung in German)

Shaughnessy said:

... This aria has four different titles with at least two separate German translations ...

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Click to expand...

I think it's five different translations! You might need to dig up some old scores for the first three.

i found the Trötschel one but it's altered as she sings it compared to the citation I found. I'm posting it twice, the second time with alterations as I heard them underlined:

As prinred:

Gleitender Mond du, so silberzart
sendest weithin deine Blicke,
auf deiner lichten Wanderfahrt
siehst du der Menschen Geschichte.
Auf deiner lichten Wanderfahrt
siehst du der Menschen Geschichte.
O Mond, sei nicht so in Eile,
sage mir, wo mein Schatz weile?
O Mond, sei nicht so in Eile,
sage mir, wo mein Schatz weile?

Sage ihm, Pilger im Himelsraum,
wie ich ihn herze und küsse,
dass er, umsponnen von Morgentraum,
meiner gedenken auch müsse.
O lecht' ihm, wo er auch gehe,
leuchte ihm, sage ihm, wer hier seiner harrt voll Wehe!

Sieht mein Schatz mich im Traumgesichgt,
wach' er auf sehnend beim Morgenlicht,
o Mond, erlisch mir nicht! erlisch mir nicht!
O Mond, erlisch mir nicht!

* * * * *
As I heard it:

Du lieber Mond, so silberzart
sendest weithin deine Blicke,
auf deiner lichten Wanderfahrt
siehst du der Menschen Geschichte.
Auf deiner lichten Wanderfahrt
siehst du der Menschen Geschichte.
O Mond, sei nicht so in Eile,
sage, o, sag' mir, wo mein Schatz weile?
O Mond, sei nicht so in Eile,
sage, o, sag' mir, wo mein Schatz weile?

Sage ihm, silberner Wand'rer du,
das ich mein Herz ihm nur schenke,
Flüstre ihm sachte im Traume zu,
dass er auch meiner gedenke.
Flüstre ihm sachte im Traume zu,
dass er auch meiner gedenke.
Leucht' ihm, wo er auch sei,
leuchte ihm, sage ihm, wer hier seiner harrt in Treu'!

Sieht mein Schatz mich im Traumgesichgt,
wach' er auf sehnend beim Morgenlicht,
o Mond, erlisch mir nicht! erlisch mir nicht!
O Mond, erlisch mir nicht!

source:
page 5

I found none of these satisfying, but two somewhat interesting and affecting. Those were Mafalda Salvatini's and Elfriede Trötschel's. Salvatini is fervent, more so than we generally hear in the aria, and that is certainly valid. The tempo is a bit rushed, probably to fit the music on the record, and we have to wonder, as so often, what she'd have done with the piece minus that time constraint. Trötschel presents Rusalka as young, sweet and innocent, perhaps shy, and at first I found this touching. I got slightly bored with it, but at least it was a point of view. I see that she's in a complete German-language performance of the opera on YouTube:

(17) Elfride Trötschel Gottlob Frick Lisa Otto Rusalka [Dvořák] full opera (1948, in German) - YouTube

Bork and Schneider are unimaginative and do nothing for me, and Destinn, though she sings expressively, had a voice that didn't record in a way that falls pleasantly on my ear.

I guess I'll go with Salvatini, despite some crudities of execution.

Destinn is the first dramatic soprano I’ve heard in this aria, and I was initially thrown by the different language; it seemed like it didn’t quite fit. Now that @ewilkros has discovered the different texts, I realized why I wasn’t able to follow the lyric. But Destinn’s voice is rather plain in tone, though that may be the recording, and she sings straightforwardly and her diction is, as far as I can tell, very good - you can tell there are words…

Salvati i is pleading quite noticeably; there is a plaintiveness to the sound of her voice, and she sounds young, which Destinn does not.

Schneider’s voice is silvery, which fits the piece, but in a faster tempo than the others so far. I don’t detect any real connection to the piece, other than some sadness. It’s a beautiful voice.

Borkh’s slender voice sounds like it would suit this piece, and as she usually makes much of the words, but I don’t think she adds what I expected to the aria.

Trötschel has a smoother approach to the text, an overall serenity, that doesn’t suit the text - she seems too calm, as if she’s already got her wish.

Of the five, Salvati seems that she got the aria’s intent.