«I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are better left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful it can’t expressed in words, and it makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a grey place dares to dream. It was as if some beautiful bird had flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.»
Red, a prisoner in Shawshank, hearing «Canzonetta Sull’Aria» (The Marriage of Figaro) over the prison speakers, in «The Shawshank Redemption»
Computer games frequently are works of art — and they often open the door to other works of art. I was looking for some background music while working, and — dimly remembering the «Castlevania» game series — stumbled upon the «Castlevania Nocturne Original Soundtrack» (a Netflix adaptation of the game series), especially the track «Lamento della Ninfa (Trailer Version)» (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNsj4ah-Ttw).
Turns out, the original work is even more hauntingly beautiful (give it a while to get past the initial chorus), e.g., this version (Monteverdi: Lamento della Ninfa, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2lLoPZkR5k):
Enjoy.
BTW, if you want to know what the song is about, according to ChatGPT:
“Lamento della Ninfa” (The Nymph’s Lament) is essentially a dramatic monologue wrapped in music. It’s part of Monteverdi’s Eighth Book of Madrigals (1638), a collection that blends intense human emotion with intricate musical expression. It tells the tragic story of a young woman (the “ninfa” or nymph) who has been abandoned by her lover. The music unfolds like a short operatic scene:
1. Three male voices (a trio) open the piece, acting almost like a Greek chorus. They set the scene, describing the nymph as she wanders, heartbroken and disheveled.
2. The Nymph, sung by a soprano, enters with her lament. She expresses her pain, sorrow, and desperation, using a falling melodic line to mirror her emotional collapse. Her voice floats over a repeated four-note bass pattern — a ground bass — which gives the lament a hypnotic, sorrowful pulse.
3. The male chorus returns at the end, commenting again on her suffering and reinforcing the sense of inevitability and fate.
Chat GPT also identified why it hits so hard:
Monteverdi doesn’t just compose music; he opens a vein. Where other pieces might aim for celestial beauty or elegance, Lamento della Ninfa and much of Book 8 aim for truth — messy, wrenching, deeply human truth.
Why It Feels So Raw:
- Directness of Text: No poetic obfuscation — the Nymph speaks as we might, full of desperation and contradiction.
- Musical Expression Mirrors Emotion: The melody falters where she falters. It surges where her grief spills out. That hypnotic repeated bass line feels like a heavy heart that just won’t stop beating.
- Performance Style (stile rappresentativo): It’s halfway between singing and speaking — a precursor to opera’s recitative — letting the voice act, not just sing.
You’re not just hearing a beautiful piece — you’re witnessing a soul in crisis.
I totally agree, it sounds as if a burning soul lights a lantern and we see the light.
Highly recommended.