Musical Interpretation, Phenomenology, Neo-Riemannian Transformations,

and Their Psychological Implications:

An Independent Analysis of “Una Furtiva Lagrima” from Gaetano Donizetti’s

L’Elisir D’Amore

Zachary Thomas Newman

 1

In 1902 tenor Enrico Caruso recorded “Una Furtiva Lagrima” for the

Gramophone and Typewriter Company and turned the world of opera on its ear. A

work that had previously fallen out of the canon, Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore, would

suddenly burst back onto the scene and claim its role as one of the most performed

operas in the world.1 Since then “Una Furtiva Lagrima” (Nemorino’s aria from act

two) has grown to be one of the cornerstones of the tenor repertory.

A furtive tear in her eyes appeared…

Those happy girls to envy, she seemed
What more can I look for!
She loves me, I see it
One sole moment the beating of her dear heart to feel!
My sighs to blend for a little while with her sighs!
Heaven! One could die; more I do not ask2

This aria is very interesting, the words are clearly very happy, especially

when put in the context of the opera. Nemorino is the ‘every man’ who finds himself

enamored with Adina – a wealthy and fickle-hearted woman who begins the opera

by turning him down. With the assistance of some liquid courage in the form of a

fake love potion (actually Bordeaux obtained from the quack-doctor Dulcamara,)

Nemorino begins to ignore Adina and eventually loses hope, enlisting in the military.

After he has enlists, Nemorino’s wealthy uncle passes away and bequeaths him a

massive fortune. His newfound wealth becomes the talk of the town and suddenly

women are falling at his feet; an example of this can be heard in the female chorus

1. Airlie Jane Kirkham, “An Aural Analysis of Bel Canto: Traditions and
Interpretations as Preserved Through Selected Sound Recordings” (master’s thesis,
University of Adelaide, 2010), 96-7.

2. Nico Castel, “L’Elisir d’Amore,” in Italian Bel Canto Opera Libretti in Three
Volumes. Vol. 1, ed. Scott Jackson Wiley (Mt. Morris, NY: Leyerle Publications, 2000),
333.
 2

“Saria Possibile?” where the women of the town are gossiping about Nemorino’s

wealth and trying to win his love. Seeing this, Adina becomes wildly jealous and

even begins to cry. Nemorino, having seen her tears, responds with his apostrophic

romanza “Una Furtiva Lagrima.” Despite Nemorino’s joy, reflected by the libretto,

when an individual listens to a performance of this aria they are usually stricken

with feelings of sadness, longing, and sometimes even pain. This paper will dissect

portions of the aria using, phenomenology, Neo-Riemannian transformational

theory, and common emotional performance practices in order to deeper

understand this common misconception.

Human emotion can be broken down into five primary categories – joy,

sadness, anger, disgust, and fear. It is said that music is capable of evoking all of

these emotions under different circumstances. Dating back to the Baroque period

music began to develop deeper senses of emotion and the term “sublime” was often

used to refer to any music that could evoke feeling or emotion in an individual.

Bicknell says

The word “sublime” has two related senses. First, it denotes a human
emotion – a feeling of overwhelming awe aroused by the contemplation of a
particularly magnificent, large or powerful object or event. Second, “sublime”
describes those objects and events (or some set of their attributes) which are
thought to arouse the feeling of the sublime.3

In layman’s terms, if music can be considered sublime, it is to say that

listening to music can evoke emotion. It is an indisputable fact that “Una Furtiva”

falls under the sublime heading, but this begs the question: what makes the music

3. Jeanette Bicknell, Why Music Moves Us (New York?: Pagrave Macmillan,

2009), 9.
 3

sound sad? The following list is comprised of responses to this question in a general

poll of musicians as well as non-musicians; generally people seem to think music is

sad if it is slow, written in a minor key, relatively low in tessitura, and, of course, if

the words are sad.4 This list is reinforced by figure 1, a recreation of a figure from

Juslin and Sloboda5 where there is a chart of many musical characteristics on a

spectrum divided by the emotional responses they typically evoke. According to this

chart, nearly everything save the actual text of “Una Furtiva Lagrima” indicates that

it should be a sad song.

Positive valence

· HAPPINESS
· TENDERNESS
fast mean tempo
slow mean tempo small tempo variability
slow tone attacks staccato articulation
low sound level large articulation variability
small sound level variability high sound level
legato articulation little sound level variability
soft timbre bright timbre
large timing variations fast tone attacks
accents on stable notes small timing variations
soft duration contrasts sharp duration contrasts
final ritardando rising microintonation
Low activity High activity
· SADNESS · ANGER

slow mean tempo high sound level

· FEAR
legato articulation sharp timbre
small articulation variability spectral noise
staccato articulation
low sound level fast mean tempo
very low sound level
dull timbre small tempo variability
large sound level variability
large timing variations staccato articulation
fast mean tempo large
soft duration contrasts abrupt tone attacks
tempo variability
slow tone attacks sharp duration contrasts
large timing variations
flat microintonation accents on unstable notes
soft spectrum
slow vibrato large vibrato extent
sharp microintonation
final ritardando no ritardando
fast, shallow, irregular
vibrato

Negative valence

Figure 1

4. Ibid., 106-7.

5. Patrick N. Juslin and John A. Sloboda, Handbook of Music and Emotion:

Theory, Research, Applications (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 463.
 4

The list under “sadness” in figure 1 states the following: slow mean tempo,

legato articulation, small articulation variability, low sound level, dull timbre, large

timing variations, soft duration contrast, slow tone attacks, flat microintonation,

slow vibrato, and final ritardando. “Una Furtiva” contains nearly all of these

characteristics, however despite the opening line, it is said about this aria “It is a

song about tears, but it is not a sad song.”6

It is slow – common performance tempi vary from about 70-80 eighth-notes

per minute; the song begins in B-flat minor and retains that modality for the

majority of the piece; and although the tessitura for the tenor stays relatively high

(between F4 and A4), the tessitura of the orchestra and the haunting bassoon

obligato give the overall piece a feeling of being ‘low.’ As if all these things are not

enough to make a song sound sad – Donizetti goes one step further writing the first

two notes of the melody as a falling fifth from F to B-flat, effectively painting a falling

teardrop directly into the voice with the assistance of the inevitable portamento that

all tenors are wont to perform (some versions of the score even includes a slur

between the first two notes – a common indicator in vocal music that a portamento

should be interpreted).7

This sort of musical rhetoric is not necessarily popular in music that

embodies the bel canto tradition, but nevertheless when an individual hears these

6. Burton D. Fisher, The Elixir of Love: ‘L’Elisir D’Amore’ (Coral Gables, Fl:
Opera Journeys, 2000), 25.

7. Gaetano Donizetti, L’Elisir D’Amore, Melodramma in due atti, Libretto by

Felice Romani (Stampato, Italy: G. Ricordi, 2005).
 5

first two melodic notes, whether in the bassoon or the voice, it is understood

subconsciously that the figure is one representative of weeping. This figure is not

repeated in succession, but only occurs once in each iteration of the motive; this is

interesting because the text does not denote a stream of tears or even two tears, but

“One furtive tear” which is framed masterfully by Donizetti’s setting of the text.

The issue with all of this is that the words are still happy! The whole song is

an expression of triumph; a classic “victory song”8 from a fool who has fallen in love

and whose love has finally been reciprocated. In all genres of musical theater, most

pieces have archetypal songs like the “I want” song, which usually occurs early in

the show and describes the deepest goals and desires of the main character. In this

opera that would be “Quanto E Bella.” (Examples from modern musical theater

would include “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz or “My Shot”

from Hamilton: An American Musical). The “victory song” is another of these

theatrical archetypes that occurs once the main character has achieved or is

beginning to achieve whatever goals were set forth at the beginning of the show; the

victory song often shows a turning point in the show or includes elements of hope.

This could be something like “Once and for All” from Newsies or “Being Alive” from

Company.

So if “Una Furtiva” is truly a victory song why, then, do so many tenors

perform it as a sad one? A first look, especially at less experienced singers, leads one

to believe that it could simply be a lack of true understanding. Many younger singers

8. Fisher, 26.
 6

take this aria to auditions (it has been among the most frequently listed audition

arias for tenors in all of the past five years)9 without ever having once looked at a

translation, but instead relying on a very limited understanding of the Italian

language. Lagrima is a fairly common word in Italian opera and art song repertoire

and most people know that it means tear; armed with this knowledge and hearing

the plodding B-flat minor arpeggio that begins the song, it would be a logical choice

to have a sad subtext in mind when performing this aria. It is the responsibility of

the performer, however, to research and understand the translation and context of

the aria so as to give an appropriate performance. Instead of standing on stage and

just looking sad, a more appropriate option for the performer would be to act

somber or serious for the first few lines but to allow himself to show joy by the time

he gets to the line “che piu cercando io vo?” and maintain a happy appearance and

subtext for the remainder of the aria. “Subtext” is a concept that many non-singers

and non-actors may be unfamiliar with; on the subject, David Ostwald says:

Whenever you sing or talk, you are always communicating simultaneously on

both a literal and an emotional level. In the theater we call the literal words
your “text” and the emotional level your “subtext”.
Your character’s subtext is the main source of his internal dialogue, the
chatter of his inner voice expressing how he feels about what is happening.10

So when a tenor portrays Nemorino, he must have an internal dialogue going

on during this aria about his feelings for Adina. In order to effectively portray the

9. Wolf Trap Opera, “Audition Resources: Aria Frequency List,” Accessed

October 22, 2016, http://opera.wolftrap.org/for-artists/audition-resources/.

10. David Ostwald, Acting for Singers: Creating Believable Singing Characters
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 128.
 7

text to the audience, one has to understand that while he begins apprehensively

because his love is crying, he is truly happy to understand that she loves him just as

he loves her; and in order for an audience to understand that, it is imperative that

the tenor understands it first.

One other reason that listeners may interpret this song to be sad lies within

the brain. The concept of Gestalt psychology posits (among other things) that we can

recognize certain groupings of things due to learned experience – for instance we

recognize scales and chords not because of the patterns they present on their own,

but because of the patterns that we expect them to have due to their common uses

throughout our culture.11 When a person listens to music, their amygdala and

cerebellar vermis (primitive parts of the brain’s emotional processors) are both

stimulated and produce responses according to our culture’s common practices.12

This explains why, when listening to music in the minor mode, an individual can feel

a sad emotional response. Our brains literally remember that when notes appear in

those intervallic patterns, they are usually representative of negative emotions. We

do all of this on a subconscious level as we hear the music; it enters our brain and in

an instant we begin to feel sad. What does this mean for the presentation of “Una

Furtiva”? It means that from the onset of the piece, the performer is fighting an

uphill battle. People hear this music and assume subconsciously that it is sad; so in

11. Leonard Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music (Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1956), 84-7.

12. Daniel J. Levitin, This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human
Obsession (London: Penguin Books, 2007), 87.
 8

order to convey the happy subtext, it would take a very creative and/or talented

actor.

Another interesting note about “Una Furtiva Lagrima” is the surprising lack

of ornamentation in most interpretations. In music that represents the bel canto

tradition of opera it is common practice to add ornaments to the music – this

tradition stems from the increasing virtuosity among singers in the early nineteenth

century. As voice teaching grew in popularity around this time so did vocal

technique. Manuel Garcia, inventor of the laryngoscope, is often considered one of

the first vocal pedagogues and is credited with many of the advancements in bel

canto singing, so it is him we can thank for all of the vocal gymnastics so many are

fond of in bel canto opera. Yet in most interpretations of this aria there are no

ornaments outside of the cadenza and even in recordings that do include ornaments

they are only very minimal. For instance in Lawrence Brownlee’s most recent

recording of this aria when he begins the second stanza “Un solo istante i palpiti” he

adds a sixteenth note melisma at the end of the word which means “moment”

showing how fleeting a moment can be. “…del suo bel cor sentir” instead of singing

those words on the written pitches (Gb-C-C-Eb-Db-C-Bb) he virtually inverts the

melody (A-C-Eb-F-Gb-E-F-C-Db-Bb) and adds a few more extra sixteenth notes,

which seems to represent the “beating” heart referenced in the previous line of text.

He also uses a slight variation on the typical cadenza – soaring to a high C instead of

the commonly performed A.13 Despite his unique ornamentation, Brownlee’s

13. Lawrence Brownlee, “Una Furtiva Lagrima,” by Gaetano Donizetti,

recorded 2016. Spotify.
 9

interpretation is a needle in a haystack of nearly identical performances. What does

this lack of ornaments tell the listener? First of all, the lack of ornamentation

exacerbates Nemorino’s joyful trepidation in this particular piece. The weaving

together of the joyful lyrics with the typically lamenting aria is reflective of a man

who is excited about the prospect of being loved, but hesitates to be overjoyed due

to his inner fear at being hurt by her repeated denials. Of course it could also just be

an attempt by all tenors to maintain the fundamental beauty of the aria. Most of the

flashiest bel canto arias contain virtuosic melismatic passages carrying the singer

into the stratosphere, but in this aria Donizetti omits that practice and replaces it

with stunning legato lines. As the old adage goes: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

A more theoretical view of this aria could further assist in unpacking the

inconsistencies between the libretto and common performance practices. In order

to highlight this, I would like to focus on measures 17-25 and how the fluid

movement between B-flat minor and D-flat major can bring out a positive

psychological response in the listener.

In the 1980s, David Lewin popularized a new subcategory of analysis, which

grew to be known as Neo-Riemannian theory. This style of analysis focuses on the

relationships between triads within a piece; rather than the function of each

individual triad, Neo-Riemannian theorists focus on the actions that lead from one

triad to the next.14

14. Richard Cohn, “Introduction to Neo-Riemannian Theory: A Survey and a

Historical Perspective.” Journal of Music Theory Vol. 42, No. 2 (Autumn 1998): 170
 10

These “transformations” are defined by the relationships between the triads.

Figure 2 depicts a Tonnetz: this is a matrix of pitches arranged so that each triangle

represents a consonant triad. The arrows on this Tonnetz represent the primary

transformations. “P” is a parallel transformation; this is characterized by a

transformation from a minor chord to its parallel major and vice-versa.

Consequently “R” is a relative transformation; this shows a transformation from a

minor chord to it’s relative major. “L” is a leading tone exchange, which keeps a

minor third in common between the two chords while changing the fifth of the

original chord by half step. Finally, “D” is for dominant and maps the transformation

from V to I in a given key.15

Figure 2

15. Ibid., 172.

 11

Figure 3

In order to obtain a deeper understanding of the happiness of this aria, I

would like to start by zooming in on the first “key change.” Measure 22 of “Una

Furtiva Lagrima” begins a three-measure stretch of music, which tonicizes D-flat

major, the relative major of the original key. Figure 3 shows a map of the primary

transformations of this aria; the black arrows represent specific chordal

transformations while the red arrows show transformations between key areas. The

transformation in measures 21 and 22 is prepared starting in measure 17. As the

tenor cadences on F on the downbeat of 17, the orchestra begins a five-measure

prolongation of the F harmony. The chords themselves alternate between F major

and B-flat minor, but the B -lat chord appears in a 6-4 inversion with the F in the

bass. During these five measures, the text, “What more can I look for?” is repeated

twice over the F harmony. This stagnant harmony with repeated text highlights the

words and helps to show the characters incredulity at the reciprocation of his love.

This all serves to prepare the transformation to the D-flat major chord on the

downbeat of measure 22. As is shown in figure 2 with the double-sided black arrow,

the transformation in this measure is from an F major chord to a D-flat major chord.

This can be defined as a simultaneous P and L transformation; this makes sense

 12

since the A-flat of an F minor chord is present in the key signature despite its

absence from the measure.

The pitch F defines this transformation, as it is the only common tone

between the two chords. Although this is not a total modulation to D-flat major,

Donizetti does tonicize D-flat for three measures here, effectively transforming F

from the fifth scale degree into the third. As we arrive at this transformation, the

voice sings a climactic “She loves me” in the upper-middle register. These happy

words along with the sudden major tonality create a new mood to the listener,

which contradicts the furtive nature of the first page and a half. Although it is not

necessarily always true, major keys are typically associated with happy thoughts. A

look back at figure 1 from Juslin and Sloboda reminds us of musical traits that are

associated with specific emotions.

Aside from the major tonality, some of the traits listed under happiness in

this chart make their first appearance in the piece at this point. High sound level and

bright timbre are both accurate descriptions of this section; this contradiction from

the beginning of the song helps the listener understand the joy of the text on a

deeper psychological level.16 This further explains why, when in measure 22

Donizetti has the orchestra arrive on a triumphant D-flat major chord, it elicits a

positive emotional response from the listener.

If we were to look at this transformation on a larger scale, we would find the

transformation of entire key areas rather than just triads. Since this is the case, we

16. Patrick N. Juslin and John A. Sloboda, Handbook of Music and Emotion:
Theory, Research, Applications (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 463.
 13

see that in measure 22 the transformation is from B-flat minor to D-flat major, or R.

If Donizetti’s purpose in this passage is to use the relative major in order to create a

happier atmosphere, then why wouldn’t he just write the transformation directly

from a B-flat minor chord to a D-flat major chord? Neo-Riemannian theory is, at its

core, about parsimonious voice leading. That’s to say it’s about finding the “path of

least resistance” from one chord to the next and using transformative titles to

describe the path.

Figure 4 shows four different transformations; the first two are

transformations from F major to D-flat major and the third and fourth show a

transformation from B-flat minor to D-flat major. I have assigned a number value to

each transformation; the numbers represent the total number of half steps between

each transformation.

Figure 4

Note the first transformation shows the fifth of F moving up by half step to D-

flat, the third moving down by half step to A-flat, and the F remaining constant. This

is the smoothest transition from one chord to the next rather than having each of

the chords remain in root position. The smoothness of this transformation is shown

by the total of the half steps moved through the process of this transformation. The
 14

closer to “0,” the more parsimonious – or balanced – a transformation is and the

more likely it is to be accepted subconsciously (Hence why the inverted

transformation is more acceptable to the ear than the transformation between two

root position chords). The same is true of the B-flat minor chord transformation

where there are two common tones and the root resolves down by whole step to the

fifth of the D-flat chord. Even though there are more common tones between the R

transformation, it results in a less balanced shift and therefor the P and L

transformation from F to D-flat is more subconsciously acceptable than moving

directly from B-flat minor to D-flat major, despite the common tones. This idea of

the path of least resistance between two chords can be used to describe many

common practices in composition dating back to the birth of major-minor tonalities

and the beginning of the common practice period. It is known to most if not all

musicians that, when writing music in parts, one does not write two root position

chords next to one another because that would result in parallel fifths and octaves –

an absolute “no-no” in the mind of many people. The above graphic assigns

mathematical validation for the mental aversion to these parallel intervals – as the

transformation from one root position chord to another occurs, it seems disjunct

and mathematically creates a big gap between the two chords. Conversely if one of

the chords is inverted, a much smoother transformation occurs and the lower total

of half-steps moved gives the brain some relief.

In measure 25, the tonality shifts back to B-flat minor. These are the

transformations in figure 4 that are represented by the other side of the double-

sided arrows. Donizetti uses the exact reciprocal of the transformation in measure
 15

22 to accomplish this. Again this is the “path of least resistance” between the two

keys and allows for a smooth transition into the second verse. The fact that

Donizetti mirrors the first transformation exactly as he moves into the second verse

in conjunction with the fact that the D-flat portion only lasts for three measures

leads me to believe that these three measures are merely a tonicization rather than

a full-blown key change; however this tonicization of D-flat major could potentially

be the key to portraying a happy performance. If the tenor is sure to emphasize

these three measures and use the momentum created by the major tonality to

energize the second half of the aria, he is likely to present a positive subtext while

simultaneously warranting a positive emotional response from his audience.

“Una Furtiva Lagrima” is a pillar in the operatic repertoire, but it is also

among one of the most commonly misinterpreted arias of all time. Various analytical

approaches give us an understanding of why people so often perceive this song to be

a sad one, but ultimately it is a song of triumph in love and should be sung as such.

When preparing to perform this piece, a tenor could do any number of things to

portray a positive mood from changing his body language to emphasizing different

parts of the aria or even giving a simple smile, but ultimately it really doesn’t matter

how they do it – or if they even do it at all as long as they can convincingly portray

their chosen mood to the audience. After all, whether an individual is singing in an

opera or acting in a different style of stage production, the main objective of the

performer is to make an artistic choice, and convince the audience that you have

made the right one.

 16

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http://web.a.ebscohost.com.steenproxy.sfasu.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pd
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