Or dove fuggo io mai… Ah! Per Sempre

From I Puritani by Vincenzo Bellini

In this aria Sir Riccardo Forth, after being promised Elvira’s hand in marriage by her uncle, has just found out that Elvira loves another man (Arturo) and she has been given permission to marry him instead. The recitativo section begins in a fury of disbelief, as Riccardo struggles to believe what has just happened. As the aria begins, he sings of his loss of one whom he loves - feeling that despair and only loneliness will follow.

Grant Loehnig, pianist, Curtis Institute of Music