Here's something you might be interested in.
Photo at left: Barbara Tobler
Springtime and love. Love and springtime. It's happening.
Even the insects are doing it.
I did the six-mile run to the waterfall and back in the Penasquitos Canyon Preserve. The PQ Preserve is one place to experience spring in San Diego.
There were new leaves on the trees, the creek was full enough to chuckle from its hidden location behind groves of California live oaks, and two beetles were stacked on top of each other in the middle of the trail.
Their glossy bodies were shining in the sun. The twelve-year-old in me contemplated squashing them and sending them out in the transport of voluptuousness.
Then I thought that maybe this was their first love and there is only one aria that does the "first love and spring" thing for me.
That aria is Depuis le Jour (duh-pwee luh joor) from Louise by Charpentier.
This aria does qualify as a one-hit wonder since it is routinely performed in concert but Louise is rarely staged.
The story of Louise is about a woman who leaves her family to be with a Bohemian writer. Charpentier wrote the opera based on his real-life lover, named Louise, who left her family to be with him.
The soprano, Mary Garden, who debuted the role in the New York, said of the opera Louise,
"No art work which has ever been written could more fully express its author's life than this one. It is a Montmarte opera, and Charpentier was the King of Montmarte. He was a real Bohemian. Money or fame meant nothing to him."
I love that.
Ms. Garden goes on to claim that as Charpentier was writing Louise, he was slowly starving.
To see the entire interview, follow this link. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30912FE3A5A15738DDDAF0994DA415B878CF1D3
I find Depuis le jour to be utterly ravishing. I will always remember the first time I heard it.
I was at a master class at the big Presbyterian church on 3rd and Date, downtown San Diego. Local soprano Barbara Tobler sang it with just piano accompaniment, and it made me tingle.
I've listened to dozens of sopranos sing this aria. I think Mirella Freni sings it best, but Anna Moffo is by far the sexiest. Renee Fleming also sings it well and is lovely.
I have provided a word-for-word translation of Depuis le jour below. Vive le printemps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8CT1e1z-Qs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP5y16E4eIg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d_8ovQHbF4&feature=related
Depuis le jour où je me suis donnée, Since the day I gave myself,
toute fleurie semble ma destinée. my fate seems all in flower.
Je crois rêver sous un ciel de féerie, I seem to be dreaming beneath a fairy sky,
l'âme encore grisée my soul still enraptured
de ton premier baiser! by that very first kiss!
Quelle belle vie! What a wonderful life!
Mon rêve n'était pas un rêve! My dream was not a dream!
Ah! je suis heureuse! Oh! I am so happy!
L'amour étend sur moi ses ailes! Love spreads its wings over me!
Au jardin de mon coeur In the garden of my heart
chante une joie nouvelle! a new joy sings!
Tout vibre, Everything resonates,
tout se réjouit de mon triomphe! everything rejoices in my triumph!
Autour de moi tout est sourire, About me all is smiles,
lumiére et joie! light and happiness!
Et je tremble délicieusement And I tremble deliciously
Au souvenir charmant at the delightful memory
Du premier jour of the first day
D'amour! of love!
Quelle belle vie! What a glorious life!
Ah! je suis heureuse! trop heureuse... Oh, how happy I am! Too happy!...
Et je tremble délicieusement And I tremble deliciously
Au souvenir charmant at the delightful memory
Du premier jour of the first day
D'amour! of love!
Photo at left: Barbara Tobler
Springtime and love. Love and springtime. It's happening.
Even the insects are doing it.
I did the six-mile run to the waterfall and back in the Penasquitos Canyon Preserve. The PQ Preserve is one place to experience spring in San Diego.
There were new leaves on the trees, the creek was full enough to chuckle from its hidden location behind groves of California live oaks, and two beetles were stacked on top of each other in the middle of the trail.
Their glossy bodies were shining in the sun. The twelve-year-old in me contemplated squashing them and sending them out in the transport of voluptuousness.
Then I thought that maybe this was their first love and there is only one aria that does the "first love and spring" thing for me.
That aria is Depuis le Jour (duh-pwee luh joor) from Louise by Charpentier.
This aria does qualify as a one-hit wonder since it is routinely performed in concert but Louise is rarely staged.
The story of Louise is about a woman who leaves her family to be with a Bohemian writer. Charpentier wrote the opera based on his real-life lover, named Louise, who left her family to be with him.
The soprano, Mary Garden, who debuted the role in the New York, said of the opera Louise,
"No art work which has ever been written could more fully express its author's life than this one. It is a Montmarte opera, and Charpentier was the King of Montmarte. He was a real Bohemian. Money or fame meant nothing to him."
I love that.
Ms. Garden goes on to claim that as Charpentier was writing Louise, he was slowly starving.
To see the entire interview, follow this link. http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30912FE3A5A15738DDDAF0994DA415B878CF1D3
I find Depuis le jour to be utterly ravishing. I will always remember the first time I heard it.
I was at a master class at the big Presbyterian church on 3rd and Date, downtown San Diego. Local soprano Barbara Tobler sang it with just piano accompaniment, and it made me tingle.
I've listened to dozens of sopranos sing this aria. I think Mirella Freni sings it best, but Anna Moffo is by far the sexiest. Renee Fleming also sings it well and is lovely.
I have provided a word-for-word translation of Depuis le jour below. Vive le printemps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8CT1e1z-Qs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP5y16E4eIg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d_8ovQHbF4&feature=related
Depuis le jour où je me suis donnée, Since the day I gave myself,
toute fleurie semble ma destinée. my fate seems all in flower.
Je crois rêver sous un ciel de féerie, I seem to be dreaming beneath a fairy sky,
l'âme encore grisée my soul still enraptured
de ton premier baiser! by that very first kiss!
Quelle belle vie! What a wonderful life!
Mon rêve n'était pas un rêve! My dream was not a dream!
Ah! je suis heureuse! Oh! I am so happy!
L'amour étend sur moi ses ailes! Love spreads its wings over me!
Au jardin de mon coeur In the garden of my heart
chante une joie nouvelle! a new joy sings!
Tout vibre, Everything resonates,
tout se réjouit de mon triomphe! everything rejoices in my triumph!
Autour de moi tout est sourire, About me all is smiles,
lumiére et joie! light and happiness!
Et je tremble délicieusement And I tremble deliciously
Au souvenir charmant at the delightful memory
Du premier jour of the first day
D'amour! of love!
Quelle belle vie! What a glorious life!
Ah! je suis heureuse! trop heureuse... Oh, how happy I am! Too happy!...
Et je tremble délicieusement And I tremble deliciously
Au souvenir charmant at the delightful memory
Du premier jour of the first day
D'amour! of love!