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Pauline Viardot<br />
French words by Louis Pomey<br />
‘Havanaise’ [CD 2 Track 23]<br />
FREDERICA VON STADE, ANNA CATERINA ANTONACCI, VLADIMIR CHERNOV<br />
AS WELL as the music of Spain, Cuban rhythms started to take hold of the<br />
Parisians’ fancy during the Second Empire. Songs by Sebastián de Yradier (‘La<br />
Paloma’ and ‘El arreglito’, which was used by Bizet for the Habanera in<br />
Carmen) became all the rage. Here, in this seductive song, Viardot joins in<br />
the fashion.<br />
Sur la rive le flot d’argent Upon the shore the silver waves<br />
En chantant brise mollement, murmur as they softly break,<br />
Et des eaux avec le ciel pur and ocean merges with the limpid sky<br />
Au lointain se confond l’azur. upon the blue horizon.<br />
Quel doux hymne la mer soupire! How sweet the song sighed by the sea!<br />
Viens, c’est nous que sa voix attire, Come, its voice is calling us,<br />
Sois, ô belle, moins rebelle! be not, my pretty one, so stubborn!<br />
Ah! Ah!<br />
À ses chants laisse-toi charmer! Yield to the enchantment of its songs!<br />
Viens, c’est là que l’on sait aimer. Come, that is where we shall know love.<br />
–105–
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