69

Sérénade

27 bars

voice and piano

Poem: Michel Carré (1802–72), solely credited for the song although it originated as no. 8 Chanson, sung by Nadir in the opera Les Pêcheurs de perles, to whose libretto Jules Barbier also contributed.

De mon amie,

Fleur endormie

Au fond du lac silencieux,

J'ai vu dans l'onde

Claire et profonde

Étinceler le front joyeux

Et les doux yeux !

Ma bien-aimée

Est enfermée

Dans un palais d’or et d’azur ;

Je l'entends rire

Et je vois luire,

Sous le cristal du gouffre obscur

Son regard pur !

Composition: The song is taken from the opera Les Pêcheurs de perles, composed in 1863 and first performed on 30-9-1863. For publication in Vingt Mélodies Bizet wrote a new three-bar close.

Autograph score: F-Pmlm. No. 10, Sérénade, 30-stave paper, 1 f., recto only, prepared for the Vingt Mélodies and marked up by the engraver. In A minor. At the top of the page, the heading No 7 Sérénade (1) has been corrected to show the number 10 instead. Facsimile in Vente Drouot catalogue, Paris, 3-12-2002, lot 20.

Printed scores:

1 Choudens, 1863, as an extract from the opera, in two keys.
2 Choudens, as no. 10 in Vingt mélodies, 1873, as Sérénade, in two keys. The higher key is C minor.
3 Choudens, 265 rue St Honoré, pl. no. A.C. 2472, c. 1872.
4
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.
5
Durdilly, as no. 558 in Série 23 of Édition française, c. 1890 (lower key). GB-NWm.
6 Hansen, Copenhagen, pl. no. 12386, 1898, in Swedish, French and Danish, as Sérénade.

Bibliography

Dean 172-73
Lacombe 303