Marianne Blok - Bellini: LA STRANIERA, Ciel pietoso (final scene), circa 1970s, High E-flat

THE SONGBIRD: Marianne Blok (1941 - 2021) was born in Panama City and received her first singing lessons in Panama. At the age of 21 she moved to the Netherlands and attended the Amsterdam Conservatory, graduating in 1967. Blok’s debut came in 1971 as Queen of the Night with Dutch Opera Forum, a role she also sang at ENO in London and in Ghent in 1980, then with the Dutch National Opera in 1982. Roles at the Concertgebouw included Philine in 1974 and Ravel's Le Feu/Le Rossignol/La Princesse in 1981. Dutch audiences could hear her on radio broadcasts of the summer Promenade concert series, from which this Bellini aria is taken. She became a well-regarded voice teacher at the Conservatory in Utrecht. THE MUSIC: Bellini's "La Straniera" premiered at La Scala in Milan in 1829. The lead soprano role was sung by Henriette Méric-Lalande, who also created Bellini's Bianca, Imogene, and Zaira, as well as Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia. As the librettist Romani was ill, the work was delivered in a piecemeal fashion. The opera was a success and played regularly until 1875, to only be revived again at La Scala in 1935. There have been few productions in the modern era. Alaide is a mysterious woman who lives alone in a cabin, keeping secret her true identity as Queen Agnes )which is only revealed after much consternation at the end of the opera). Alaide's final aria is an anguished prayer, followed by a dramatic cabaletta as the now Queen Agnes proclaims her despair that Arturo, who is passionately in love with her, has suddenly killed himself upon learning the news of her identity. In this concert version, the scene after the aria is cut, and it jumps directly to the cabaletta.