In the rendition of Verdi's operatic Otello, Desdemona, the wife of Othello, sings a prayer to Mary, a departure from Shakespeare's play. In Act 5, Scene II, Desdemona pleads for a stay from the death of the hands of her husband, and pleads further that she may say a prayer. In Otello, it is realized in a resounding Ave Maria that is hauntingly punctuated on the 'amens' and the 'prega per noi' (pray for us). Desdemona has her prayer by Verdi's composition before she is smothered by furied husband.
PLAY:
OTHELLO: "Ah balmy breath, that doest almost persuade Justice to break her sword! One more, one more. Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee. And love thee after. One more, and this the last: So sweet was ne'er so fatal. I must weep, But they are cruel tears: this sorrow's heavenly: It strikes where it doth love. She wakes." V, II
DESDEMONA: "...by this light of heaven, I know not how I lost him. Here I kneel: If e'er my will did trespass 'gainst his love, Either in discourse of thought or actual deed....Comfort forswear me!...But never taint my love." IV, II
As there are almost countless songs of the Ave, an early rendition of it has a foundation dating back to Saint Venantius Fortunatus, the Maris Stella:
Dei Mater alma,
Atque semper virgo,
Felix coeli porta.
Sumens illud Ave
Gabrielis ore,
Funda nos in pace,
Mutans Evae nomen.
Solve vincia reis
Profer lumen caecis,
Mala nostra pelle,
Bona cuncta posce.
Monstra te esse Matrem,
Sumat per te preces
Qui pro nobis natus,
Tulit esse tuus.
Virgo singularis,
Inter omnes mitis,
Nos culpis solutos
Mites fac et castos.
Vitam praesta puram,
Iter para tutum;
Ut videntes Jesum
Semper collaetemur.
Sit laus Deo Patri,
Summo Christo decus,
Spiritui Sancto,
Tribus honor unus. Amen.
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