Hector Berlioz. Nuits d’été
Vocal symphony cycle for mezzo-soprano and orchestra.
Performed by Elena Zhidkova (mezzo-soprano)
Igor Stravinsky. Oedipus Rex
Opera-oratorio in two acts
Performed in concert
The Narrator – Gérard Depardieu
Mariinsky Theatre Chorus and Symphony Orchestra
Principal Chorus Master: Andrei Petrenko
Hector Berlioz (1803–1868) periodically returned to the vocal cycle Nuits d’été over the course of twenty years. The first – unpublished – version of the cycle dates from 1834 and is dedicated to the composer’s acquaintance Louise Bertin (what the relationship was between her and Berlioz was not even mentioned in his autobiography Memoirs), but in the second version of 1841 the composer dedicated Nuits d’été to other people. Ultimately, in 1856 Berlioz returned yet again to this cycle of romances to create an orchestral version of the piano part; in so doing, the great French musical revolutionary of his age once again opened up a hitherto unexplored field in art: before Berlioz, vocal cycles with orchestral accompaniment had never been written. Fate decreed that it was the version with orchestral accompaniment that the cycle won renown and became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the Western European lyrical chamber and vocal repertoire. To create Nuits d’été Berlioz turned to his friend for his source material – the French romantic poet Théophile Gautier’s anthology Comédie de la mort – and he arranged six of these poems to music: Villanelle, Le Spectre de la rose, Sur les lagunes, Absence, Au cimetière and L’Île inconnue. The general title of the cycle – Nuits d’été – does not feature with Gautier; it was conceived by Berlioz himself, in part to pay a tribute of respect to one of the great heroes of his entire life, his beloved Shakespeare (making the audience think of the comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Like most artists of the romantic movement, found it hard to separate the content of his works from his own personal human experiences; and so the composer’s inner world, full of emotional extremes and his irrepressible and feverous temperament with its truly confessional fullness and sincerity are to be seen in many of his works (the most famous being the Symphonie fantastique). The most interesting point when working on the cycle Nuits d’été came at the turn of the 1830s-40s – a time of disappointment for Berlioz regarding the greatest passion in his life – the English actress Harriet Smithson. The mood of despair and interminability, also linked to Berlioz professional failures in this difficult period of his stormy life, could not but be reflected in the romances of the cycle. The sequence of the light and pastorale sketches, filled with a truly French love of the beauty of nature (and it is precisely this kind of sequence that we should expect from the cycle after the first romance – Villanelle, Italian for “village”), appears in the form of a dramatically integral and psychological effusion where the tragic monologue Sur les lagunes (which has the subtitle Lamento) is followed by a pathos-filled “break-through” of declamation – the romance Absence. The fifth part of the cycle – Au cimetière – surprises us because of the story of loneliness at the grave of a loved one in the light key of D Major (which, apropos, is intense in expressive harmony colours in minor key). Finally, the last romance, L’Île inconnue, replaces the typical romantic transition from gloomy and cruel actuality to the desired ideal, a transition that may be achieved only in the hero’s imagination. Marina Iovleva | Oedipus Rex
Cast
Synopsis
of the opera
Prologue
Act I
Act II
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As part of the Year of Russia and France 2010 |