Steven Wagner - Stevan Vagner, Podrum COLLEGIUM MELODIUM, World music museum in BELGRADE and BOJANA - ANTONIA - MIRA MARE. present, "O mio babbino caro" ("Oh My Beloved Father"), a soprano aria from the opera Gianni Schicchi (1918) by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto by Giovacchino Forzano. It is sung by Lauretta after tensions between her father Schicchi and the family of Rinuccio, the boy she loves, have reached a breaking point that threatens to separate her from Rinuccio. It provides an interlude expressing lyrical simplicity and single-hearted love in contrast with the atmosphere of hypocrisy, jealousy, double-dealing, and feuding in the medieval Florence of Puccini's only comedy. It provides the only set-piece in the through-composed opera.
Florence Easton as Lauretta at the world premiere of Gianni Schicchi, 14 December 1918
The aria was first performed at the premiere of Gianni Schicchi on 14 December 1918 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York by the popular Edwardian English soprano Florence Easton. It has been sung subsequently by many sopranos. Dame Joan Hammond won a Gold Record in 1969 for 1 million sold copies of this aria.