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. 1 – Invocation à la nature: ‘Je ne sais si je veille.—Ô nature, pleine de grâce’ The idealistic young poet Werther, lost in rapture, contemplates the house where his beloved Charlotte lives.
Werther, 23 ans (tenor) : Georges Thill
Conductor: Elie Cohen Paris Chorus & Orchestra Paris, January 1931
Watch videos with other singers performing O nature plein de grace:
Tout ce qui m'environne a l'air d'un paradis; all that surrounds me has the air of a paradise; le bois soupire ainsi qu'une harpe sonore; Un monde se révèle à mes yeux éblouis.
O nature pleine de grâce, reine du temps et de l'espace, daigne acceuillir celui qui passe et te salue, humble mortel! Mystérieux silence!... O calme solennel! Tout m'attire et me plaît!... Ce mur et ce coin sombre.. Cette source limpide et la fraicheur de l'ombre Il n'est pas une haie, il n'est pas un buisson où n' éclose une fleur, où ne passe un frisson! O Nature, enivre-moi de tes parfums! Mère, éternellement jeune, adorable et pure, Enivre-moi de tes parfums! Et toi, soleil, viens m'inonder de tes rayons vermeils!
English Libretto or Translation:
I don’t know if I am awake or if I am still dreaming! The woods sigh like a sounding harp; a world reveals itself to my astonished eyes.
O, Nature, full of grace, Queen of time and space, deign to welcome whoever passes and salutes you, humble mortel. Mysterious silence!... O solemn calm! Everything attracts me and pleases me!... This wall and this dark corner... This limpid spring and the coolness of the shade; there’s not a hedge , there’s not a bush, Where a flower doesn’t burst forth, Where a shiver doesn’t pass by! Oh, Nature, intoxicate me with your perfumes! Mother, eternally young, adorable and pure, Intoxicate me with your perfumes! And you, sun, Come and drown me in your crimson rays!