V. Herbert: The Enchantress - "Art Is Calling For Me"

Victor Herbert (1859-1924)

The Enchantress (1911), Act 2: "Art Is Calling For Me"

Emily Hamilton, soprano

Julie Choi, piano

Recorded on Februrary 18, 2022 at KIN Experience in Montreal, Quebec during "An Evening of Opera Arias & Musical Theatre Songs" from the studio of Joanne Kolomyjec

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Mamma is a queen and papa is a king

So I am a Princess, I know it

But court etiquette is a dull dreary thing

I just hate it all, and I show it

To sing on the stage, that’s the one life for me

My figure’s just like Tetrazzini

I know I’d win fame

If I sang in “Boheme”

That op’ra by Signor Puccini

I’ve roulades and the trills

That would send the cold chills

Down the backs of all hearers of my vocal frills

I long to be a prima donna, donna, donna

I long to shine upon the stage

I have the embonpoint, to become a queen of song

And my figure would look pretty as a page

I want to be a screechy, peachy cantatrice

Like other plump girls that I see

I hate society, I hate propriety

Art is calling for me

I’m in the elite, and men sigh at my feet

Still I do not fancy my position

I have not much use for the men that I meet

I quite burn with lyric ambition

Those tenors so sweet, if they made love to me

I’d be a success, that I do know

And Belba I’d oust, if I once sang in “Faust”

That op’ra so charming by Gounod

Girls would be be on the brink

Of hysterics, I think

Even strong men would have to go out for a drink

I long to be a prima donna, donna, donna

I long to shine upon the stage

With my avoirdupois, and my tra la la la la

I would be the chief sensation of the age

I long to hear them shouting, “Viva” to the diva

Oh, very lovely that must be

That’s what I’m dying for, that’s what I’m sighing for

Art is calling for me

- Harry B. Smith (1860-1936)