"Romeo, trembling with an anxious joy, reveals himself to Juliet."
From Part I, the Prologue to Berlioz's R&J "dramatic symphony"
SMALL CHORUS: The feast is concluded,
and when all noise dies down,
under the arches one hears
weary dancers grow more distant, singing.
Alas! -- and Romeo sighs,
for he has had to leave Juliet! --
Suddenly, in order to breathe again
that air that she breathes,
he vaults over the garden walls.
Already on her balcony the pale Juliet appears --
and believing herself alone until daybreak
confides to the night her love.
[1:28] Romeo, trembling with an anxious joy,
reveals himself to Juliet,
and from his heart fires burst forth in their turn.
New England Conservatory Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, October 1975
[NOTE: For the immediately following alto-solo "strophes" (stanzas), "Premiers transports que nul n'oublie," scroll down a ways. -- Ed.]
From Part III: "Où sont-ils maintenant?" ("Where are they now?")
CHORUS OF CAPULETS AND MONTAGUES:
Ah! what a frightful mystery!
[0:30] Récit., Father Laurence, "Je vais dévoiler le mystère"
I am going to unveil the mystery.
This corpse, this was the husband of Juliet.
Do you see that body laid out on the ground?
That was the wife, alas!, of Romeo.
It's I who had married them.
BOTH CHORUSES: Married?
FATHER LAURENCE: Yes, I must confess it.
I saw in it a salutary marker
of a future friendship between your two houses.
BOTH CHORUSES: Friends of the Montagues/Capulets, us!
We curse them!
FATHER LAURENCE: But you've restarted the war between families!
To flee another marriage, the unhappy girl came to find me.
"You alone," she cried, "would be able to save me!
There's nothing more for me but to die!"
In this extreme peril
I had her take, in order to ward off fate,
a potion, which that same evening
lent her the pallor and cold of death.
BOTH CHORUSES: A potion!
FATHER LAURENCE: And I came without fear
here to rescue her.
But Romeo, deceived,
to the pregnant funeral
had arrived ahead of me -- to die
on the body of of his beloved;
and promptly on her awakening
Juliet, informed
of this death that he bears in his devastated breast,
with Romeo's sword had armed herself against herself
and passed into eternity
when I appeared -- there is the whole truth.
BOTH CHORUSES: Married!
[3:27] Air, Father Laurence, "Pauvres enfants, que je pleure"
Poor children, for whom I weep,
fallen together before your time,
on your somber resting place will come to weep.
Great through you in history,
Verona one day, without thinking about it,
will have its sorrow and its glory
solely in the memory of you.
[6:19] Where are they now, those fierce enemies?
Capulets, Montagues! Come, come, touch,
hatred in your hearts, insults in your mouth,
these pale lovers, barbarians, approach!
God punishes you in your tendernesses.
His chastisements, his avenging thunderbolts
hold the secret of our terrors.
Listen to his voice which thunders:
so that on high My vengeance will pardon you,
forget, forget your own furies!
José van Dam (bs-b), Father Laurence; New England Conservatory Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, October 1975
by Ken
AS WE LEARNED FROM THE CONVERSATIONS WITH SEIJI
IN THE BERLIN PHILHARMONIC'S DIGITAL CONCERT HALL --
I hadn't remembered until prompted by the BSO's excellent website "Tribute to Seiji Ozawa" that the new music director in fact kicked off his Boston tenure with Berlioz's Damnation of Faust -- not just in Symphony Hall but shortly thereafter in Carnegie Hall, and also in a recording for DG. That sticks in memory for me because I was sent to Boston by Len Marcus, my boss at High Fidelity Magazine, in what I'm thinking was my second year as music editor, to observe one of the recording sessions for a "Behind the Scenes" report, about which I'll say a little more when we get to our third "musical talking point," "Pandaemonium" from Part IV of Damnation.
Which is a common -- I'm tempted to say constant -- characteristic of Seiji's conducting: the way his imagination seemed so unfailingly to inhabit both the largest contours and smallest details of a score. Before his story turned into an obituary we were already relishing once again his 1979 BSO recording of Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder, which has these same qualities: splendid orchestral playing, outstanding singing, and an overriding sense of "rightness" in the re-creation of the piece itself. It shouldn't be surprising that two composers who flourish particularly under this kind of deep understanding are Berlioz and Mahler, composers he told us in those interviews were new to him when he arrived in Europe to make his way in the musical world. At first he found their music strange, but quickly enough it was their very strangeness, or should we say individuality, that drew him back. We'll be dealing with Mahler in our fourth "musical talking point -- again, though, I think if I were asked to recommend a single recorded Mahler symphony cycle, there's a good chance it would be Seiji's.
I'm not going to say much about the "rightness" of his Berlioz Roméo. I'd rather let the performance speak for itself. We're going to backtrack to Part I and hear it first broken into sections and then put back together. Then, after a stopover in Part II, where I think we can hear in the "Love Scene" why Berlioz chose to make a "dramatic symphony" rather than an opera of the R&J story, we're do a breakdown of the his Finale, where we can hear him carrying his deep understanding of Shakespeare a step further: casting a stern eye on a society that allows, even encourages, the waste of its most precious resource, its children.
YES, BERLIOZ CHOOSES TO TELL THE R&J STORY TWICE
And for the first time through, in the Prologue, he devised a remarkable mode of musical narration, performed mostly by a "small chorus" of altos, tenors, and basses, but with an assortment of other musical strategies to give the composer. Get it right and it can create a feeling of classical "legendariness," and also of immediacy and intimacy. Seiji and his team don't call attention to how they're doing it; they just get it incredibly right.
[a] Orchestral introduction: Allegro fugato
As the tempo marking suggests, Berlioz drops us into Verona's blood feud with an orchestral-fugue opening.
Combat -- tumult -- intervention of the Prince
[b] Narration, small chorus with alto solo, "D'anciennes haines endormies ont surgi comme de l'Enfer"
Just as we're settling into the novel small-chorus narrative form, Berlioz taps an alto soloist to introduce us to the two centeral characters. We weren't expecting that, were we? In fact, his idea was to place the soloist with the choral altos, leaving us even less prepared for this twist.
SMALL CHORUS: Ancient hatreds, dormant,
have resurged, as if from Hell;
Capulets, Montagues, two warring houses,
have crossed swords in Verona;
but these bloody disorders
have been put down by the Prince,
threatening with death those who despite his orders
would have recourse still to the justice of steel.
In these instants of calm a feast is given
by the old chief of the Capulets.
ALTO SOLO: Young Romeo, lamenting his destiny,
comes sadly to wander all around the palace;
for he loves with passion Juliet,
the daughter of the enemies of his family.
The noise of instruments, melodious songs
emerges from salons where gold shines,
exciting both dance and joyous outbursts.
SMALL CHORUS: The feast is concluded,
and when all noise dies down,
under the arches one hears
weary dancers grow more distant, singing.
Alas! -- and Romeo sighs,
for he has had to leave Juliet! --
Suddenly, in order to breathe again
that air that she breathes,
he vaults over the garden walls.
Already on her balcony the pale Juliet appears --
and believing herself alone until daybreak
confides to the night her love.
Romeo, trembling with an anxious joy,
reveals himself to Juliet,
and from his heart fires burst forth in their turn.
with Julia Hamari, mezzo-soprano
[c] Strophes (stanzas), alto solo, "Premiers transports que nul n'oublie" ("First transports that no one forgets")
It turns out that Berlioz had an even larger use in mind for his alto soloist, namely these gorgeous "stanzas." Warning: We're going to be making a detour before continuing with the Prologue.
[0:01] First transports that no one forgets,
first declarations, first vows of two lovers.
Under the stars of Italy,
in that warm air without breezes,
which distant orange blossoms scent,
where the nightingale wastes away with long sighs.
[1:11] What art, in its chosen tongue,
could describe your heavenly delights?
First love, are you not
more exalted than all poetry?
Or rather are you not, in our mortal exile,
that poetry itself
of which Shakespeare alone had the supreme secret,
and which he took with him . . .
[SEMI-CHORUS joining in] to heaven?
[3:00] Happy children with hearts on fire!
Joined in love by the chance of a single look,
hide it well under the shadow of flowers,
that divine fire that sets you ablaze,
ecstasy so pure that its words are tears.
[4:11] What king could match the transports
of your chaste delights?
Happy children! and what treasures
could purchase a single one of your sighs?
Ah! savor for a long time that cup of honey,
sweeter than the chalices
from which God's angels, jealous of your delights,
draw happiness . . .
[SEMI-CHORUS joining in] in heaven!
with Julia Hamari, mezzo-soprano
OTHER VERSIONS OF THE STROPHES WE'VE HEARD[d] Récit. & scherzetto, "Bientôt de Roméo la pâle rêverie" ("Soon Romeo's pallid reverie" . . . "Mab! la messagère fluette et légère" ("Mab! the fluid and light messenger") . . . "Bientôt la mort est souveraine" ("Soon death is sovereign")
This is the aforementioned detour. I don't want to leave Berlioz's ravishing testimonial to those "premiers transports que nul n'oublie" without at least listening to some other versions we've heard. We could easily have cast a wider net for this unforgettable solo, which is perhaps at the beating heart of what I described in a June 2010 post as "Berlioz tackl[ing] that most basic and intimate issue, the terrifying vulnerability of owning up to loving." I gravitate here to the deeper vocal weight and color of contralto-y mezzos like Regina Resnik (whom we'll be hearing as Pierre Monteux's alto soloist) and Florence Quivar (heard below with Charles Dutoit), but the solo can work fine with a more conventional-type mezzo like Seiji's alto soloist, the lovely Hungarian mezzo Julia Hamari, or Rosalind Elias in Charles Munch's 1961 stereo remake of his 1953 BSO Roméo.
Florence Quivar, mezzo-soprano; Montreal Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Charles Dutoit, cond. Decca, recorded in the Église de Saint-Eustache, 1985
Rosalind Elias, mezzo-soprano; New England Conservatory Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch, cond. RCA, recorded in Symphony Hall, Apr. 23-24, 1961
Okay, another soloist, this time intertwined with the small chorus -- to very different effect from either of the alto solos. If you're wondering what a "scherzetto" is, it's pretty much what it says: a little scherzo. Spoiler alert: Although we're not going to hear it, later on Berlioz is going to give us a full-blown Mab-themed Scherzo, an orchestral tour de force that used to be heard frequently -- back in the decades when the complete Berlioz Roméo et Juliette wasn't frequently performed -- as one of several purely orchestral excerpts that could be performed as a sort-of-suite.
TENOR and SMALL CHORUS: Soon Romeo's pallid reverie
puts all his friends in a state of gaiety.
"My dear," says elegant Mercutio,
"I bet that Queen Mab has visited you."
Scherzetto, "Mab! la messagère fluette et légère"
Mab! the delicate and light messenger,
she has for chariot a nutshell
that a squirrel fashioned;
the fingers of a spider spun her narness.
During the nights the fairy, with this slender crew,
gallops madly in the brain of a page
who dreams of mischievous trickery or tender serenading
in the moonlight under the tower.
In pursuing her ride the little queen falls
on the bronzed neck of a soldier:
He dreams of cannonades and sharp thrusts, drums, trumpets.
He wakes up and first of all swears,
and prays while still swearing,
then falls asleep again and snores with his comrades.
It's Mab who who created this bacchanal.
It's she again who in a dream dresses
the young girl and brings her back to the ball.
But the cock crows, day breaks,
Mab flies like a flash into the air.
[1:54] SMALL CHORUS: Soon death is sovereign.
Capulets, Montagues, tamed by the great sorrow,
are reconciled finally to abjure the hatred
that caused the shedding of so much blood and tears.
Julia Hamari, mezzo-soprano (in [b] and [c]); New England Conservatory Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, October 1975
THE PLAN WAS TO BREAK THE PROLOGUE DOWN
AND THEN PUT IT BACK TOGETHER, BUT --
We're also going to hear another version, just to mix it up a little.
BERLIOZ: Roméo et Juliette (dramatic symphony), Op. 17:
Part I (complete)
[a] Introduction: combat -- tumult - intervention of the Prince
[b] "D'anciennes haines endormies ont surgi comme l'Enfer"
[c] Strophes, "Premiers transports que nul n'oublie"
[d] Récit. & scherzetto, "Mab! la messagère fluette et légère"
[(a) at 0:01, (b) at 4:14, (c) at 8:44, (d) at 14:53] Julia Hamari, mezzo-soprano; Jean Dupouy, tenor; New England Conservatory Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, October 1975
[(a) at 0:01, (b) at 4:52, (c) at 9:23, (d) at 15:19] Regina Resnik, mezzo-soprano; André Turp, tenor; London Symphony Orchestra Chorus, London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux, cond. Westminster-MCA-Decca, recorded in Walthamstow Town Hall, June 1962
[NOTE: We'll have more of the Monteux Roméo below, with a tiny bit of fond remembrance of it.]
BEFORE JUMPING TO THE FINALE, LET'S SAVOR
"THE LONG RAPTURES OF THE 'LOVE SCENE' " (PART II)
The "long raptures" description comes from that fine Berlioz appreciator David Cairns, who went on in that liner note to write:
This is the moment towards which everything has been growing and in the radiant light of which the ensuing tragedy is seen. Of all Berlioz's music it is perhaps in this movement that his obsession with the Romantic idea of a total, all-embracing love found fullest expression.Berlioz believed that enough efforts had been made to re-create Romeo and Juliet with song, and that it might be more interesting to dramatize their feelings and passions through purely orchestral means. It's hard to argue, listening to the "Scène d'amour."
We come in following a musically depicted "Great Fête at the Capulets'," with the last of the guests departing.
Serene night -- The Capulet garden, silent and deserted
Young Capulets leaving the feast pass singing reminiscences of the music of the ball.
Hey, Capulets! Good night, good night!
Hey, good night, gents, good-bye!
Ah, what a night! What a feast!
Divine ball! What a feast!
What mad talk!
Beautiful Véronaises!
Under the great larch trees!
Go dream of ball and of love!
Go, go, go!
To dream of love until morning.
Tra la la la la la.
New England Conservatory Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, October 1975
No, Seiji doesn't get as much out of the great Adagio of the "Love Scene" as Pierre Monteux. He wasn't given to particularly fast or slow tempos, yet he doesn't cheat the scene in any way -- that's a pretty gorgeous performance too. And when you're holding your own against "Papa" Monteux and the full wisdom of his 87 years, in my book you're doing just fine.
FINALLY WE RETURN TO THE FINALE, AND THE
PERSUASIVE PREACHINGS OF FATHER LAURENCE
It's hard to overstate how important Shakespeare was to Berlioz, who knew, loved, and understood the master, whom he channeled even when he wasn't working on specifically Shakespearean material. It has been suggested that his most ambitious work, the epic opera Les Troyens (The Trojans)
, though obviously rooted in the ancient Greco-Roman world (does it get more classical than Virgil?), is dramatized on Shakespearean models.
Obviously one attraction for Berlioz of the R&J material was the conviction that music had still more to bring to the star-crossed lovers' story. But when we get to the final part of his Roméo et Juliette symphony, I think we can hear that he had another agenda: rage at a society that not only allows but encourages the unthinking, unconscionable destruction of its most precious resource, its children. And so he reconstituted Shakespeare's Friar Lawrence into le père Laurence, who has the same plot function in the events leading up to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet but in the aftermath becomes Verona's avenging angel.
The problem is that if his scene isn't really well realized -- both vocally and dramatically, it can be tedious or worse (especially if it's not well sung), seeming to go on forever. And while it's possible that José van Dam could have made as much with that great scene with some other conductor, I think it's more than a coincidence that, teamed up with Seiji, he produced one of the great vocal performances on records. Let's hear how he does it, chunk by chunk -- noting that for all the benevolence our Father Laurence brings to this critical moment in Veronese life, this is also a seriously angry padre. Of course he has his own part to answer for in the sequence of events, and so a certain amount of the rage boiling inside him is directed at himself, but he's not letting the rest of the community off the hook either.
There are delicious moments when the rage bubbles over, like when his eulogizing of the dead children leads to the question "Où sont-ils maintenant?" ("Where are they now?"), or when both the Capulets and Montagues fall back into their habitual vituperation and he roars "Silence! Malheureux!," which I've translated as "Silence! Malcontents!" People who can be addressed as "malheureux aren't necessarily worse than "unhappy," but malheureux can cover a range of miseries, and clearly the good father has something stronger in mind.
SO AGAIN, LET'S HEAR THE SCENE TAKE SHAPE,
THEN PUT IT BACK TOGETHER (AND HEAR IT TWICE)
Roméo et Juliette: from Part III, the Finale --
(1) Montagues, then Capulets, "Quoi! Roméo de retour" ...
Father Laurence, "Je vais dévoiler le mystére"
The assembled Capulets and Montagues rush to the cemetery.
CHORUS OF CAPULETS AND MONTAGUES:
What! Romeo returned! Romeo!
For Juliet he shuts himself in the tomb
of the Capulets whom his family abhors.
The Montagues have broken into the tomb
of Juliet, expired at dawn.
Ah! a curse on them!
Juliet!
Romeo!
Heaven! Dead, both of them,
and their blood is still warm!
What a mystery! Ah! what a frightful mystery!
Recit., Father Laurence, "Je vais dévoiler le mystère"
I am going to unveil the mystery.
This corpse, this was the husband of Juliet.
Do you see that body laid out on the ground?
That was the wife, alas!, of Romeo.
It's I who had married them.
BOTH FAMILIES: Married?
FATHER LAURENCE: Yes, I must confess it.
I saw in it a salutary marker
of a future friendship between your two houses.
BOTH FAMILIES: Friends of the Montagues/Capulets, us!
We curse them!
FATHER LAURENCE: But you've restarted the war between families!
To flee another marriage, the unhappy girl came to find me.
"You alone," she cried, "would be able to save me!
There's nothing more for me but to die!"
In this extreme peril
I had her take, in order to ward off fate,
a potion, which that same evening
lent her the pallor and cold of death.
BOTH FAMILIES: A potion!
FATHER LAURENCE: And I came without fear
here to rescue her.
But Romeo, deceived,
to the pregnant funeral
had arrived ahead of me -- to die
on the body of of his beloved;
and promptly on her awakening
Juliet, informed
of this death that he bears in his devastated breast,
with Romeo's sword had armed herself against herself
and passed into eternity
when I appeared -- there is the whole truth.
BOTH FAMILIES: Married!
(2) Air, Father Laurence, "Pauvres enfants que je pleure" . .
"Où sont-ils maintenant?"
Poor children, for whom I weep,
fallen together before your time,
on your somber resting place will come to weep.
Great through you in history,
Verona one day, without thinking about it,
will have its sorrow and its glory
solely in the memory of you.
[2:52] "Où sont-ils maintenant?"
Where are they now, those fierce enemies?
Capulets, Montagues! Come, come, touch,
hatred in your hearts, insults in your mouth,
these pale lovers, barbarians, approach!
God punishes you in your tendernesses.
His chastisements, his avenging thunderbolts
hold the secret of our terrors.
Listen to his voice which thunders:
so that on high My vengeance will pardon you,
forget, forget your own furies!
(3) Montagues, then Capulets, "Mais notre sang rougit leur glaive" . . . Father Laurence, "Silence! Malheureux!"
MONTAGUES, then CAPULETS: But our blood reddens their swords,
ours too are raised against them.
They have killed Tybalt! Who killed Mercutio?
And Paris then? And Benvolio?
Traitors, no peace! No!
No, cowars! no truce! No!
[0:33] FATHER LAURENCE: Silence! Malcontents! can you
without remorse in the face of such a love spread so much hate?
Must your rage in this place be unleashed?
Rekindled from the torches of the dead?
Great God who sees into the depths of the soul,
touch these somber and hard hearts.
And may your tutelary breath
at my voice rising on them
chase and disperse their anger
like straw at the will of the wind.
BOTH FAMILIES: O Juliet! Sweet flour!
O Romeo! Young star extinguished!
The Montagues/Capulets are ready themselves
to soften at your destiny.
God! what a strange prodigy!
No more horror,no more gall! But heaven's tears
are completely changing our souls.
(4) Conclusion, from Father Laurence, The Oath,
"Jurez donc par l'auguste symbole"
FATHER LAURENCE: Swear then, by the august symbol,
on the body of the daughter and on the body of the son,
by this sorrowful tree that consoles,
swear all, swear by the sacred crucifix
to seal between you an eternal chain
of tender charity, of fraternal friendship!
And God, God who holds in hand future judgment,
in the book of pardon will inscribe this oath.
[Emphasis added -- by the composer!]
[A small chorus repeats the soloist's exhortation while combined choruses sing their avowed intent to swear the oath.]
[(a) 0:01, (b) 1:21, (c) 4:19, (d) 7:11, (e) 9:06, (f) 9:38, (g) 13:36]
José van Dam (bs-b), Father Laurence; New England Conservatory Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, October 1975
And now the whole scene . . .
BERLIOZ: Roméo et Juliette, Op. 17:
from Part III, the Finale (complete)
[a] Montagues, then Capulets, "Quoi! Roméo de retour!"
[b] Father Laurence, récit. "Je vais dévoiler le mystère"
[c] Father Laurence, air, "Pauvres enfants, que je pleure"
[d] Father Laurence, "Où sont-ils maintenant?"
[e] Montagues, then Capulets, "Mais notre sang rougit leur glaive"
[f] Father Laurence, "Silence! Malheureux!"
[g] Father Laurence, The Oath, "Jurez donc par l'auguste symbole"
[(a) at 0:01, (b) at 1:21, (c) at 4:19, (d) at 7:11, (e) at 9:06, (f) at 9:38, (g) at 13:36] José van Dam (bs-b), Father Laurence; New England Conservatory Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. DG, recorded in Symphony Hall, October 1975
[(a) at 0:01, (b) at 1:31, (c) at 4:19, (d) at 7:04, (e) at 8:40, (f) at 9:24, (g) at 13:19] Giorgio Tozzi (bs), Father Laurence; New England Conservatory Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch, cond. RCA, recorded in Symphony Hall, Apr. 23-24, 1961
UP NEXT: MORE BERLIOZ -- THE DAMNATION OF FAUST
I guess that'll be Part 2c, and we still have to get to Mahler (2d), before rummaging more widely among the SC archival Ozawa holdings (Part 3 and counting).
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