L'Imagination de Lenore (2013)
soprano, baritone, flute, percussion, piano, cello
c. 33 minutes
on texts of Charles Baudelaire, Carolyn Fado, Edgar Allan Poe
Mvt. 6 premiered by Anne Briggs (soprano), Brian Fancher (baritone), Mallory Krolikowski (flute),
Daniel Catalano (percussion), Toni Shreve (piano), Daniel Bloomberg (cello)
Gault Recital Hall, Wooster, OH, 14 April 2013
Movements:
I. Parodos
II. L'Horloge
III. Le Port
IV. La Beauté
V. Hymn
VI. Lenore
c. 33 minutes
on texts of Charles Baudelaire, Carolyn Fado, Edgar Allan Poe
Mvt. 6 premiered by Anne Briggs (soprano), Brian Fancher (baritone), Mallory Krolikowski (flute),
Daniel Catalano (percussion), Toni Shreve (piano), Daniel Bloomberg (cello)
Gault Recital Hall, Wooster, OH, 14 April 2013
Movements:
I. Parodos
II. L'Horloge
III. Le Port
IV. La Beauté
V. Hymn
VI. Lenore
L’Imagination de Lenore is a song cycle in six movements based on the play LenORE, written by my good friend Carolyn Fado as part of her Senior Independent Study at The College of Wooster in Ohio. Her play, in turn, is based on the works of Charles Baudelaire and Edgar Allan Poe. LenORE is a play of dualities—English and French, film and theatre, past and present, reality and imagination—that are mixed together and confused as the play progresses. The title character, Lenore, gradually becomes the slave of her own imagination, which is personified by the male character Jean Transsen. LenORE also criticizes misogyny in literature, suggesting that Baudelaire and Poe “kill” their young female characters in order to create the highest form of beauty. Fado’s play ends ambiguously, leaving the spectator to decide whether or not Lenore survives the oppression of her own imagination.
I have tried to capture the essential elements of Fado’s play in my song cycle. The six movements are based on crucial moments of the play and outline Lenore’s dangerous passage into her imagination. I have included translations for the French texts where cognates may not be readily available. The italicized quotations that follow the title of each movement are taken directly from Fado’s script and are meant to help develop the story of the play. They should be read aloud by the indicated vocalist—the soprano is Lenore, and the baritone is Jean Transsen— before the performance of each movement.
VI. Lenore
La femme est fatalement suggestive; elle vit d’une autre vie que la sienne propre;
elle vit spirituellement dans les imaginations qu’elle hante et qu’elle féconde...
What is important is that she die young and beautiful.
(The woman is fatally suggestive; she lives a life other than her own;
she lives spiritually in the imaginations that she haunts and that she impregnates...
What is important is that she die young and beautiful.)
The sweet Lenore hath "gone before,"
with Hope, that flew beside,
Leaving thee wild for the dear child
that should have been thy bride -
For her, the fair and debonair,
that now so lowly lies,
The life upon her yellow hair but not
within her eyes -
The life still there, upon her hair –
the death upon her eyes.
The dying, voluptuous maiden
Who became a trope in lore,
Alive in death forevermore.
Viens, mon enfant. La bien-aimée de tous les livres.
––Poe, Lenore; Fado, LenORE
I have tried to capture the essential elements of Fado’s play in my song cycle. The six movements are based on crucial moments of the play and outline Lenore’s dangerous passage into her imagination. I have included translations for the French texts where cognates may not be readily available. The italicized quotations that follow the title of each movement are taken directly from Fado’s script and are meant to help develop the story of the play. They should be read aloud by the indicated vocalist—the soprano is Lenore, and the baritone is Jean Transsen— before the performance of each movement.
VI. Lenore
La femme est fatalement suggestive; elle vit d’une autre vie que la sienne propre;
elle vit spirituellement dans les imaginations qu’elle hante et qu’elle féconde...
What is important is that she die young and beautiful.
(The woman is fatally suggestive; she lives a life other than her own;
she lives spiritually in the imaginations that she haunts and that she impregnates...
What is important is that she die young and beautiful.)
The sweet Lenore hath "gone before,"
with Hope, that flew beside,
Leaving thee wild for the dear child
that should have been thy bride -
For her, the fair and debonair,
that now so lowly lies,
The life upon her yellow hair but not
within her eyes -
The life still there, upon her hair –
the death upon her eyes.
The dying, voluptuous maiden
Who became a trope in lore,
Alive in death forevermore.
Viens, mon enfant. La bien-aimée de tous les livres.
––Poe, Lenore; Fado, LenORE