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Meeta Raval - England

Conductor: Lawrence Foster

Timor di me? ... D'amor sull'ali rosee (Il trovatore) - Verdi

Manrico has failed in his attempt to save his mother, and has been imprisoned. Leonora comes to the prison to try and save him, and hopes that her love for him will see him through.

Sola, perduta, abbandonata (Manon Lescaut) - Puccini

Manon is dying of thirst and exhaustion in the Louisiana desert, where she has been deported. Her lover Des Grieux has gone in search of water, and she laments her fate 'alone, lost, abandoned'. A few moments after his empty-handed return, she sings with her last breath that her love will never die.

Beim Schlafengehen (Vier letzte Lieder No 3) - R Strauss

Strauss's valedictory Four Last Songs deal serenely with the subject of death and were written shortly before he died. In 'Going to sleep' the poet is tired and wants to give himself up to the friendly night. All his senses want to sleep and his soul wishes to soar into the magic sphere of the night, to live more deeply there. The poem is by Hermann Hesse.

Olesysa Petrova - Russia

Conductor: Jac van Steen

Nyet, bit' ne mozhet! (The Tsar's Bride) - Rimsky-Korsakov

Lyubasha is the mistress of Grigory Gryaznoy, a member of Ivan the Terrible's secret police. She has just overheard her lover asking the physician about love potions, as he wants to get the beautiful Marfa to fall in love with him. Lyubasha is devastated - she has given up everything for him and no-one could love him as she does. She vows to find her rival and undo the spell she has cast on Grigory.

Re dell'abisso, affrettati (Un ballo in maschera) - Verdi

Gustav III of Sweden has come disguised as a fisherman to find out if the fortune-teller, Ulrica, is in league with the devil. She summons up the Lord of the Underworld to inspire her and show her what the future holds.

Voi lo sapete, o mamma (Cavalleria rusticana) - Mascagni

The peasant girl Santuzza tells Mamma Lucia, Turiddu's mother, that her son had promised to marry Lola when he came back from the army. On his return, he found that Lola had married someone else. To forget her, Turiddu got together with Santuzza, but Lola's jealousy of their happiness has made her steal Turiddu back, leaving Santuzza disgraced and abandoned.

Habañera (Carmen) - Bizet

'L'amour est un oiseau rebelle' is the song Carmen sings to the soldiers, outside the cigarette factory, who ask her when she will fall in love. Love is a rebellious bird, she says: it is a child of Bohemia and does not obey any rules. She warns them that if she decides to fall in love, they should take care! Bizet based his melody on a song by Iradier.

Hye Jung Lee - South Korea

Conductor: Lawrence Foster

Tornami a vagheggiar (Alcina) - Handel

Alcina is a sorceress who has fallen in love with the knight Ruggiero and held him captive on her magical island. Bradamante is Ruggiero's fiancée and has come disguised as her brother to rescue him, but Alcina has cast a spell on Ruggiero to make him believe that 'he' is his love rival. Alcina's sister Morgana has now fallen in love with Bradamante, and here commands 'him' to stay with her.

A vos jeux, mes amis ... Partagez-vous mes fleurs! (Hamlet) - Thomas

Ophelia has gone mad and imagines herself married to Hamlet. She left the palace at dawn, when the lark was in the sky. She and Hamlet are bound by an oath of love, and if he has left her, she says, she will lose her mind. Share my flowers, she says, the rosemary and periwinkle. Then she recalls the tale of the Wilis, pale and fair, sleeping beneath the water. The Wilis are vengeful creatures of legend, ghosts of young women who died before their wedding day. She drowns herself in the lake.

Andrei Bondarenko - Ukraine

Conductor: Jac van Steen

Rivolgete a lui lo sguardo (Così fan tutte) - Mozart

This aria was originally written for Act 1 of Così fan tutte, but is normally replaced by 'Non siate ritrosi'. It is sung by Guglielmo (with Ferrando in attendance) on their first attempt in disguise as 'Albanians' to woo each other's fiancées. He tries to impress the girls with their wondrous merits - claiming that they are handsome, rich, strong and excellent singers and dancers.

O Carlo, ascolta ... Io morrò - (Don Carlo) - Verdi

Don Carlo's great friend Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa, visits him in the dungeons of the Inquisition to bid him farewell. Posa is carrying Don Carlo's papers, and is shot in the doorway of the cell. As he lays dying, he tells Carlo that he is happy to die, so that Carlo can continue his fight for Spain's liberty.

Fin ch'han del vino - (Don Giovanni) - Mozart

Don Giovanni arrives at his house, where he will host the wedding of Zerlina and Masetto. He tells his servant, Leporello, to organise a party in what is known as the 'Champagne Aria'. There will be much drinking and merriment and the Don will have added at least ten more women to his list of conquests by the morning.

Ya vas lyublyu (The Queen of Spades) - Tchaikovsky

Prince Yeletsky is in love with Liza, who in turn is in love with Herman. At a masked ball, Yeletsky sings this ardent aria, declaring his great love for Liza. He would do anything for her, but is afraid that she does not return his feelings.

Valentina Naforniţǎ - Moldova

Conductor: Jac van Steen

Regnava nel silenzio (Lucia di Lammermoor) - Donizetti

Lucia is waiting by the fountain to meet her lover, Edgardo. She sings to her nurse about the ghost of a girl, murdered by one of Edgardo's ancestors, which appeared to her beside the fountain. The spirit beckoned to Lucia before disappearing into the waters, which turned red around her.

Song to the Moon (Rusalka) - Dvořák

Rusalka is a water-nymph, the daughter of the Spirit of the Lake. In a lakeside glade, she tells the moon of her love for a mortal, the prince who came to bathe in the lake. She longs to become mortal to be with her prince, but a Water Goblin has warned her of the dangers.

Je veux vivre (Roméo et Juliette) - Gounod

Juliette is at a masked ball at her family home and her beauty has been much admired. In this graceful aria, often known as Juliette's Waltz Song, the young, high-spirited girl declares herself uninterested in marriage, saying she wants to live in a world of dreams.