Les Illuminations (Britten)

Les Illuminations (The Illuminations), Op. 18, is a song cycle by Benjamin Britten, first performed in 1940. It is composed for soprano or tenor soloist and string orchestra, and sets verse and prose poems written in 1872–1873 by Arthur Rimbaud, part of his collection Les Illuminations.

Britten began writing the cycle in Suffolk in March 1939 and completed it a few months later in the United States. It was the first of his song cycles to gain widespread popularity. The cycle was originally written for a soprano; Britten's biographer David Matthews comments that the work is "so much more sensuous when sung by the soprano voice for which the songs were conceived". Nevertheless the work can be, and more often is, sung by a tenor: Britten conducted the piece with Peter Pears as soloist within two years of the premiere. Pears was the dedicatee of the song "Being Beauteous". Wulff Scherchen was the dedicatee of the song "Antique". Both men were in romantic relationships with Britten.

The first performance of the cycle was given on 30 January 1940 at the Aeolian Hall, London, by Sophie Wyss, to whom the cycle is dedicated. (There are also dedications for individual sections.) Boyd Neel conducted his string orchestra.

The work takes about 21 minutes in performance. The nine sections are:

The work begins with a single sentence (taken from the poem "Parade") "J'ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage" ("I alone have the key to this savage parade"). Seemingly, Britten takes this to mean that only the artist, observing the world with detachment, can make sense of the "savage parade" that is human life. The sentence is sung three times during the cycle.

1. Fanfare

J'ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage.

2. Villes

Ce sont des villes! C'est un peuple pour qui se sont montés ces Alleghanys et ces Libans de rêve! Des chalets de cristal et de bois se meuvent sur des rails et des poulies invisibles. Les vieux cratères ceints de colosses et de palmiers de cuivre rugissent mélodieusement dans les feux…Des cortèges de Mabs en robes rousses, opalines, montent des ravines. Là-haut, les pieds dans la cascade et les ronces, les cerfs tettent Diane. Les Bacchantes des banlieues sanglotent et la lune brûle et hurle. Vénus entre dans les cavernes des forgerons et des ermites. Des groupes de beffrois chantent les idées des peuples. Des châteaux bâtis en os sort la musique inconnue…Le paradis des orages s'effondre…Les sauvages dansent sans cesse la fête de la nuit…

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