ORR232_ Book.qxd

Pauline Viardot
Poem by Gustave de la Renaudière (1812-1862)
‘En mer’ (At sea) [CD 2 Track 14]
(pub. 1849)
Dedicated to Berlioz
VLADIMIR CHERNOV
IN THE 1840s, Berlioz’s relationship with Viardot was strictly a professional
one. In the year of her greatest triumph at the Paris Opéra, she dedicated this
song to Berlioz. He was not enamoured of the music of Meyerbeer, but wrote
with great enthusiasm about her performance as Fidès in Le Prophète. The great
collaboration between Berlioz and Viardot, though, was their work together as
he prepared his edition of Gluck’s Orphée which proved to be her most
admired role. Berlioz described the impact she made: ‘If you could see how
little she resembles a woman in male costume…she suggests a young poet of
the ancient world…with accents, poses, facial expressions to make the heart
turn over.’
La lune dans les cieux The moon in the skies,
Promenant ses clartés, promenading its brightness,
Se mire sur les flots, was reflected
Sur les flots argentés. in the silver waves.
Je voguais solitaire, et, I was rowing by myself and,
M’éloignant des grèves, pulling away from shore,
–92–