This recording features the Ontario Youth Choir (2018), Jon Washburn conducting.
Après un rêve
Après un rêve (Op. 7 No. 1) is one of Fauré’s most beautiful and beloved mélodies. This choral version retains Fauré’s original melody and piano parts. The other accompanying vocal parts have been added by the arranger. The poem is by Romain Bussine, who adapted it from an old anonymous Italian text. In this song the poet or main character is yet another unrequited lover, a figure very familiar to devotees of the vocal art. He finds temporary solace in his dream of the enchanted one… at least, until he wakes again to lonely reality.
Dans un sommeil que charmait ton image
Je rêvais le bonheur, ardent mirage,
Tes yeux étaient plus doux, ta voix pure et sonore,
Tu rayonnais comme un ciel éclairé par l’aurore;
Tu m’appelais et je quittais la terre
Pour m’enfuir avec toi vers la lumière,
Les cieux pour nous entr’ouvraient leurs nues,
Splendeurs inconnues, lueurs divines entrevues.
Hélas! Hélas, triste réveil des songes
Je t’appelle, ô nuit, rends-moi tes mensonges.
Reviens, reviens, radieuse,
Reviens, ô nuit mystérieuse!
~ Romain Bussine, based on an anonymous Tuscan poem
After a dream
In a slumber enchanted with a vision of you
I dreamt of happiness, ardent illusion,
Your eyes were more tranquil, your voice pure and full,
You shone like a sky illumined at daybreak;
You called me and I departed the earth
To escape with you towards the light,
The heavens half-opened their clouds for us,
Glimpses of unknown splendours, divine gleamings.
Alas! Alas, sad awakening from dreams,
I beseech thee, O night, restore your deceptions to me,
Come back, come back, radiant light,
Come again, O mysterious night!
~ English translation by Jon Washburn and Steven Bélanger (2021)
