No, For He Would Marry Me | A preview of Robert Rogler’s chamber opera, The Falcon

Based on the play by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Falcon is a chamber opera in one act. This performance contains an excerpt from the 23d song in the opera-bars 1421 through 1473.
This project is available for funding. Learn more at: roglercollecti...
THE SETTING
Count Federigo is desperately in love with the widow Lady Giovanna, so much so that he impoverishes himself buying gifts for her. Lady Giovanna will not admit that she returns his love because her family violently disapproves... Her critically ill son asks her to bring him Count Federigo’s falcon because he believes the bird can heal him. Desperate, Lady Giovanna visits Count Federigo but finds him in such a state of poverty that she cannot bring herself to ask him for his last possession.
In “No, for He Would Marry Me,” we find Count Federigo and Lady Giovanna towards the end of the opera as she is gathering her nerve to ask him for his falcon in hopes of saving her son.
THE FALCON
Full score: roglercollecti...
Vocal score: roglercollecti...
Music by Robert Rogler
Performed by Carlo Miguel Bunyi, baritone; Lauren Florek, soprano; Piano reduction of full score by Matt Savage
Filmed by Julia Rogler
Edited by Matthew Rogler
Filmed and recorded in 2023 at the WGBH Fraser Performance Studio in Boston, Massachusetts.
LYRICS
(from the play by Alfred, Lord Tennyson)
[Lady Giovanna] No! For he would marry me to the richest man
In Florence; but I think you know the saying -
‘Better a man without riches, than riches without a man.’
[Count Federigo] A noble saying - and acted on would yield
A nobler breed of men and women. Lady,
I find you a shrewd bargainer. The wreath
That once you wore outvalues twenty-fold
The diamonds that you never deign’d to wear.
But lay them there for a moment! And be you
Gracious enough to let me know the boon
By granting which, if aught be mine to grant,
I should be made more happy than I hoped
Ever to be again.
[Lady Giovanna] Then keep your wreath,
But you will find me a shrewd bargainer still.
I cannot keep your diamonds, for the gift
I ask for, to my mind and at this present
Outvalues all the jewels upon the earth.
[Count Federigo] It should be love that thus outvalues all.
You speak like you love, and yet you love me not.
I have nothing in this world but love for you.
[Lady Giovanna] Love? It is love, love for my dying boy,
Moves me to ask it of you.
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