Conductor, ERNEST W . Goss
INA SOUEZ (soprano)
Relayed from The Pavilion, Torquay THIS ARIA is sung by Leonora, the heroine of the opera, towards the end of the last act. Her lover, Alvaro, has been challenged to a fight to the death by her brother, Carlo, who seeks to revenge the death of his and Leonora's father. The unhappy Leonora, torn between her love for Alvaro and her family ties, implores Heaven to grant her the peace of death. Her prayer is granted ; by the end of the act, all are dead. Alvaro mortally wounds Carlo ; Carlo stabs his sister, who dies immediately, and Alvaro, in despair, throws himself from a cliff into the sea. Thus, this most gory of operas comes to a logical close; nobody is left alive to sing another note.