COLLABORATIVE WORKS FESTIVAL: LA BONNE CHANSON - THE INFLUENCE OF PAUL VERLAINE
A festival of concerts which explored the influence of French poet, Paul Verlaine, who’s poetry has been set to music more than any other French poet.
CONCERT I
VERLAINE ET DEBUSSY
presented in partnership with The Poetry Foundation
Sarah Shafer, soprano
Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano
Nicholas Phan, tenor
Matthew Gemmill, piano
Scott Allen Jarrett, piano
PROGRAM
While there is no documented evidence that the two seminal figures of the French Belle Époque, Paul Verlaine and Claude Debussy, ever met – it is likely they met at least once. The two were regular guests at fellow Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé’s famous weekly Tuesday salons (at which the elite of Paris’ intellectual and artistic set would convene to discuss art, poetry and music) as well as frequent customers of Le Chat Noir, and Debussy’s first childhood piano teacher was Verlaine’s mother-in-law.
Whether or not they met, the influence of Verlaine upon Debussy was profound – the most profound of all of the many literary influences with which the revolutionary composer would surround himself throughout his adult life. A highly literary composer, Debussy drew inspiration for his compositions almost exclusively from the great literary figures of his time. Despite being close friends with the leading writers of the day, including Stéphane Mallarmé, Catulle Mendès and Pierre Louÿs, Debussy set the poetry of Verlaine to music more than any other poet. Almost one quarter of his nearly 80 songs are settings of Verlaine poems. This program featured all of his settings of Verlaine’s poetry.
DEBUSSY: Clair de Lune from Quatre Chansons de Jeunesse
DEBUSSY: Trois Chansons de Paul Verlaine
DEBUSSY: Ariettes oubliées
DEBUSSY: settings from Fêtes galantes
DEBUSSY: Clair de lune from Suite Bergamasque
CONCERT II
LES SYMBOLISTES
Sarah Shafer, soprano
Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano
Nicholas Phan, tenor
Scott Allen Jarrett, piano
Spektral Quartet
PROGRAM
Paul Verlaine’s poem, L’Art Poétique, defined the Symbolist movement in French poetry beautifully, and is his poetic manifesto of the symbolist movement, of which he was one of the most prominent figures. Reacting against realism, the symbolists strived to express truth and reality indirectly, through metaphor and nuance. Above all of these things, Verlaine begins his poetic manifest by calling for music: “De la musique avant toute chose…Of music before every thing.”
Many of Verlaine’s Symbolist colleagues shared this belief that all poetry should aspire to be musical, and that music was the ideal towards which all poets should take their aim with their writing. When one considers the thriving culture of the salon during the Belle Époque in Paris, it is natural that so much of their poetry should have been set to music by their musician contemporaries. This program explored
CHAUSSON: Chanson Perpetuelle
FAURÉ: La bonne chanson
DEBUSSY: Chanson de Bilitis
FERRÉ: selected settings of Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud