Sunday Night is... Amelita Galli-Curci

Galli-Curci, 1882-1963, singing Una Voce Poco Fa from The Barber of Seville in about 1920. I find the older recordings of Italian opera very moving, for - quite likely - unmusical reasons, more to do with the frailty of the human voice, the pathos of time, the haunting perpetual melody that trembles across time and space, and the sheer heroism of its survival. Italian opera particularly, I suppose, because of the love of melody, strung out like wire in the sunshine that is also a wire in the soul.

There is a very nice little discussion board here where a certain Scopa Nuova offers a translation.

There! That is enough links to be putting a girdle about the earth.