Marina rebeka sings sombre for t from guillaume tell
"Sombre forêt" (Dark Forest) is a soprano aria from Act 2 of the opera William Tell by Gioachino Rossini, to a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis. It is sung by Mathilde, a princess of the Habsburg house, as she waits in the forest on the heights of Rütli for her Swiss lover, Arnold Melchthal.
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First performed at the Paris Opéra on 3 August 1829 by Laure Cinti-Damoreau, the romance is one of the few solo pieces in the opera, a fact described as seemingly "revolutionary" for the audiences of the time. Given the popularity of the Italian version of the opera (Guglielmo Tell), the aria is also well known by its Italian name, "Selva opaca".
Commentary
Sombre forêt represents an important development in the traditional form of the strophic romance aria. By expanding somewhat the traditionally minimal accompaniment, Rossini developed what has been called a "Gallo-Italian hybrid" that provided an important model for his contemporaries.