Les nuits d'été

Gautier wrote, "Berlioz represents the romantic musical idea ... unexpected effects in sound, tumultuous and Shakespearean depth of passion.

[3] The title Nuits d'été was Berlioz's invention, and it is not clear why he chose it: the first song is specifically set in spring rather than summer.

The publisher Jakob Rieter-Biedermann [de] was in the audience for the premiere, and, much impressed, prevailed on Berlioz to orchestrate the rest of the cycle.

[2] Each of the six songs of the orchestral cycle was dedicated individually, to singers well known in Germany, some of whom had performed Berlioz's music there: Louise Wolf ("Villanelle"), Anna Bockholtz-Falconi ("Le spectre de la rose"), Hans von Milde ("Sur les lagunes"), Madeleine Nottès ("Absence"), Friedrich Caspari ("Au cimetière") and Rosa von Milde ("L'île inconnue").

[16] [The poems] form a narrative which leads from a spring-born joie de vivre ("Villanelle") and a loss of innocence ("Le spectre de la rose"), to the death of a beloved ("Sur les lagunes"), a dirge ("Absence"), the obliteration of her memory ("Au cimetière"), and the beginning of a new future ("L'île inconnue").

Although Berlioz wrote more than fifty songs, twenty of them with orchestral accompaniment, those in Les nuits d'été are the only ones published as a set.

[18] They are not a cycle on the German model of Schubert's Winterreise or Schumann's Dichterliebe, with narrative and thematic continuity, but form a unified whole by virtue of the single authorship of the words and the composer's use throughout of delicate, atmospheric musical shading.

The critic A. E. F. Dickinson wrote in a 1969 study, "Their common theme is nominally love unrequited or lost, symbolizing, arguably, an ache for vanished or unattainable beauty.

There is no percussion, and the forces stipulated are the normal string section of violins, violas, cellos and double-basses; woodwind: two flutes, two clarinets, two bassoons, one oboe; brass: three horns; harp.

Spring has come, my lovely, It is the month blessed by lovers; And the bird, preening his wing, Speaks verse from the edge of his nest.

Far, far away, straying from our path, Causing the hidden rabbit to flee And the deer, in the mirror of the spring Bending to admire his great antlers, Then home, completely happy and at ease, Our hands entwined round the basket, Returning carrying strawberries From the wood.

The setting is strophic; Berlioz maintains the villanelle rhythm of the original poem, while varying the orchestral accompaniment with string counterpoints, and, at the end of each verse, a bassoon solo, pitched higher at each iteration.

[12] Soulève ta paupière close Qu'effleure un songe virginal ; Je suis le spectre d'une rose Que tu portais hier au bal.

Ô toi qui de ma mort fus cause, Sans que tu puisses le chasser, Toutes les nuits mon spectre rose À ton chevet viendra danser.

Mon destin fut digne d'envie: Et pour avoir un sort si beau, Plus d'un aurait donné sa vie, Car sur ton sein j'ai mon tombeau, Et sur l'albâtre où je repose Un poète avec un baiser Écrivit : Ci-gît une rose, Que tous les rois vont jalouser.

My destiny is enviable And to have a fate so beautiful More than one would have given his life; For on your breast I have my tomb, And on the alabaster on which I repose A poet with a kiss Wrote, "Here lies a rose Of which all kings will be jealous."

[25] Ma belle amie est morte : Je pleurerai toujours Sous la tombe elle emporte Mon âme et mes amours.

Dans le ciel, sans m'attendre, Elle s'en retourna ; L'ange qui l'emmena Ne voulut pas me prendre.

Sur moi la nuit immense S'étend comme un linceul ; Je chante ma romance Que le ciel entend seul.

"Sur les lagunes: Lamento" (On the Lagoons: Lament), with its sombre harmonies and orchestration is imbued with melancholy; the undulating accompaniment suggests the movement of the waves.

On dirait que l'âme éveillée Pleure sous terre à l'unisson De la chanson, Et du malheur d'être oubliée Se plaint dans un roucoulement Bien doucement.

The belles-de-nuit, half closed, Cast their weak and sweet scent Around you, And the ghost in a gentle pose Murmurs, stretching its arms to you: Will you return?

Never again by the grave Will I go, when evening falls In a black cloak, To hear the pale dove Singing at the top of the yew Its plaintive song.

"Au cimetière: Clair de lune" (At the Cemetery: Moonlight), is a further lament, with the bereaved lover now more distant from the memory of his beloved, and perturbed by a ghostly vision of her.

Cette rive, ma chère, On ne la connaît guère Au pays des amours.

The oar is of ivory, The flag is of moire, The rudder of fine gold; I have for ballast an orange, For sail an angel's wing For cabin boy a seraph

Among those are versions sung by Suzanne Danco, Eleanor Steber and Victoria de los Ángeles in mono recordings and Régine Crespin, Leontyne Price, Janet Baker and Frederica von Stade in stereo.

More recent recordings have featured Véronique Gens, Anne Sofie von Otter, Bernarda Fink and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.

Recordings by male singers include those by Nicolai Gedda, Ian Bostridge, Stéphane Degout and José van Dam.

Conductors of other versions have included Ernest Ansermet, Sir John Barbirolli, James Levine, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Charles Munch, Fritz Reiner and Seiji Ozawa.