from Act II, Scene 1 of the Italian opera
I Due Foscari by Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave
Role: Jacopo Foscari, the son of Francesco Foscari
Voice Part: tenor Fach: spinto
Setting: the state prisons, Venice, 1457
Synopsis: Jacopo is locked in the lower levels of the prison until he can be transported out of the country. He suddenly sees specters rise up around him. He recognizes one of them as a man executed as a result of the Venetian Council of Ten's ruling. As the ghosts advance, he sings of his terror and asks the ghosts to have mercy on him. Finally, as the ghost continues to come nearer, Jacopo faints.