English: Title Page of the original Libretto of
by M. W. Balfe.
Italiano: Frontespizio del libretto originale dell’opera
di M. W. Balfe.
Date: 1843.
Source: BOOKS GOOGLE
Author: Alfred Bunn (1796–1860), Librettist.
Published by W.S. Johnson,
“Nassau Steam Press”, Nassau Street,
Soho, London.
(Wikimedia Commons)
The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopædia,
unless stated otherwise.
“The Bohemian Girl” is a Ballad Opera, composed by Michael William Balfe, with a Libretto by Alfred Bunn. The plot is loosely based on a Cervantes tale, “La Gitanilla”.
The best-known Aria from The Piece is “I Dreamt I Dwelt In Marble Halls”, in which the main character, Arline, describes her vague memories of her childhood. [Editor: Another well-loved Aria is “Then You'll Remember Me”, illustrated in this Article.]
“I Dreamt I Dwelt In Marble Halls” has been recorded by many Artists, most famously by Dame Joan Sutherland, and also by the Norwegian Soprano Sissel Kyrkjebø, and Irish singer, Enya.
The Opera was first produced in London at the Drury Lane Theatre on 27 November 1843. The Production ran for more than 100 nights and enjoyed many revivals worldwide, including: New York City (25 November 1844), Dublin (1844), and Philadelphia (1844).
Sung by: Enya.
Available on YouTube at
Several versions in different languages were also staged during Balfe’s lifetime. The German version, “Die Zigeunerin”, premiered in Vienna in 1846, the Italian adaptation and translation, titled “La Zingara”, was originally staged in Trieste in 1854, and finally a four-act French version, “La Bohémienne”, was mounted in Rouen in 1862, conducted by composer Jules Massenet, then aged only twenty, and with the celebrated Mezzo-Soprano, Célestine Galli-Marié, in the role of the Gypsy Queen.
Célestine Galli-Marié, creator of the Title Role in Bizet’s “Carmen”, dressed for that role. The celebrated Mezzo-Soprano, Célestine Galli-Marié, played the role of
The Gypsy Queen in Rouen, France, in 1862.
Photo: Between 1875 and 1883.
Source: Gallica
Author: Atelier Nadar,
attributed to Paul Nadar in File:Galli-Marie_Carmen_Photo.png.
Restored by: Adam Cuerden
(Wikimedia Commons)
The very successful 1858 Run of “La Zingara”, at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London, for which Balfe was rewarded with an extra cheque for fifty Pounds, starred Marietta Piccolomini, Marietta Alboni and Antonio Giuglini.
The Opera “remained in the repertoires of British Touring Companies until the 1930s and was revived in 1932 at Sadler’s Wells”.
Since World War II, it has been staged by: The Belfast Operatic Society at the 1978 Waterford International Festival of Light Opera, in Ireland; by Castleward Opera, Strangford, in Northern Ireland in 2006; and by Opera South, Haslemere, in England, in 2008.
Mrs. Lillie Langtry.
This Painting encapsulates the angst and
longing contained within the lyrics of the Aria,
“Then You’ll Remember Me”,
from the Opera “The Bohemian Girl”.
Artist: George Frederic Watts (1817–1904).
Date: Circa 1879.
Source/Photographer: ART CONTRARIAN
(Wikimedia Commons)
“Then You'll Remember Me”.
The Aria from “The Bohemian Girl”.
Sung by: Maura O'Connell.
Available on YouTube at
“Then You’ll Remember Me”.
From Act III of the English Opera
by Michael William Balfe.
Libretto: Alfred Bunn.
Role: Thaddeus, a Polish exile and fugitive.
Voice Part: Tenor. Fach: Lyric Tenor.
Setting: A hall in Count Arnheim’s Castle.
Synopsis: Count Arnheim’s daughter, Arline,
was kidnapped as a child and raised by gypsies.
She has recently been re-united with her father and
is living in his Castle, but she has fond memories of the gypsy camp and Thaddeus, the man she loved. Thaddeus now comes to her window and sings this serenade.
The following Lyrics are from ARIA DATABASE
Libretto entered by Mark D. Lew (added 28 February 1999).
When other lips and other hearts,
Their tale of love shall tell,
The language whose excess imparts,
The power they feel so well:
There may, perhaps, in such a scene,
Some recollection be,
Of times that have as happy been,
And you’ll remember me !,
And You’ll remember,
You’ll remember me !
When coldness and deceit shall slight,
The beauty now the prize,
And deem it but a faded light,
That shines within your eyes:
When hollow hearts shall wear a mask,
’T’would break your own to see:
In such a moment I but ask,
That you’ll remember me !,
That You’ll remember,
You’ll remember me !
“Then You'll Remember Me”.
The Aria from “The Bohemian Girl”.
Sung by: John McCormack.
Available on YouTube at
This is a pure example of Victorian music and sensibility. McCormack’s rendering of the lovely old Aria is perfect, and captures the earnest, albeit finger-wagging, sense of morality and propriety so characteristic of the age.
Michael W. Balfe’s Opera was first performed in London in 1842, and, musically speaking, is absolutely a product of its time, even though its narrative inspiration would seem to be an old Cervantes story, “La Gitanilla”, an “exemplary novel” of the kind made popular by the great Spanish author, and which charmed the Urbanites of earlier Centuries who took their pleasure in pastoral romances.
“Then You'll Remember Me”.
The Aria from “The Bohemian Girl”.
Sung by: Jerry Hadley.
Available on YouTube at
The Front Cover for The Score of “La Bohémienne”, a French version of Michael Balfe’s Opera “The Bohemian Girl”, adapted by Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges for the Théâtre Lyrique, in Paris, as performed beginning on 30 December 1869.
Date: 1869.
Source: BRITISH AND IRISH WORLD
Author: Not known.
(Wikimedia Commons)
