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Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.

Opera, The Lady of the Camellias (kageki tsubaki hime)


Senow Music Sheet No. .53
セノオ楽譜五三番 歌劇 椿姫
Designer: Takehisa Yumeji (Japanese, 1884–1934)
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi (Italian, 1813 – 1901)
Lyricist: Giuseppe Verdi (Italian, 1813 – 1901)
Translator: Horiuchi Keizô (Japanese, 1897 – 1983)
Publisher: Seno'o ongaku shuppansha (Japanese)
Japanese
Taishô era
1924 (Taishô 13), April 29, 9th edition; 1st edition 1917 (Taishô 13), May 25

Medium/Technique Color lithograph; ink on paper
Dimensions Height x width: 30.6 × 22.5 cm (12 1/16 × 8 7/8 in.)
Credit Line Gift of Mary and Robert Levenson
Accession Number2023.1119.1-2
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsMusical scores

DescriptionTranslation of lyrics from Japanese, by Kuniko and Kendall Brown:
Ah! Perhaps He’s The One?” (Aa, so wa kano hito ka) (With the Italian “Ah, fors’e lui,” and a Japanese adaptation)
"Ah! Perhaps he’s the one, alone at the party?
Beautiful you, a figure drawn in my heart,
If treated kindly, my troubles would change, and love would smolder.
My heart is rolled in love, only love is in this world,
Strangely my heart is disordered,
Ah, getting entangled, sadness and delight.
Holding a pleasurable wish in a maiden’s heart,
I see in my mind an affectionate figure of eternal you.
Shining light in the sky, beautiful you,
If you leave me, I will abandon the world.
My heart races for love, in a world where only love can live,
Losing my composure strangely,
Oh, getting entangled, sadness and delight.
Sadness and delight, oh, getting entangled."
ProvenanceBy 2019, Mary and Robert Levenson, Belleair, FL; 2023, gift of Mary and Robert Levenson to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 13, 2023)