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To inquire about permissions and rates, contact Emily Ezust at licenses@email.lieder.example.net

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by Anonymous / Unidentified Author and sometimes misattributed to Pietro Antonio Domenico Bonaventura Trapassi (1698 - 1782)
Translation © by Thomas Dawkins

Alfin sarai contenta
Language: Italian (Italiano) 
Our translations:  CAT ENG FRE
Alfin sarai contenta
Empia fortuna avara!
Quanto mi costi cara
Spiantata nobilità!

Per me Imeneo già versa
La sua bevanda amara:
Addio per sempre addio
Mia bella libertà!

Orsù non ci pensiamo,
Corraggio, e concludiamo:
Alfin s'io prendo moglie
So ben perchè lo fo.

Lo fo per pagar [debiti]1,
La prendo per contanti,
Di dirlo, e di ripeterlo,
Difficoltà non ho.

[Tra]2 tanti modi, e tanti
Di prender moglie al mondo,
Un modo più giocondo
Del mio trovar non so.

Si prende per affetto,
Si prende per rispetto,
Si prende per consiglio,
Si prende per puntiglio,
Si prende per capriccio
E' vero sì, o nò?

Ed io per medicina
Di tutt'i mali miei
Un poco di sposina
Prendere non potrò?

Ho detto e'l ridico,
Lo fo [pei]3 contanti;
Lo [fan]4 tanti, e tanti;
Anch' io lo farò.

Nuotando, sguazzando
Fra l'oro, e l'argento
Felice, contento
Goder me la vò.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

•   F. Schubert 

F. Schubert sets stanzas 3-8

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed with Il contraccambio ovvero L'amore alla pruova. Dramma per musica da rappresentarsi nel R. Teatro del Fondo nel inverno dell' 1823. Napoli, della Tipografia Flautina 1823, pages 17-18.

The text appears in the play Il contraccambio ovvero L'amore alla pruova, atto I, scena VIII, as the aria of Duca Alberto di Kalitz. The author of the libretto is unknown, the play has been set by Luigi Carlini and has been staged 1823 in Naples, where the libretto has been printed (see above).

1 Schubert: "i debiti"
2 Schubert: "Fra"
3 Schubert: "per li"
4 Schubert: "fanno"

Text Authorship:

  • by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, no title [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
  • sometimes misattributed to Pietro Antonio Domenico Bonaventura Trapassi (1698 - 1782)

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Franz Peter Schubert (1797 - 1828), "Il modo di prender moglie (Die Art ein Weib zu nehmen)", op. 83 (Drei Lieder von Metastasio) no. 3, D 902 no. 3 (1827), published 1827, stanzas 3-8 [ bass, piano ], Tobias Haslinger, VN 5063, Wien [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2017, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • ENG English (Thomas Dawkins) , no title, copyright ©, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GER German (Deutsch) [singable] (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist) , "Die Art ein Weib zu nehmen"


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Peter Rastl [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 38
Word count: 154

Away, without further thinking
Language: English  after the Italian (Italiano) 


[ ... ]






Away, without further thinking,
More courage to me, I have concluded
At last I shall take a wife,
I know well why I do it.

I do it to pay my debts!
I'll take a wife for cash,
I say it and then repeat it
I shall have no difficulty.

There are many, many ways
To take a wife,
And a more joyful way
I will not find.

One marries for love,
One marries for respect,
One marries on advice
One marries out of stubbornness,
One marries on a whim,
'Tis true, yes or no?

And I, for medicine
For all that ails me,
A little bit of wife
Shall I not take?

I have said it and I repeat it,
I am doing this for the money,
They make much of it,
And I will make it too!

About the headline (FAQ)

Translation of title "Il modo di prender moglie (Die Art ein Weib zu nehmen)" = "The way of taking a wife"

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from Italian (Italiano) to English copyright © by Thomas Dawkins, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
    Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in Italian (Italiano) by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist , as Pietro Metastasio, no title and misattributed to Pietro Antonio Domenico Bonaventura Trapassi (1698 - 1782)
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 27
Word count: 142

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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