WERTHER Drame lyrique en 4 actes et 5 tableaux Composer: Jules Massenet (1842–1912) Libretto : Edouard Blau, Paul Milliet et Georges Hartmann, after Goethe’s ‘Die Leiden des jungen Werthers’ (1774) First performance: Imperial Theatre Hofoper, Vienna, 16 February 1892 (in German). First performance in France: Théatre Lyrique, Paris, 16 January 1893
SETTING: Wetzlar, near Frankfurt, July–December 178–.
PLOT: Werther, a young poet, loves Charlotte, but she promised her dying mother that she will marry Albert. Werther leaves in despair. He returns and tries to persuade Charlotte to leave her husband. The young woman heroically resists and Werther shoots himself. Charlotte finds him dying, and declares her love.
No. 5 – Tristes pensées : ‘Lorsque l’enfant revient d’un voyage’ Werther, heartbroken on learning that Charlotte has married Albert, plans to kill himself.
Werther, 23 ans (tenor) : Georges Thill
Conductor: Elie Cohen Paris Chorus & Orchestra Paris, January 1931
Watch videos with other singers performing Lorsque l'enfant revient d'un voyage:
Oui, ce qu'elle m'ordonne Pour son repos, je le ferai; et si la force m'abandonne, Ah! C'est moi qui pour toujours me reposerai! Pourquoi trembler devant la mort... devant la nôtre? On lève le rideau, puis on passe de l'autre côté! Voilà ce qu'on nomme mourir. Offensons-nous le ciel en cessant de souffrir?
Lorsque l'enfant revient d'un voyage avant l'heure, When a child returns from a trip ahead of time, bien loin de lui garder quelque ressentiment, far from keeping some resentment toward him, au seul bruit de ses pas tressaille la demeure, at the mere sound of his steps, the house quivers, et le père joyeux l'embrasse longuement. And the joyful father embrasses him a long time. O Dieu qui m'as créé, serais-tu moins clément? O God, who created me, would you be less merciful? Non! Tu ne saurais pas, dérobé sous tes voiles, No! You could not, hidden under your veils, rejeter dans la nuit ton fils infortuné! Ton fils! Reject in the night your wretched son! Your son! Devinant ton sourire au travers des étoiles, Guessing your smile through the stars, Il reviendrait vers toi, d'avance pardonné! He would come back to you, forgiven in advance! Père! Père! Père que je ne connais pas, Father! Father! Father, whom I don't know, en qui pourtant j'ai foi, parle à mon coeur, In whom I, nonetheless, have faith, speak to my heart, Appelle-moi! appelle-moi! appelle-moi! Call me! Call me! Call me!
English Libretto or Translation:
Yes, what she orders of me For her peace of mind, I will do it. And if strength abandons me, Ah, it is I who forever will rest. Why tremble before death... before our own? You raise the curtain, then you pass to the other side. That is what one calls dying. Do we offend heaven by ceasing to suffer?
Call me! Call me! Call me!
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