What is Les nuits d'été?
'''''Les nuits d'été''''' (''Summer Nights''), Op. 7, is a [[song cycle]] by the [[France|French]] composer [[Hector Berlioz]]. It is a setting of six poems by [[Théophile Gautier]]. Berlioz finished composing the songs in 1841. At first they were just for a singer with [[piano]] [[accompaniment (music)|accompaniment]]. The singer could be either [[baritone]], [[contralto]], or [[mezzo-soprano]]. Later Berlioz changed the work, making the voice a [[soprano]] and arranging the accompaniment for [[orchestra]]. The first song to be orchestrated was ''L'Absence''. He wrote this version for a singer called Marie Recio who went with him on a concert tour of [[Germany]]. All six songs were published in their orchestral version in [[1856]]. That is how the work is nearly always performed nowadays. The titles of the songs are: # ''Villanelle'' (''Villanelle'') # ''Le spectre de la rose'' (''The spectre of the rose'') # ''Sur les lagunes'' (''On the lagoons'') # ''Absence'' (''Absence'') # ''Au cimetière'' (''In the cemetery'') # ''L'île inconnue'' (''The unknown island'') ==References== *New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians ed. Stanley Sadie (1980); {{ISBN|1-56159-174-2}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Nuits d'ete}} [[Category:Compositions by Hector Berlioz]]