Written in B minor, is one of the most famous opera arias.

The aria is introduced by a somber clarinet solo. The incipit of the melody (heard in outline earlier in the Act, as the sky lightens and the gaoler prepares for the execution) is repeated on the lines "O dolci baci, o languide carezze", and also restated forte in the closing bars of the opera, as Tosca jumps from the ramparts.

Libretto

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References

• The Aria Database

Further reading

• Detailed musical analysis of the aria can be found in Mosco Carner, Giacomo Puccini, Tosca , Cambridge University Press, 1985, pp. 101-104 (ISBN 0521296617) and in Julian Budden Puccini: His Life and Works, Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 218-219 (ISBN 0195179749).
• The text for the original version of the aria which Puccini later shortened for subsequent editions of the libretto can be found in Susan VanDiver Nicassio, Tosca's Rome: The Play and the Opera in Historical Perspective, University of Chicago Press, 2002, p. 307. ISBN 0226579719
• An analysis of the theme of female unveiling in this aria and other operas of the time can be found in Jeremy Tambling, Opera and the Culture of Fascism, Oxford University Press, 1996 p. 122. ISBN 0198165668

External links

• Score of 'E lucevan le stelle' for piano and voice with the original text and an English translation by W. Beattie-Kingston. (William and Gayle Cook Music Library, Indiana University School of Music)
• Recording of the aria by Alfredo Kraus

ms: E lucevan le stelle