Hector Berlioz was a composer of great scale, drama, and idiosyncrasy. He is revered for the great Symphonie fantastique and his large masterworks for orchestra and chorus, which include his Grande Messe des morts (Requiem Mass), La Damnation de Faust and Roméo et Juliette. His compositional style was original and rarely drew comparisons to his contemporaries or predecessors. Though Berlioz’s mélodies are not typically recognized as the highlight of his output, his contributions to the song repertory offer all the drama and richness of his larger works. The song cycle Les nuits d'été is his most well-known work for solo voice. The work is set to text by Théophile Gautier, a friend and neighbor to Berlioz known for both his poetry and artistic criticism. The songs of cycle are not connected directly by shared plot. Instead, the six songs are linked by shared themes of youth, love, passage of time, loss and solitude.

The three songs presented in this program are the second, third, and fourth of the cycle. The first song, “Le Spectre de la Rose,” is an ode to a girl who spent the previous evening at a lavish party. The singer takes the perspective of the ghost of a rose that was worn on the girl’s gown. The ghost proclaims though his life is over, his tragic destiny is one which would make kings jealous. The second song, “Sur les Lagunes,” is a lament over the loss of a boatman’s beloved. He declares that his fate—to set sail without his beloved—is a bitter one, and he promises to never love another woman. The third song, “L’absence,” is an impassioned cry in which the singer calls to his departed beloved and implores her to return. He expresses that the distance between their two hearts is so great that—like a flower far removed from the sun—the flower of his life is closed in the absence of his beloved’s smile.