Berlioz’s “Les Nuits d’été” (“The Summer Nights”)
Mezzo-soprano Megan Moore and The Orchestra Now, conducted by Jean-Marie Zeitouni, perform Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été (The Summer Nights) in a livestreamed concert from the Fisher Center at Bard on September 30, 2023.
0:39 Villanelle
3:00 Le Spectre de la rose (The Spectre of the Rose)
8:58 Sur les lagunes: Lamento (On the Lagoons: Lament)
14:54 Absence
19:49 Au cimetière: Clair de lune (In the Cemetery: Moonlight)
24:35 L’île inconnue (The Unknown Island)
Hector Berlioz
Born: 12/11/1803 in La Côte-Saint-André, Isère, France
Died: 3/8/1869 at age 65 in Paris
Written: 1840–41, in Berlioz’s mid 30s
Orchestrated: 1843, ‘55, ‘56
Absence Premiered: with piano accompaniment 4/24/1842 in Paris at the Paris Conservatoire; Mme. Mortier vocalist; orchestrated version 2/23/1843 in Leipzig, Germany at the Leipzig Gewandhaus; Berlioz conductor; Marie Recio mezzo-soprano
Le Spectre de la rose Premiered: orchestrated version 2/6/1856 in Gotha, Germany; Berlioz conductor; Mme. Falconi vocalist
>Read concert notes by TŌN cellist Eva Roebuck