Renée Fleming, soprano; Howard Watkins, piano Program

PROGRAM

Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene

Prelude: Jackson Browne (b. 1948)	“Before the Deluge” (recording) Arrangement: Caroline Shaw, with Rhiannon Giddens, Alison Krauss, Renée Fleming, & Yannick Nézet-Séguin, piano
The following will be accompanied by a film provided by National Geographic. The audience is asked to kindly hold applause until the end of the first half of the program.
Hazel DICKENS (1925–2011)	“Pretty Bird”
George Frideric HANDEL (1685–1759)	“Care selve” from Atalanta
Nico MUHLY (b. 1981)	“Endless Space”
Joseph CANTELOUBE (1879–1957)	“Baïlèro” from Chants d’Auvergne
Maria SCHNEIDER (b. 1960)	“Our Finch Feeder” from Winter Morning Walks
BJÖRK (b. 1965)	“All is Full of Love”
Howard SHORE (b. 1946)	“Twilight and Shadow” from The Lord of the Rings
Kevin PUTS (b. 1972)	“Evening”
Curtis GREEN (b. 1995)	“Red Mountains Sometimes Cry” (recorded, during credits)
BACHARACH (1928–2023) and DAVID (1921–2012)	“What the World Needs Now”

INTERMISSION

Gabriel FAURÉ (1845–1924)	“Au bord de l’eau” “Les berceaux”
Edvard GRIEG (1843–1907)	“Lauf der Welt” “Zur Rosenzeit”
Giacomo PUCCINI (1858-1924)	“O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi (1918)
Jerome KERN (1885–1945)	“All the Things You Are”
Andrew LIPPA (b. 1964)	“The Diva” (2020)

TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS

	HAZEL DICKENS “Pretty Bird”
	Fly away, little pretty bird Fly, fly away Fly away, little pretty bird And pretty you’ll always stay I see in your eyes a promise Your own tender love you’ll bring But fly away, little pretty bird Cold runneth the spring
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL “Care Selve” from Atalanta	GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL “Care Selve” from Atalanta
Care selve, ombre beate, vengo in traccia del mio cor!	Beloved forests, joyous shadows: I come in search of my heart.
	Nico Muhly, Thomas Traherne, Robinson Meyer “Endless Space”
	One of the great things about Earth as an image is that… it’s too much. It helps me to think about how we share the planet, and the fact that it’s always half day and it’s always half night. Your midnight is someone else’s noon. It doesn’t work in language: I try to talk about it, and it comes out as clichés. But this is seeing it. Prompted to seek my Bliss above the Skies, How often did I lift mine Eyes Beyond the Spheres! Dame Nature told me there was endless Space Within my Soul; I spy’d its very face: Sure it not for nought appears. What is there which a Man may see Beyond the Spheres? Felicity. Whether the emergencies of the coming century arrive in the form of fires, or floods, or plagues that rise invisibly from the ground They’re likely to become more and more extreme and less and less familiar. Even in its quietest places, the world will become newly hostile. No empty Space: it is all full of Sight All Soul and Life, an Eye most bright, All Light and Love, Which doth at once all things possess and give, Heaven and Earth, and All that therein live; It rests as quiet, and doth move; Eternal is, yet Time includes; A scene above all Interludes. One of the great things about Earth as an image is that… it’s too much. But this is seeing it..
“Baïlèro” from Chants d’Auvergne	“Baïlèro” from Songs of the Auvergne
Pastré, dè dèlaï l’aïo, as gaïré dé boun tèms? Dio lou baïlèro lèro, lèro, lèro, lèro, baïlèro, lô! È n’aï pa gaïre, è dio, tu? Baïlèro lèro, lèro, lèro, lèro, baïlèro, lô! Pastré, couci foraï, en obal io lou bel riou! Dio lou baïlèro lèro, lèro, lèro, lèro, baïlèro, lô! Es pèromè, té baô çirca! Baïlèro lèro, lèro, lèro, lèro, baïlèro, lô!	Shepherd across the river, you don’t seem to be afraid, sing the Bailero, etc. Indeed I’m not, and you too, sing the Bailero, etc. Shepherd, the stream separates us, and I can’t cross it, sing the Bailero, etc. Then I’ll come and get you further down, Bailero, etc.
	MARIA SCHNEIDER “Our Finch Feeder” from Winter Morning Walks [Ted Kooser]
	Our finch feeder, full of thistle seed oily and black as ammunition, swings wildly in the wind and the finches in olive drab like little commandos cling to the perches, cling to the perches, six birds at a time, ignoring the difficult ride.
	BJÖRK “All Is Full of Love”
	You’ll be given love You’ll be taken care of You’ll be given love You have to trust it Maybe not from the sources You have poured yours Maybe not from the directions You are staring at Twist your head around It’s all around you All is full of love All around you All is full of love You just ain’t receiving All is full of love Your phone is off the hook All is full of love Your doors are all shut All is full of love
HOWARD SHORE “Twilight and Shadow” from The Lord of the Rings
Ngil nin el nel Naun el kree ú a mae Ú el me Síli mae Nin fi li na lo me le ne Menel aduial Dúr i fuin i vah mae Ngil nin el nel Du Gli li mae Ngil fi el me i Dúr fu Nae mae An i lu na cu An i naun lui A na naun annen Annen ne perónen A	Twilight and Shadow I saw a star rise high in the Evening sky, It hung like a jewel, Softly shining. I saw a star fade in the Evening sky, The dark was too deep and so light died, Softly pining. For what might have been, For what never was. For a life, long lived For a love half given
	KEVIN PUTS “Evening” [Poem by Dorianne Laux]
	Moonlight pours down without mercy, no matter how many have perished beneath the trees. The river rolls on. There will always be silence, no matter how long someone has wept against the side of a house, bare forearms pressed to the shingles. Everything ends. Even pain, even sorrow. The swans drift on. Reeds bear the weight of their feathery heads. Pebbles grow smaller, smoother beneath night’s rough currents. We walk long distances, carting our bags, our packages. Burdens or gifts. We know the land is disappearing beneath the sea, islands swallowed like prehistoric fish. We know we are doomed, done for, damned, and still the light reaches us, falls on our shoulders even now, even here where the moon is hidden from us, even though the stars are so far away.
	BURT BACHARACH AND HAL DAVID “What the World Needs Now”
	What the world needs now is love, sweet love It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of What the world needs now is love, sweet love No not just for some, but for everyone Lord, we don’t need another mountain There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb There are oceans and rivers enough to cross Enough to last ‘til the end of time What the world needs now is love, sweet love It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of What the world needs now is love, sweet love No, not just for some, but for everyone Lord, we don’t need another meadow There are cornfields and wheatfields enough to grow There are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine Oh listen, Lord, if you want to know What the world needs now is love, sweet love It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of What the world needs now is love, sweet love No, not just for some, oh, but just for every, every, everyone
GABRIEL FAURE Au bord de l’eau[Sully Prudhomme]	At the water’s edge
S’asseoir tous deux au bord d’un flot qui passe, Le voir passer; Tous deux, s’il glisse un nuage en l’espace, Le voir glisser; À l’horizon, s’il fume un toit de chaume, Le voir fumer; Aux alentours si quelque fleur embaume, S’en embaumer; Entendre au pied du saule où l’eau murmure L’eau murmurer; Ne pas sentir, tant que ce rêve dure, Le temps durer; Mais n’apportant de passion profonde Qu’à s’adorer, Sans nul souci des querelles du monde, Les ignorer; Et seuls, tous deux devant tout ce qui lasse, Sans se lasser, Sentir l’amour, devant tout ce qui passe, Ne point passer!	To sit together on the bank of a flowing stream, To watch it flow; Together, if a cloud glides by, To watch it glide; On the horizon, if smoke rises from thatch, To watch it rise; If nearby a flower smells sweet, To savor its sweetness; To listen at the foot of the willow, where water murmurs, To the murmuring water; Not to feel, while this dream passes, The passing of time; But feeling no deep passion, Except to adore each other, With no cares for the quarrels of the world, To know nothing of them; And alone together, seeing all that tires, Not to tire of each other, To feel that love, in the face of all that passes, Shall never pass!
FAURE Les Berceaux [Sully Prudhomme]	The cradles
Le long du quai les grands vaisseaux, Que la houle incline en silence, Ne prennent pas garde aux berceaux Que la main des femmes balance. Mais viendra le jour des adieux, Car il faut que les femmes pleurent, Et que les hommes curieux Tentent les horizons qui leurrent. Et ce jour-là les grands vaisseaux, Fuyant le port qui diminue, Sentent leur masse retenue Par l’âme des lointains berceaux	Along the quay the great ships, Listing silently with the surge, Pay no heed to the cradles Rocked by women’s hands. But the day of parting will come, For it is decreed that women shall weep, And that men with questing spirits Shall seek enticing horizons. And on that day the great ships, Leaving the dwindling harbor behind, Shall feel their hulls held back By the soul of the distant cradles.
EDVARD GRIEG Lauf der Welt [Johann Ludwig Uhland]	The Way of the World
An jedem Abend geh’ ich aus, Hinauf den Wiesensteg. Sie schaut aus ihrem Gartenhaus, Es stehet hart am Weg. Wir haben uns noch nie bestellt, Es ist nur so der Lauf der Welt. Ich weiß nicht, wie es so geschah, Seit lange küss’ ich sie, Ich bitte nicht, sie sagt nicht: ja! Doch sagt sie: nein! auch nie. Wenn Lippe gern auf Lippe ruht, Wir hindern’s nicht, uns dünkt es gut. Das Lüftchen mit der Rose spielt, Es fragt nicht: hast mich lieb? Das Röschen sich am Taue kühlt, Es sagt nicht lange: gib! Ich liebe sie, sie liebet mich, Doch keines sagt: ich liebe dich!	Every evening I go out, Up the meadow path. She looks out from her summer house, Which stands close by the road. We’ve never planned a rendezvous, It’s just the way of the world. I don’t know how it came about, For a long time I’ve been kissing her, I don’t ask, she doesn’t say yes! But neither does she ever say no! When lips are pleased to rest on lips, We don’t prevent it, it just seems good. The little breeze plays with the rose, It doesn’t ask: do you love me? The rose cools itself with dew, It doesn’t dream of saying: give! I love her, she loves me, But neither says: I love you!
GRIEG Zur Rosenzeit [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]	Time of Roses
Ihr verblühet, süße Rosen, Meine Liebe trug euch nicht; Blühet, ach! dem Hoffnungslosen, Dem der Gram die Seele bricht! Jener Tage denk’ ich trauernd, Als ich, Engel, an dir hing, Auf das erste Knöspchen lauernd Früh zu meinem Garten ging; Alle Blüten, alle Früchte Noch zu deinen Füßen trug Und vor deinem Angesichte Hoffnung in dem Herzen schlug. Ihr verblühet, süße Rosen, Meine Liebe trug euch nicht; Blühet, ach! dem Hoffnungslosen, Dem der Gram die Seele bricht.	You fade, sweet roses, My love did not wear you; Ah! You bloom for one bereft of hope, Whose soul now breaks with grief! Sorrowfully I think of those days, When I, my angel, set my heart on you, And waiting for the first little bud, Went early to my garden; Laid all the blossoms, all the fruits At your very feet, With hope beating in my heart, When you looked on me. You fade, sweet roses, My love did not wear you; Ah! you bloom for one bereft of hope, Whose soul now breaks with grief.
GIACOMO PUCCINI “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi	Oh, dear papa
O mio babbino caro, mi piace è bello, bello; vo’andare in Porta Rossa a comperar l’anello! Sì, sì, ci voglio andare! e se l’amassi indarno, andrei sul Ponte Vecchio, ma per buttarmi in Arno! Mi struggo e mi tormento! O Dio, vorrei morir! Babbo, pietà, pietà!	Oh, dear papa, I like him, he’s handsome, he’s handsome; I want to go to Porta Rossato to buy the ring! Yes, yes, I want to go! And if it’s useless to love him, I’ll go to the Ponte Vecchio and throw myself into the Arno! I am pining, I am tortured! O God, I could die! Papa, have pity, have pity!
	JEROME KERN AND OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II “All the Things You Are”
	Time and again I’ve longed for adventure Something to make my heart beat the faster What did I long for? I never really knew Finding your love I’ve found my adventure Touching your hand, my heart beats the faster All that I want in all of this world is you You are the promised kiss of springtime That makes the lonely winter seem long You are the breathless hush of evening That trembles on the brink of a lovely song You are the angel glow that lights a star The dearest things I know are what you are Some day my happy arms will hold you And some day I’ll know that moment divine When all the things you are, are mine You are the angel glow that lights a star The dearest things I know are what you are Some day my happy arms will hold you And some day I’ll know that moment divine When all the things you are, are mine