1990 - 1995
Printable version of Notes only
Printable version of Texts/Translations only
Dominick Argento
A Waterbird Talk (complete)
During the summer of 1985 while I was preparing for my Alice Tully Hall recital, I was having a Mexican dinner with the composer Stephen Paulus whose "ArtSongs" I would give the first New York performance. Knowing my ability as a pianist, he recommended that I look at Dominick Argento's one-man opera "A Waterbird Talk" - an opera that "requires" the singer to play the piano.
A Waterbird Talk was first performed on May 19, 1977 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, N. Y., by the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble under the direction of Philip Brunelle with Vern Sutton, a favored colleague of the composer, as the Lecturer. It was directed by Ian Strasfogel. I later bought the score but did not have the where-with-all just to learn it without a performance looming in the near future. The difficulty of the work was something that would require a long period of study, not to mention the difficulty of finding someone to accompany the learning process.
That opportunity came four years later when Lynn Taylor Hebden, the Alumnae director at the Peabody Institute called me. She said that the school was planning a tribute to one of its alumnae, Dominick Argento on February 2, 1990 and would like to ask me to sing "A Waterbird Talk." I didn't have to think about it. After doing all of my initial study, I hired a cracker-jack of a pianist, Christopher Oldfather, to help me with the score. He played it flawlessly.
This recording is from the second staged performance, eighteen days later, on February 22, 1990, at a chamber music concert. During this performance, just as my fingers hit the piano keyboard, I discovered major obstruction in its mechanism: a percussionist, not knowing the piano was to be used in the second half of the concert, had hastily wrapped brass temple bells in a blue t-shirt and "stored" them inside the piano. I stopped the action momentarily, removed the saucer-sized bells and continued again. For the sake of completeness, I have spliced into this performance that 16-second moment from the previous performance.
The Peabody Camerata was conducted by Gene Young. Roger Brunyate was the gifted designer and director. I wish to thank Dominique Sertel of Berlin, Germany for his re-mastering of this tape.
01 The Lecturer (Theme - String Quintet)
02 The Cormorant (Variation I - Romanza: Clarinet and Marimba)
03 The Roseate Tern (Variation II - Barcarolle: Harp and Glockenspiel)
04 The Phalarope (Variation III - Spinning Song: Flute and Celesta)
05 The Lecturer (Variation IV - Consolation: Piano Solo)
06 The Puffin (Variation V - Marcia all'italiana: Horn and Timpani)
07 The Grebe (Variation VI - Elegy: Oboe and Chimes)
08 The Lecturer(Coda - String Quintet)
Claude Debussy
Pelléas et Mélisande
In spite of the fact that I had lost a great amount of visual and aural ability, I could not dismiss a one final opportunity to sing Pelléas. Being aware of that, I respectfully invite the listener to strengthen their patience when poor tuning occurs.
In the fall of 1994, I received a flyer in the mail announcing auditions for a concert version of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande with piano, conducted by Michel Singher, the son of the great french baritone and first Metropolitan Opera baritone Pell%#233;as, Martial Singher. Even though I was unable to consult the printed score, I immediately began training again, this time with Deborah Birnbaum (a pupil of Montserrat Caballe), and sang for Michel. I wish to thank him for this opportunity - he literally fulfilled my life-long dream of singing this role and it's almost as if my dream came full circle.
All rehearsals were held in my New York apartment and the entire opera was quickly prepared through December and into 1995.
There were two complete performances as well as two of excerpts in four different locations around Manhattan. This excerpt, the Tower Scene, heard on January 25, 1995, is from my very first essay of the complete role which took place at the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace House in New York. Carolynn Whyte Kelly sang Mlisande, Michael Lofton portrayed Golaud, Vima Valdya Bauer sang Genevive and Richard Wilmer was Arkel.
with piano
09 Act III, scene 1: Scene de la Tour
with orchestra
At around mid-march of the same year, I received a telephone call from Richard Pittman, conductor of the Concord Community Orchestra in Massachusetts. His orchestra was about to perform a concert version of Pelléas et Mélisande and, through a series of cancellations, needed someone to sing the second half of the role(!). It can best be understood simply put:
Pelléas A canceled.
Pelléas B and Pelléas C were hired to replace Pelléas A.
Pelléas C cancelled.
I, Pellé D, replaced Pelléas C.
The following excerpt is from the first of two concert performances. The cast included Jane West as Mélisande. The performances took place on March 25 and 26, 1995.
10 Act IV, scene 4: La Mort de Pelléas
A Waterbird Talk
(Adaptation ofthe Chekhov monologue " On the Harmfulness Of Tobacco" by the composer)
The Lecturer
(Theme)
String Quintet
(Peering quizzically over the footlights.)
La-dies ...
and.. . gentiemen?
it has been suggested...
(Quick glance into the wings as before.)
...to my wife that I deliver an illustrated leeture, in the interests of charity. I am not, strictly speaking, a professor, nor do I hold any learned degrees. I have,however, over the past thir ty years, developed a certain capacity for observation. More and more it has he come my habit simply to observe; to observe the world about us and to stud y all rnanner of things; to try to understand and to share that understanding with others. Some years ago, I composed a very long essay entitled."Seorpions, Spiders and Centipedes." My daughters all seemed to enjoy it---especially those sections on spider's webs and how they serve as both nest and trap.
(Looks to the wings for help; listens, nods turns back to audience)
but their mother thought it was ...
(His attention is immediately called to the wings again; listens, nods, turns back to announce the correction.)
...'Revulsive'.
'Repulsive'
well, it really doesn't matter: I tore it up anyway.
This evening I would like to talk about "Water Birds" and the human significance of our feathered neighbors. And I will accornpany these brief remarks with sonle iilustrationsof rny own design.
I must tell you first that, fond as I am of birds, I have a terrible dread of water a copletely irrational fear of drowning. But my wife insisted:
'Don't you dare embarrassme againnone of your awful bugs: I warn you!'
So Water Birds it shall be.
The Cormorant
(Variation I)
Romanza: Clarinet and Marimbal
(He projects the first slide: Audubon plate 266.)
Here we have a farnily of Cormorants.Phalacrocorax carbo. They live almost entirely on fish, which they capture, under water by swim-ming with both wings and feet. Shy creatures, really, despite their stern appearance, wary and difficult to approach.
(He demonstrates the correct procedure, slowly approaching the screen with exaggerated caution, holding the pointer behind him.) He remains perplexed. Then he taps the projector with his pointer. The image returns. He grins sheepishly at the audience, then proceeds in earnest.)
The young, here, are taken care of until fullgrown. Why, I have seen as many as six and seven full-grown children virtually crowding the parents out of their own house...
excuse me, their own nest.
In courtship, the male, here, swims about the female raising his wings and tail. He draws his head over his back and cries a guttural note like the grunt of a pig. As he... as he seems to be doing. . . here?
(Something he had not noticed before about the slide catches his eye.)
He goes up to the screen and studies the male Cormorant preclosely, puzzled and suspicious.) His manner clearly suggests that the slide differs from his recollection of it.. but failing to solve the problem, he continues.
Whereupon the femal meekly sinks beneath the water while the male sinks down above her until only his head is to be seen.
For awhile, all is quite still. Then a rippling starts spreading out around him . sdddenly the water seems alive. Soon both spring up and swim joyously in littie circles about each other, happily croaking all the while ...
(His final words are covered by another burst of significant coughing from the wings)
(The Lecturer breaks off and blinks his right eye at the audience.)
I beg your pardon! Whenever I lecture or get excited, my right eye has a tendency to blink like that, a condition I acquired man y years ago. On September thirteenth, to be exact. I remember, it was the very day that my wife gave birth to her fourth daughter, Veronica. Terribly ernbarrassingmy condition, I mean. All her daughters were born on the thirteenth. Once she...
(Renewed coughing from the wings)
... however,
(Glancing at his pocketwatch)
as our time is short...
The Roseate Tern
(Variation II)
Barcarolle: Harp and Glockenspiel
(Projects next stide:Audubon plate 240)
Stern dougali, or the graceful Rose Tern. A bird so ethereal, it seems fit for only the soft airs of the Mediterranean. Mlost graceful of all the waterhirds: they hover so lightly over the waves, I call them 'humming -birds of the sea, the embodiment of youth and jo y. Tley are readily identified by their elegant shape which ta pers and swells in lines of matchless beauty frorn the slender pointed beak to the snow-white tails. But most of all- I should like to point out the delicate, tints and rosy flush of their breasts and underparts here.
Did I tell you that my wife keeps a music school for young ladies?
(Violent coughing from the wings.)
She told me not to forget to mention it here in passing.
(A loud gasp fron the wings and the sound of retreating footsteps.)
A prospectus of the school sells for thirty cents.
(Produces several copies from his pocket.)
Would anyone
care to...
(Sound of a door slam.ming in the wings. He looks in the direction of the sound, momentarily puzzled. Then he looks back at the audience: he is smiling broadlY.)
I could probably, let you have one for tweny cents.
No? Thirteen cents?
(He blinks again and moves closer to the audience.)
Oh, she loves to cornplain, she cornplains all the time about her huge expenses.
(For a moment it appears he is going to resume his lecture.)
(He changes his mind and returns.)
Well I happen to know she has put away for ty thousand in her own name,while I barely manage to...
(Abrupt silence.. a few soft bird calls can be heard.)
well, no use talking about that..
(Looks into wings to confirm his wife's absence.)
I take care of the housekeeping, buy the provixions, look after the servants, keep accounts, walk dogs, catch mice. 0h---not as easy as you might think. Yesterday for example nmning round incircles- trying to do a dozen different errands, I forgot to buy butter and eggs. For dinner she was going to prepare her special pancakes.
0h--- was she furious! 0h---was she furious! Booby! she said - whenever she isin a bad mood,she calls me, she always is "Booby" or "loon!" You booby! Can't you do anything right?"
So, last night "Booby" had to go to bed with out his supper.
(For a few seconds, his thoughts seem to be elsewhere; then:)
So, shall we proceed?...
The Phalarope
(Variation III)
Spinning Song: Flute and Celesta
(Projects another slide: Audubon plate 215.)
(He doesn't notice that the slide is inverted.)
The Northern Phalarope. Lobipes lobatus, or Web-footed Peep: the little swimming Sandpiper. This beautiful bird has the..
(About to point to the lower right edge of the screen he sees his error.)
...interesting habit of spinning around on the... oops Sorry.
(Hastily corrects the slide.)
The Northern Phalarope. Lobipes lobatus, or Web- footed peep, the little swimming Sandpiper. This beautiful bird has the interesting habit of spinning around on the surface of the water, creating tiny whirlpools in order to stir up the miniature marine life on which it feeds. The female, up here, is the larger and brighter colored reversing the usual roles. It is even thought that the female does the courting. The demure little male builds the nest, incubates the eggs, cares for the young like a mother, while the giddy bright ladies all gather together as though they organized women's clubs.
In common, however, with other birds, it is still the male that sings; although unlike the songster birds, doubt that the Phalarope sings to attract a female.
His voice is soft and mellow but sad; the typical note being a little trump, trump, trump, trump. Uttered in a gentle musica manner. Something like this:
( Goes and seats himself at the piano.)
(Strikes a few arpeggios to test the tuning.)
The Lecturer
(Variation IV)
Consolation: Piano Solo
( He continues to improvise, completely at ease.)
Ah, how I love music! At one time- I was go-ing to become a musician. Naturally, she oesn't. Like music, I mean.
No birds ever sang for her. No string quartets. No operas for her. She won't even sing hymns in a church to save her own soul.
(Still accompanying himself at the piano he sings proudly in a splendid voice.)
To every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide
Then it is the brave man chooses
While the cow ard stands aside:
New occasions come but rarely.
Offring each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever:
'Twixt the darkness and the light.
(He continues to remain at the piano, accompanying himself.)
By the way, I teach solfeggio and arithmetic and chemistry and geography and history and Latin and Latin and Latin and Latin and Latin and Latin and Latin and Latin!
Lobipes lobatus; Phalacrocorax carbo; Sterna dougalli. For dancing, drawing or singing, my wife charges extra.;
I also teach dancing, drawing and singing. Our school is located in Waterloo Lane... Number thirteen!
(He strikes a harsh chord and rises suddenly to pace agitatedly about the rostrum. At points indicated he crosses the beam of light between projector and screen which, temporarily blinds him and superimposes his enlarged shadow among the images of the birds.)
I suppose my life has been a failure because the number of our house is thirteen. And all my daughters were born on the thirteenth.
(An idea comes. He stops pacing and ponders; closes his eyes and mentally counts while his pointer jabs in space.)
I might have known! Even the house has thirteen windows.
Thirteen! Thirteen! Nothing succeeds with me. I've grown old and stupid. Of course, l seem cheerful and happy; after all, here I am, delivering a lecture on the habits of waterbirds.
Oh, but if you only knew. If you only knew how I long to cry out at the top of my voice!
(He moves quickly to the footlights and anxiously surveys the audience.)
Only there's nobody there to cry out to. Your daughters, you will say. Ha! ha! My daughters. I try to talk to them and they only laugh at me.
Latin I taught them, and singing and drawing but that much they managed to learn flom her! Oh, sometimes I yearn, I yearn to fly away, away, fly away to the ends of the earth to fly away like...like...
The Puffin
(Variation V)
Marcia all'italiana: Horn and Timpani
(Suddenly remembers something; returns to the projector; advances next slide: Audubon plate 2M.)
...the Atantie Puffin Fratercula artica artica.
Among the waterbirds, this Puffin is regarded as perhaps the most grotesque because it has an uncouth beak; truly a remarkable appendage, to be sure, as one can plainly see. Very large and flat and banded with three primary colors: yellow, red and blue. A sight that's only seen at mating time, thus prompting one observer to remark that upon his nose the Puffin wears his wedding clothes. It's flight is rapid but ungainly, even painful, with wings too short for flying beating violently, like the helpless frenzied thrashing of drowning man, always think: although others seem to find that it resembles nothing more than bumble bee. In any case, the creature is so awkward that my girls made up this little rhyme about it, which I quote.
Whethcr at rest or on the wing, the Puffin is indeed a curious thing, it is indeed a curious thing! Whether on the wing or at rest, indeed the Puffin is bizarre at best, quite bizarre at best!"
Perhaps more curious still is its call - a kind of deep-throated, mirthless laugh, like laughing in the throat with the lips kept closed, like this:
(Imitating the call.)
I might add that they remain mated for life. At their breeding places they come and go with the most amazing sense of punctuality. In fact, their habits are so regular and fixed that when the time for fall migration comes the parents will depart, leaving their own fledglings, which have not acquired the full use of their wings, behind to a wintry death...
Did I mention that we have seven daughters? No, I'm sorry, six, I be4ieve...
(Closes his eyes and mentally counts using the pointer.)
Seven! Seven! The eldest, Anne, is twenty-seven; Marguerite, the youngest, seventeen. I have been married thirty-three years.
The best years of my life, roughly speaking. They have flown by in one brief moment. One endless miserable rnoment!
(He turns away from the audience. Unintentionally his gaze goes to the screen: he regards it a moment with apparent distaste.)
As I was saying, our girls are not yet married. Not a one. And do you know why? Because no man has ever yet set eyes on them! And why? Because my wife refuses to give parties! And why? She never invites anyone to dinner! But why? Because she is a stingy, illtempered quarrelsome old crow of a wife and that is why no one ever comes to our house!
(Pleased with his outburst, he is about to resume the lecture. Changes his mind.)
But...confidentially,
(Coming closer to the footlights)
Do you know any young men the girls may be seen during Easter and Christmas holidays at their Aunt Helen's, the one who always wears a yellow dress with polka-dots.... as if spiders were crawling all over her.
(Goes to the projector and advances the next slide - Audubon plate 248 - but pays no attention to it and return.s immediately to the footlights.)
She serves refreshments, too. Free! So when my wife isn't watching, one can really..
(He takes an iniaginary drink.)
(His right eye blinks.)
I must admit I become a bit tipsy on just one small drink. Then I get such a wonderful feeling and at the same time I'm very sad. For some strange reason I always tlilnk of my youth. And then this overwhelming urge to run away. To throw everything over and run away without ever looking back.
Away from this vulgar, cheap existence that has turned me into a pitiful old fool. To run away, run away from that stupid, petty, mean, mean, mean devil of a wornan who has tormented me for thirty-three years! run away from the music, from the classroom - all this shabbiness, all her vulgarities, all her...
(The pointer that he's been holding in both hands cracks smoothlyv in half with a sound like the report of a rif le.)
And come to a halt somewhere far, far away. In a field. And to stand there alone and motionless, like a tree or post or a scarecrow, beneath the wide, black sky, and all night long to watch the bright moon, the silent moon. And to think of nothing at all... to forget the past and remember nothing at all, nothing at all.
Oh, God! Oh,God! How I long not to remernber anything! How I long to tear off this cheap frock coat I wore at my wedding all those years a go.
(He tears it off violently: in the process,, it gets ripped.)
...in which I'm forever giving lectures in the interests of charity!
(He tramples the coat, hils pince-nez falls off and dangles, on its ribbon.)
I am old and as wornout as this shabby, pitiful waistcoat. Just look!!
(Turn.s round to show its threadbare back.)
I want nothing at all! Not now! Not ever!
Once when I was young, when was ambitious, might have been a... I planned, I hoped, I dreamed, how often I used to dream but now, nothing. I want nothing but rest.
(Exhausted, he sinks into the chair. For a while he remains seated motionless and oblivious as he appeared at the beginning. The chorus of various birds can be heard again, calling faintly in the distance. The Lecturer is weeping.
(Then, quietly and to himself he sings:)
"And the choice goes by foreVer:
'Twixt the darkness and the light.
(Then his gaze shifts to the screen where the ignored slide has remained projected. For several moments he regards the screen silently, still weeping.)
The Grebe
(Variation VI)
Elegy: Oboe and Chimes
(He co n tin aes to fa ce the screen, his back to the audience.)
The Pied-Billed Grebe. Podilymbus podiceps. The lowest form of bird fife. Dislikes swift running water. Keeps to the gentle eddies near the banks.
(He looks, away and does not refer to the screen again.)
They should neer be shot for they are worse than useless for food. And they certainly do no harm. But they have many enemies besides sportsmen: snakes and frogs, muskrats, fish, and birds of prey.
He is still weeping. He attempts to regain his composure, replaces his pince-nez.)
Once I climbed an enormous pine tree to the nest of the Bald Eagle. Upon reaching it, I found it to contain only one small object: a Pied-Billed Grebe, its feathers still damp and the bloodspots on its head but half- dried.
(The single remaining bird cease its call)
It has the peculiar habit of sinking backwards in the water when confronted by a predator or a threat without leaving so much as a ripple to mark the spot where it disappeared.
(Suddenly the overheated projertor explodes noisily. The startled Lecturer junps up; the image on the screen slowly fades out, smoke pours out of the vents in the apparatus. He quickly retrieves his frock coat from the floor and fans at the smoking projerctor. While he is doing this, there is the sound of a door slamming in the wings and of approaching footsteps. The Lecturer glances in the direction of the sound, then hastily dons his frock coat.)
The Lecturer
(Coda)
String Quintet
(Whispering:)
She's coming back! If she should ask, please tell her that the Lect-... that the "booby", that is, me,behaved with dignity.
(Pulls down his waistcoat; clears his throat; glances furtively into the wings again.)
She's watching!
(His eye blinks. He consults his Porketwatch.)
(Raising his voice.)
The time is up, I see.
And so, in closing, I wish to leave with the hope that you have enjoyed our little chat about the Water Birds: it would please me greatly to think that these illustrations have, in some small way, helped you see, with keener vision, the incredible richriess of Life, in Nature's Grand Design. And perhaps in some not-too-distant future, I might return to speak to you with appropriate slides about Scorpions, Spiders and Centipedes.
(Se i's interrupledby a very mucous clearing of the throat from the wings: the sound now more nearly resembles the grafitW.,,aw ~ of the Common Crow,)
That is all had to say.
One last werd in Latin,
to conclude: DIXl ET ANIMAN LEVAvl."
Or, as I like to translate it: my heart has spoken,
and thus my fettered soul has taken wing.
(He bows and walks off with great dignity into the wings from which the sound came.)
(A thin column of smoke continues to rise from the ruined projector and very faintly in the distanre the bird choir calls.)
CURTAIN
Pelléas et Mélisande
Act III, scene 1
One of the towers of Ihe Castle
A walking path passes under one of the windonis of the tower
(Maurice Maeterlinck)
MÉLISANDE
(at the window combing her unbound hair)
Mes longs cheveux descendent jusqu'au seuil de la tour;
mY long, long hair it reaches to the foot of the tower!
Mes cheveux vous attendent tout le long de la tour,
My hair is waiting for you down the tower all the way!
Et tout le long du jour,
And waiting all the day!
Et tout le long du jour.
And waiting all the day!
Saint Daniel et Saint Michel,
Saint Daniel and Saint Michel,
Saint Michel et Saint Raphaë
Saint Michel and Saint Raphael,
Je suis née un dimanche,
I was born of a Sunday!
Un dimanche à midi...
Of a Sunday at noon!
(PELLÉAS enters by the path)
PELLÉAS
Holà! Holà! ho!
Hey lio! Hey ho! there!
MÉLISANDE
Qui est là?
Who is there?
PELLÉAS
Moi, moi, et moi!
I, I and I! ...
Que fais-tu là, à la fenêtre, en chantant comme un oiseau qui n'est pas d'ici?
What dost thou up at the window, singing so like a bird that comes from afar?
MÉLISANDE
J'arrange mes cheveux pour la nuit...
I'm arranging my hair for the night.
PELLÉAS
C'est là ce que je vois sur le mur?
Is that what I see there on the wall?...
Je croyais que tu avais de la lumière...
Why, I thought you had a light there in the window.
MÉLISANDE
J'ai ouvert la fenêtre; il fait trop chaud dans la tour...
I have opened the window. It was too warm in the tower;
Il fait beau cette nuit.
it is lovely to-night.
PELLÉAS
Il y a d'innombrables étoiles;
There's no end to the stars that are shining;
je n'en ai jamais vu autant que ce soir;
I never saw so many of them before;..
mais la lune est encor sur la mer...
but the moon is still over the sea...
Ne reste pas dans l'ombre, Mélisande,
Keep not within the shadow, M6lisande,
penche-toi un peu, que je voie tes cheveux dénoués.
but bend you down more; let me look at your hair all unbound.
MÉLISANDE
(MÉLISANDE leans out of the window,.)
Je suis affreuse ainsi...
I'm very ugly so.
PELLÉAS
Oh! oh! Mélisande
Oh! oh! Mélisande!...
Oh! tu es belle! Tu es belle ainsi!
oh! you are lovely... you are lovely so!...
Penche-toi! Penche-toi!
But lean out! but lean out,
Laisse-moi venir plus près de toi...
so that I'll not be so far away.
MÉLISANDE
Je ne puis pas venir plus près de toi...
This is as near to you as I can come...
Je me penche tant que je peux...
I'm leaning as far as I can.
PELLÉAS
Je ne puis pas monter plus haut...
And I can come no higher up ...
donne-moi du moins ta main ce soir avant que je m'en aille...
Let me touch your hand at least to-night... before I go away...
Je pars demain.
I leave at morn.
MÉLISANDE
Non, non, non...
No, no, no...
PELLÉAS
Si, si, je pars, je partirai demain...
Yes, yes, I must; to-morrow I must go...
donne-moi ta main, ta main, ta petite main sur les lèvres...
Let me have your hand, your hand, put your little hand on my lips now.
MÉLISANDE
Je ne te donne pas ma main si tu pars...
I will not let you have my hand if you go.
PELLÉAS
Donne, donne, donne...
Give it, give it, give it
MÉLISANDE
Tu ne partiras pas?
Then you promise to stay?
PELLÉAS
J'attendrai, j'attendrai...
I shall wait, I shall wait
MÉLISANDE
Je vois une rose dans les ténèbres...
I can see a rose down there in the darkness.
PELLÉAS
Où donc?
Where is that?
Je ne vois que les branches du saule qui dépasse le mur...
I can see but the limbs of the willow that come o'er the wall.
MÉLISANDE
Plus bas, plus bas, dans le jardin; là-bas, dans le vert sombre...
Far down, far down the garden there; 'way down in the green shadows.
PELLÉAS
Ce n'est pas une rose...
But that is not a rose, tho'...
J'irai voir tout à l'heure,
I will go and see later,
mais donne-moi ta main d'abord; d'abord ta main...
but you must give me first your hand; first give me your hand...
MÉLISANDE
Voilà, voilà, je ne puis pencher davantage.
Well here, then, licre....Now I cannot le n out any further...
PELLÉAS
Mes lèvres ne peuvent pas atteindra ta main!
But still I cannot yet reach your hand with my lips
MÉLISANDE
Je ne puis me pencher davantage...
But I cannot lean out any further...
Je suis sur le point de tomber...
It's all I can do not to fall..
Oh! Oh! mes cheveux descendent de la tour!
Oh, oh! all my hair has fallen down the tower!
(Her hair suddenly falls out of the window and inundates Pelléas)
PELLÉAS
Oh! oh! qu'est-ce que c'est?
Oh! oh! what is this?...
tes cheveux, tes cheveux descendent vers moi!
'Tis your hair, 't is your hair falling down on me!...
Toute ta chevelure, Mélisande,
All your beautiful tresses, Mélisande,
ute ta chevelure est tombée de la tour!
all your beautiful locks have come down from the tower!...
Je les tiens dans les mains, je les tiens dans la bouche...
They are here in my hands, in iny mouth, too,
Je les tiens dans le bras, je les mets autour de mon cou...
I hold them ... They are here in my arms, I have put them all round my neck ...
Je n'ouvrirai plus les mains cette nuit!
No more to-night will I open my hands
MÉLISANDE
Laisse-moi! laisse-moi! tu vas me faire tomber!
Let me go! let me go! If you do not, I shall fall!
PELLÉAS
Non, non, non!
No, no, no!
Je n'ai jamais vu de cheveux comme les tiens, Mélisande!
Oli, I never have seen any tresses like yours, M~lisaiide! ...
Vois, vois, vois, ils viennent de si haut et ils m'inondent encore jusqu'au cur;
Look, look, look, they come from up so high, and yet they deluge me down around my heart...
Ils m'inondent encore jusqu'au genoux!
They have flooded ine even down to my knees...
Et ils sont doux, ils sont doux comme s'ils tombaient du ciel!
And they are soft, they are softer than tho' they fell from heav'n! ...
Je ne vois plus le ciel à travers tes cheveux.
And I cannot see the heav'ns any more for your locks...
Tu vois, tu vois? Mes deux mains ne peuvent pas les tenir;
Just see, just see! I can hardly hold them all in both hands;
il y en a jusque sur les branches dy saule...
some of them fall as far as the limbs of the willows...
Ils vivent comme des oiseaux dans mes mains,
They live and seem to me like birds in my hands...
et ils m'aiment, ils m'aiment plus que toi!
and they love me, they love me more than thou!
MÉLISANDE
Laisse-moi, laisse-moi...
Let me go, let me go...
Quelqu'un pourrait venir...
If some one were to come
PELLÉAS
Non, non, non, je ne te délivre pas cette nuit...
No, no, no; I shall not give you your freedom to-night...
Tu es ma prisonnière cette nuit, toute la nuit, toute la nuit...
I shall keep you my pris'ner for tonight; all the night long, all the night long.
MÉLISANDE
Pelléas! Pelléas!
Pelléas! Pelléas!
PELLÉAS
Je les noue, je les noue aux branches du saule...
They are bound, they are bound to a branch of the willow...
Tu ne t'eniras plus...tu ne t'en iras plus...
You shall never go free... you never shall go free...
regarde, regarde, j'embrasse tes cheveux...
Oh, see me, oh, see me, see how I kiss your hair...
Je ne souffre plus au milieu de tes cheveux...
I suffer no more in the tangles of your hair...
Tu entends mes baisers le long de tes cheveux?
Can you not hear my kisses all along your hair?
Ils montent le long de tes cheveux...
They go up to you along your hair.
Il faut que chacun t'en apporte...
Each one up to you must take kisses ...
Tu vois tu vois, je puis ouvrir les mains...
You see, you see, my hands are open now ...
J'ai les mains libres et tu ne peux plus m'abandonner...
My hands are free, but you never can leave me any more.
(Some doves come out of the taiver and fly about them in the darkness.)
MÉLISANDE
Oh! oh! tu m'as fait mal!
Oh! oh! you've hurt me so...
Qu'y a-t-il Pelléas?
What was that, PeWas?
Qu'est-ce qui vole autour de moi?
What is there flying around about?
PELLÉAS
Ce sont les colombes qui sortent de la tour...
'Tis only the doves that are coming from the tower...
Je les ai effrayées; elles s'envolent...
They were frighten'd at me; they've flown away now.
MÉLISANDE
Ce sont mes colombes, Pelléas.
Oh, but those were my doves, Pelléas
Allons-nous-en, laisse-moi elles ne reviendraient plus...
Now let us go, leave me now; else they will never come back.
PELLÉAS
Pourquoi ne reviendraient-elles plus?
Why should they not come back again?
MÉLISANDE
Elles se perdront dans l'obscurité...
They will all be lost out there in the dark...
Laisse-moi! laisse-moi relever la tête...
Let me go. Come, you must let me lift my head ...
J'entends un bruit de pas...
I hear the sound of steps...
Laisse-moi!
let me go!
C'est Golaud! Je crois que c'est Golaud!
'Tis Golauffl... I think it is Golaud! ...
Il nous a entendus...
Then heheard us, no doubt.
PELLÉAS
Attends! Attends!
Stay still! stay still!...
Tes cheveux son autour des branches...
Your hair is fast in the branches ...
Ils se sont accrochés dans l'obscurité...
It got twisted around them here in the dark ...
Attends! Attends
ay still! stay still!...
Il fait noir.
It is dark.
(Golaud etders by ilte palh)
GOLAUD
Que faites-vous ici?
What are you doing here?
PELLÉAS
Ce que je fais ici? Je...
What am I doing here? I-
GOLAUD
Vous êtes des enfants...
What children you two are!...
Mélisande, ne te penche pas ainsi à la fenêtre, tu vas tomber...
Mélisande, do riot lean so far as that out of the window, you will fall out...
Vous ne savez pas qu'il est tard?
Are you not aware it is ]ate?
Il est près de minuit.
It is midnight almost
Ne jouez pas ainsi dans l'obscurité.
Stop playing like this out here in the dark
Vous êtes des enfants...
You're children, both of you;
(laughing nervously)
Quels enfants!
What children!
Quels enfants!
What children!
(He goes out with Pelléas)
Act IV, scene 4
A Founlain in tlhe Park
(Enter Pelléas)
PELLÉAS
C'est le dernier soir...le dernier soir...
This is our last night...'tis the last night...
Il faut que tout finisse...
And all must now be ended...
J'ai joué comme un enfant autour d'une chose que je ne soupçonnais pas...
I've been playimrg like a child around a thing whose existence I did not suspect ...
J'ai joué en rêve, au tour des pièges de la destinée...
I have played and dreamt with all the snares of destiny around me.
Qui est-ce qui m'a réveillé tout à coup?
What is it that's now waked me up all at once?
Je vais fuir en criant de joie et de douleur comme un aveugle qui fuirait l'incendie de sa maison.
I fly now with a cry of joy and of dismay as though a blind man should take flight from his home that was on fire...
Je vais lui dire que je vais fuir...
And I shall tell her I'm going to flee...
Il est tard;
It is late;
Elle ne vient pas...
still she does not come...
Je ferais mieux de m'en aller sans la revoir...
It would be better if I went, and saw her not...
Il faut que je la regarde bien cette fois-ci...
I shall have to take a good long look at her this time ...
Il y a des choses que je ne me rappelle plus...
There are certain things about her I 've already forgot...
on dirait par moments qu'il y a cent ans que je ne l'ai plus vue...
One would think that at times it had been a hundred years since I had seen her...
Et je n'ai pas encor regardé son regard...
And never heretofore have I gazed in her gaze...
Il ne me serte rien si je m'en vais ainsi...
There 's nothing left for me if I leave her like that.
Et tous ces souvenirs...
My memories of her
C'est comme si j'emportais un peu d'eau dans un sac de mousseline.
taking a few drops of water away in a wallet made of cambric...
Il faut que je la voie un dernière fois jusqu'au fond de son cur...
I must let myself look for this last only time to the depths of her heart...
Il faut que je lui dise tout ce que je n'ai pas dit...
I know that I must tell her all that I never have told
(Enter Mélisande.)
MÉLISANDE
Pelléas!
Pelléas!
PELLÉAS
Mélisande! Est-ce toi, Mélisande?
Mélisande! -Is it you, Mélisande?
MÉLISANDE
Oui.
Yes.
PELLÉAS
Viens ici, ne reste pas au bord du clair de lune,
Come here. Do not stay out there in the rim of moonlight
Viens ici, nous avons tant de choses à nous dire...
Come in here. We have so many things to tell each other ...
viens ici, dans l'ombre du tilleul.
Come in here within this linden's shade.
MÉLISANDE
Laissez-moi dans la clarté...
Let me stay here in the light.
PELLÉAS
On pourrait nous voir des fenêtres de la tour.
There we might be seen from the windows of the tower.
Viens ici, ici, nous n'avons rien à craindre.
Come in here; we'll be perfectly safe here.
Prends garde; on pourrait nous voir!
Be careful; suppose we were seen.
MÉLISANDE
Je veux qu'on me voie...
Let them see me then.
PELLÉAS
Qu'as-tu donc?
What is it?
Tu as pu sortir sans qu'on soit aperçu?
Did you come away without their finding it out?
MÉLISANDE
Oui, votre frère dormait...
Yes; with your brother asleep.
PELLÉAS
Il est tard; dans une heure on fermera les portes.
It is late; in an hour they will bar u ' p the castle.
Il faut prendre garde.
We ought to be careful.
Pourquoi es-tu venue si tard?
Why was it that you came so late?
MÉLISANDE
Votre frère avait un mauvais rêve.
'Twas because your brother had a nightmare.
Et puis ma robe s'est accrochée aux clous de la porte.
Then too my dress in some way got caught on one of the door studs.
Voyez, elle est déchirée.
Look here, you see it is torn.
J'ai perdu tout ce temps et j'ai couru...
So I lost all that time and had to run.
PELLÉAS
Ma pauvre Mélisande!
Poor dear M6lisande!
J'aurais presque peur de te toucher...
I'm almost afraid to touch you yet ...
Tu es encore hors d'haleine comme un oiseau pourchassé...
Yes, you are still out of breath ` just like a poor driven bird...
C'est pour moi que tu fais tout cela?
'Tis for me that you did all this?...
J'entends battre ton cur comme si c'était le mien...
I can hear your heart beat just as tliough it were my own ...
Viens ici...plus près de moi...
Come to me, come nearer to me
MÉLISANDE
Pourquoi riez-vous?
But why do you smile?
PELLÉAS
Je ne ris pas; ou bien je ris de joie sans le savoir...
I did not smile;-or else I smiled for joy, all unaware...
Il y aurait plutôt de quoi pleurer...
There's much more reason, it would seem, to weep.
MÉLISANDE
Nous sommes venus ici il y a bien longtemps...
We came here one day, but that was a long time ago...
Je me rappelle...
I well.remember.
PELLÉAS
Oui...il y a de longs mois.
Yes ... that was long months ago
Alors, je ne savais pas...
But then I did not yet know...
Sais-tu pourquoi je t'ai demandé de venir ce soir?
Do you know why I have wanted you to come here to-night?
MÉLISANDE
Non.
No.
PELLÉAS
C'est peut-être la dernière fois que je te vois...
'Tis perhaps the only time that we shall ever meet...
Il faut que je m'en aille pour toujours!
I see I must forever go away!
MÉLISANDE
Pourquoi dis-tu toujours que tu t'en vas?
What makes you always say you're going away?
PELLÉAS
Je dois te dire ce que tu sais déjà!
And must I tell you what you know very well?
Tu ne sais pas ce que je vais te dire?
Do you not know what I am going to tell you?
MÉLISANDE
Mais non, mais non; je ne sais rien.
I don't, I don't; I do not know.
PELLÉAS
Tu ne sais pas pourquoi il faut que je m'éloigne...
You do not know the reason why I have to leave you?
Tu ne sais pas que c'est parce que...
You do not know that it is because...
(he kisses her suddenly)
Je t'aime.
I love you.
MÉLISANDE
(in a low voice)
Je t'aime aussi...
I love you, too.
PELLÉAS
Oh! qu'as-tu dit, Mélisande!
What have you said, Mélisande?
Je ne l'ai presque pas entendu!
For I could hardly hear what you saidi ...
On a brisé la glace avec des fers rougis!
We have broken the ice with irons red hot!
Tu dis cela d'une voix qui vient du bout du monde!
And you say that in a voice that conies from the world's end!...
Je ne t'ai presque pas entendue...
And I was hardly able to hear...
Tu m'aime? tu m'aimes aussi?
You love me?... And you too love me?...
Depuis quand m'aimes-tu?
You have loved me since when?
MÉLISANDE
Depuis toujours...
I always have ...
Depuis que je t'ai vu...
Since the first time we met.
PELLÉAS
On dirait que ta voix a passé sur la mer au printemps!
One would think that your voice had come o'er the sea in the spring!...
Je ne l'ai jamais entendue jusqu'ici.
I believe I never have heard it till now...
On dirait qu'il a plu sur mon cur!
'Tis as though it had rained on my heart!
Tu dis cela si franchement!
And this you say so simply, too!...
Comme un ange qu'on interroge...
Like an angel answering questions...
Je ne puis pas le croire, Mélisande...
I can scarcely believe it, Mélisande!...
Pourquoi m'aimerais-tu?
But why should you love me?
Mais pourquoi m'aimes-tu?
And why do you love me?
Est-ce vrai ce que tu dis?
Is it true, what you have said?
Tu ne me trompes pas?
You're not trying to deceive?
Tu ne mens pas un peu, pour me faire sourire?
You're not lying to me, just to cheer me a little?
MÉLISANDE
Non, je ne mens jamais; je ne mens qu'à ton frère...
No, I never should lie; tho' I lie to your brother.
PELLÉAS
Oh! comme tu dis cela!
0h, but the way you say that!
Ta voix! ta voix...
Your voice! your voice...
elle est plus fraîche et plus franche que l'eau!
It is as fresh and as free as a spring!
On dirait de l'eau pure sur mes lèvres...
It falls upon my lips like purest water!..
On dirait de l'eau pure sur mes mains...
It falls like purest water on my hands...
Donne-moi, donne-moi tes mains.
Give to me, give to me your hands...
Oh! tes mains sont petites!
Oh! your hands are so little!
Je ne savais pas que tu étais si belle!
I did not know that you were so very lovely!...
Je n'avais jamais rien vu d'aussi beau avant toi...
I had never seen so lovely a thing before you...
J'étais inquiet, je cherchais partout dans la maison...
I could not rest, everywhere I sought, thro' all the house.
Je cherchais partout dans la campagne, et je ne trouvais pas la beauté...
Ev'rywhere I sought thro'all the country, but never an). beauty could find...
Et maintenant je t'ai trouvée...
And now to-day I have found you ...
Je l'ai trouvée...
Found it in you...
je ne crois pas qu'il y ait sur la terre une femme plus belle!
I don't believe there is in all the world any woman more lovely!..
Où es-tu?
Are you there?
Je ne t'entends plus respirer...
I can't hear you breathe any more.
MÉLISANDE
C'est que je te regarde...
At you I have been looking.
PELLÉAS
Pourquoi me regardes-tu si gravement?
Why do you look at me in so sad a way
Nous sommes déjà dans l'ombre.
The shadows reach us already.
Il fait trop noir sous cet arbre.
It's grown too dark, 'neath the trees here.
Viens, dans la lumière.
Come, come where 't is lighter.
Nous ne pouvons pas voir combien nous sommes heureux.
Here 't is too dark for us to see how happy we are.
Viens, viens; il nous reste si peu de temps...
Come, come; there is left us so little time.
MÉLISANDE
Non, non, restons ici...
No, no; stay where we are...
Je suis plus près de toi dans l'obscurité...
I 'm nearer to you now here where it is dark.
PELLÉAS
Où sont tes yeux?
Where are your eyes?
Tu ne vas pas me fuir?
You would not run away?
Tu ne songes pas à moi en ce moment...
You have not a thought for me, not even now.
MÉLISANDE
Mais si, je ne songe qu'à toi...
I have; I had no other thought.
PELLÉAS
Tu regardais ailleurs...
Your eyes were somewhere else.
MÉLISANDE
Je te voyais ailleurs...
I saw you somewhere else.
PELLÉAS
Tu es distraite...
Your thoughts are wandering;
Qu'as-tu donc?
why is that?
Tu ne me sembles pas heureuse...
I do not think you can be happy.
MÉLISANDE
si, si, je suis bien heureuse, mais je suis triste...
Yes, yes; I'm very happy, but I am sad, too.
PELLÉAS
Quel est ce bruit?
What is that noise?
On ferme les portes!
Tliey're closing the doors!
MÉLISANDE
Oui, en a fermé les portes...
Yes; they've shut the doors; I heard them.
PELLÉAS