Identify This Opera Song From A Vague Description

Cafe Society
1

I’ve got a snippet of opera currently digging through my ears as an earworm. Don’t know how it got there, but I need to get rid of it.

It’s a mournful dirge, sung by a tenor. If he performs it correctly, the audience can hear the performer’s heart being ripped out as he sings.

I only know two bars of it.

First bar, two long syllables. Second bar, short syllable, second long syllable heavily emphasized, third long syllable.

Laaaaa, laaaaaa,
la LAAAAAAA laaaa…

It was in a commercial from a decade or so ago. A man was listening to it on his record player and was wailing mournfully at the song.

Does this ring a bell for anyone?

2

Vesti La Giubba

here, starting at the 59 second mark https://youtu.be/Z0PMq4XGtZ4

3

That’s it! Thanks a million!

4

And BTW, an “opera song” is called an aria.

5

Well spotted! Traditionally translated as “On with the motley, the paint and the powder”: Canio the clown has to go out and make the crowd laugh even as he’s realised his wife is off with another man. If memory serves, the recording by Caruso was one of the first worldwide hits for a gramophone record.

6

Only if it’s a featured solo. More than one voice or just a quick bit aren’t arias. The rest are duets, trios, choruses, etc. In many cases, if an opera has many solos one of them gets singled out as “the” aria. So if someone refers to “the aria” of Madam Butterfly, then it’s just the most famous aria they are talking about. That confuses things sometimes.

7

Invest in a tuba, and something or other 'bout Cuba.