La spectre de la rose, by by Hector Berlioz, from Les nuits d’été.
Sung by Janet Baker
Les nuits d'été (Summer Nights), Op. 7, is a song cycle by the French composer Hector Berlioz. It is a setting of six poems by Théophile Gautier. The collection was completed in 1841, and initially composed for either baritone, contralto, or mezzo-soprano, and piano. Berlioz later adapted the work for soprano voice, and also gave it full orchestral accompaniment in 1856; almost all modern performances of the piece use the orchestral rather than the piano version.
The title of the song collection is a nod to the French title of A Midsummer Night's Dream, by Berlioz's beloved Shakespeare.
At first Berlioz had difficulty in deciding on a suitable order for the songs, but he finally settled on the following sequence, which is generally used for performances today, and which places the two liveliest movements at either end:
- Villanelle
- Le spectre de la rose
- Sur les lagunes
- Absence
- Au cimetière
- L'île inconnue
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