Aria Steal Me, Sweet Thief from The Old Maid and the Thief

Music by Menotti, Gian Carlo

Born November 3, 1801, in Catania, Italy
Died February 1, 2007, in Monte Carlo, Monaco

The Italian-American composer and librettist Gian Carlo Menotti was born to a wealthy business
family in a country town on Lake Lugano. He began to study at the Milan Conservatory at the age of
13. In 1928, he attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he met his almost lifelong
partner, the American composer Samuel Barber. His achievement of fame came with his one-act
opera buffa Amelia al ballo (Amelia goes to the Ball), it was so acclaimed that the Metropolitan Opera
included it in its 1938 Opera Season. Menotti is possibly the most widespread and productive opera
composer of his time winning two Pulitzer Prizes. He wrote twenty-five operas, most of them with
his own librettos.

In 1939,the highly success of Amelia at the Met led Menotti to write a radio opera for The NBC Radio
Network with an American theme in order to make it accessible to the whole radio audience. This
first such commission ever given was The Old Maid and the Thief. The NBC premier took place on
April 22, 1939 at Radio City. The Opera is in one act with fourteen scenes, Menotti used his own
libretto and only in radio broadcasts there are a small spoken announcements before each scene.

The Aria Steal Me, Sweet Thief is part of the Scene 6. In her home, the kindness Miss Todd has offered
a place to live to a young hobo, Bob. Laetitia, her maid helps her with the young man who, regardless
of his free living principles, procrastinates leaving the house he has energized. Laetitia sings Steal me
Sweet Thief alone in the kitchen ironing Bob´s pants, examining this awkward situation, the mixed
feelings she has towards Bob and wishing her own life would start before she turns into an old
women. The aria is noted quite precisely which reflects how Menotti was highly influence by Puccini,
and the best way to do justice is to sing the written complex rhythms correctly, along with a warmth
and beautiful quality of voice.

Lyrics:

What a curse for a woman is a timid man.
A week has gone by,
he had plenty of chances...
but he made no advances.
Ms. Todd schemes and labors to get him
some money,
she robs friends and neighbors, the club and
the church.
He takes all the money
with a smile that entrances...
but still makes no advances.
The old woman sighs and makes languid eyes.
All the drawers are wide open,
all the doors are unlocked -
he neither seems pleased nor shocked.
He eats and drinks and sleeps,
he talks of baseball and boxing...
but that is all.
What a curse for a woman is a timid man.
Steal me, oh steal me, sweet thief
for time's flight is stealing my youth
and the cares of life steal fleeting time.
Steal me, thief,
for life is brief and full of theft and strife.
And then with furtive step
death comes and steals time and life.
Oh, sweet thief, I pray make me die
before dark death steals her prey.
Steal my lips before they crumble to dust.
Steal my heart before death must.
Steal my cheeks before they've sunk and
decayed.
Steal my breath before it will fade.
Steal my lips, steal my heart,
steal my cheeks, steal, oh steal my breath
and make me die before death will steal her
prey.
Oh, steal me!
For time's flight is stealing my youth.

Source list:

Menotti, Gian Carlo Biography by Gruen, John 1978, pages: 41,42,43

An Interpretative Guide to Operatic Arias by Singher, Martial, pages: 118, 119

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