Au cimitière, Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été - Claire Galloway & Stuart Malina Market Square Concerts

5. Au cimitière
Hector Berlioz
Les Nuits d'été
Claire Galloway, Soprano & Maestro Stuart Malina, Pianist
Market Square Concert Series
Market Square Presbyterian Church
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
April 28th, 2024
In the Cemetry
Original French Text by Théophile Gautier
English translation by Claire Galloway
Do you know the white tomb
Where there floats with a plaintive sound
The shadow of a yew?
Upon the yew, a pale dove,
Sad and alone, in the setting sun,
Sings its song.
A song delicately tender,
At the same time charming and fatal,
Which does you harm
And yet that one wants to hear forever.
A song, like a sigh from the heavens
By an angel in love.
One would say that the awakened soul
Cries beneath the earth in unison
With the song,
And from the unhappiness of being forgotten
Moans in a cooing,
So very sweetly.
Upon the wings of the music
One feels slowly returning
A memory;
A shadow, an angelic form
Passes in a trembling beam
In a white veil.
The four-o-clocks flowers, half closed,
Throw their perfume, weak and sweet,
Around you,
And the phantom with soft outlines,
Murmurs, taking you by the arm,
"You will come back!"
Oh! Never again close to the tomb
Shall I go when the evening falls
In a black overcoat,
To listen to the pale dove
Singing on the branch of the yew
Its plaintive song!
Concert Sponsors: Hilary M. Simpson
Season Sponsor: The Carole DeSoto Foundation
About the performers:
Stuart Malina - www.stuartmali...
Claire Galloway - www.clairegall...
Jonathan Hays - www.jonathanhay...
Recorded by Peter Sirotin
Film by Carina Seltzer, Mick Corman, Maya Nelson and Blaise Falkenstein
For more information about Market Square Concerts, visit www.marketsquar...