Aimons, rêvons

As abundant as they are little-known, Georges Bizet’s art songs (mélodies) deserve to be re-evaluated and given their rightful place in the repertoire through more regular scheduling. Who could doubt that the composer of ‘Je crois entendre encore’ (‘Romance de Nadir’ from Les Pêcheurs de perles) and the ‘Seguedilla’ (from Carmen) had an extraordinary sense of melody? The tenor Reinoud Van Mechelen, accompanied by Anthony Romaniuk, reveals some of these gems – settings of texts by Victor Hugo, Alphonse de Lamartine and Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, amongst others – while leaving room as well for pieces by Bizet’s contemporaries. At that time – after the first, very successful mélodies of Hector Berlioz, and before the masterpieces of Duparc and Fauré – the French art song genre was coming into its own.