85
Rêve de la bien-aimée
Poem: Louis de Courmont (1828–1900), whose collections include L’Heure de Dieu (1863), Il Pianto, l’Amour dans la nature, la Fleur du souvenir (1864), Lucioles (1868), and Feuilles au vent (1884). The poem Rêve de la bien-aimée was included in the collection Rimes et idées, an anthology by many poets published by Dentu in 1868. This collection also provided the poem of Le Colibri, by Alexandre Flan.
J'ai rêvé que mon cœur était, comme jadis,Une source d'eaux vives ;Et lui, l'oiseau de paradisQui chantait sur ses rives.J'ai rêvé que mon œil était un pur rayonDe l'aube printanière ;Et lui, le léger papillonVolant dans sa lumière.J'ai rêvé que mon corps était inanimé,Plus froid, plus blanc que neige ;Et lui, le linceul bien ferméQui le couvre et protège.J'ai rêvé que ma lèvre était, aux jours heureux,Une grenade éclose ;Et lui, le zéphyr amoureux,Qui sur elle se pose ;J'ai rêvé que mon sein était une oasisDe déserts entourée ;Et lui, le voyageur assisA son ombre dorée.J'ai rêvé que mon âme errait seule au milieuDes ombres éternelles ;Et que lui, mon ange, vers DieuL'emportait sur ses ailes !
Composition: In July 1868 Bizet completed a group of songs for publication by Georges Hartmann, who had just set up in business as a music publisher. This song was adapted posthumously for insertion in two other works: for La Jolie Fille de Perth and Ivan IV.
G.H. 186
title page, music 2–7
1868
Bibliographie de la France, 24-10-1868
Choudens père et fils, pl. no. A.C. 2368, 1872. Reissued from later addresses. GB-NWm.
Choudens père et fils, as no. 5 in Vingt Mélodies, 1873, in two keys. The higher key is C. IMSLP.
Choudens, père et fils, pl. no. A.C. 3599, 1877, in C. GB-NWm. Reissued from later addresses. GB-NWm.
Choudens, c. 1883, inserted in La Jolie Fille de Perth in C as Rêverie, no. 3, with new words.
Schirmer, New York, in Vocal album: thirty-one songs: Volume I, in two keys, in French and English (translated by Eugene Oudin). US-NYp, US-BEm. IMSLP.
Simrock, Berlin, 7 p., 1894, in French and German (translated by Max Kalbeck), inserted in the Simrock vocal score of La Jolie Fille de Perth. D-B
Hansen, Copenhagen, pl. no. 12382, 5 p., 1898, in Swedish, French and Danish. D-B.
Peters, Leipzig, 1914, as no. 4 of Sechs Gesänge, in two keys, in French and German.
Choudens, 1951, inserted in Ivan IV as the Duo for Marie and Ivan in Act III with new words 'Vous seul, mon cher Seigneur'.
Garland, New York, 1995, in Romantic French Song 1830–1870, edited by David Tunley, vol. 4, p. 199–205 (facsimile of Hartmann edition).
Éditions Fuzeau, 2006, in Six Mélodies (facsimile of Hartmann edition).
Bizet's orchestration was incorporated in posthumous (1883) versions of La Jolie Fille de Perth.
Arranged for orchestra 2222-4230-harp-timpani-strings by Paul Bastide (1879-1962). Manuscript in a private collection signed and dated Strasbourg 29-1-1939 and stamped by the Société des Auteurs Compositeurs & Editeurs de Musique on 11-3-1939.
Henri Busser's arrangement was included in the Choudens full score of Ivan IV (1951).
- V. Mauret, J. Zayde c. 1954
- Dean 75, 155, 268, 290, 292
- Wright 34, 67, 78, 381
- Lacombe 359, 423, 638