What does Nuvoletta's disappearance signify in Finnegans Wake?

Question

I am studying Samuel Barber's art song "Nuvoletta", whose text is adapted from James Joyce's *Finnegans Wake*. I have not studied *Finnegans Wake*. The music is very beautiful.As I understand it, Nuvoletta is likened to wind, dew, and cloud, and she disappeared in the end of the excerpt. What does the event suggest and signify? What is the background of Nuvoletta (whom I suppose is a character in the novel) that makes such metaphor appropriate?* [Ms Bird sings Nuvoletta](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRFiUowGRtc)* [Barber's adaptation of lyrics](http://www.james-joyce-music.com/songb_18_lyrics.html)

Answer 1

Nuvoletta is the character Anna Livia Plurabelle (ALP), the wife in the novel. She represents the River Liffey which is an estuary and rolls into and out of Dublin Bay back to the Irish Sea as the story progresses in Space and Time. At the end of the episode, Nuvoletta becomes rain and falls into the river as ALP leaps over the bannister in the family home.