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CyberSing 2004: See and Hear the winners

Claude Debussy

1862-1918

Lehmann Foundation Advisor Frederica von Stade sings "Fantoches" or Puppets from Debussy's Fêtes galantes.

Graham Johnson in A French Song Companion writes that one could say that Debussy "is French song. If there is one composer who seems to encapsulate both the most delicate and passionate aspects of the mélodie, whose command of literature ranges from the lyrics of the salon to the greatest of French poetry, both new and old, and whose musical mastery is equal to the demands of the greatest texts, it is this mysterious man..."

Frederica von Stade mezzo soprano
Martin Katz , piano.

Fantoches (Marionettes) from Debussy's Fêtes Galantes
Scaramouche et Pulcinella Scaramouche and Pulcinella
Qu'un mauvais dessein rassembla Drawn together by some evil scheme,
Gesticulent, noir sous la lune. Gesticulate, black beneath the moon.
Cependant l'excellent docteur Meanwhile the excellent doctor
Bolonais cueille avec lenteur From Bologna is leisurely picking
Des simples parmi l'herbe brune. Medicinal herbs in the brown grass.
Lors sa fille, piquant minois, Then his daughter, pertly pretty,
Sous la charmille, en tapinois, Beneath the arbour, stealthily,
Se glisse, demi-nue, en quête Glides, half-naked, in quest
De son beau pirate espagnol, Of her handsome Spanish pirate,
Dont un amoureux rossignol Whose grief a lovelorn nightingale
Clame la détresse à tue-tête. Proclaims as loudly as he can.

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