Bellini - I Capuleti e i Montecchi

French soprano Natalie Dessay sings
"O quante volte" from Vincenzo Bellini's

I Capuleti e i Montecchi
The Capulets and the Montagues [Romeo & Juliet]


Behold me decked out
like a victim on the altar.
Oh if only I could
fall like a victim at the foot of the altar!
Oh nuptial torches,
so hated, so fateful,
ah! would that you were the tapes of my doom.
I burn, a blaze, a fire
all my torment.
In vain I call on the winds to cool me.
Where are you Romeo?
In what lands do you wander
Where, where shall I send them,
where my sighs where to?

Oh! How much time,
Oh! How often I beg you!
the sky weeps
with the passion of my waiting
And delude my desires!
To me the light of day
ah! is like the flash of your presence
ah! the air that winds around
is my longings.