Written Sept. 11
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No, we’re not going to write the whole thing in French. But The Pride of Rock Island chose French composer Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique this season, for their show entitled “The Feud.”
The “idée fixe” is a recurring theme in the work’s five movements that Berlioz uses to refer to the object of his main character’s fixation, a woman he’s infatuated with but who never returns his love. From his own program notes for each movement, translated and paraphrased:
The author imagines that a young vibrant musician, whose spirit is afflicted with love sickness, first sees a woman who unites all the charms of the ideal person his imagination was dreaming of. He falls desperately in love with her. The melodic image of the beloved keeps haunting him.
The artist finds himself in the most diverse situations in life, in the tumult of a festive party, in the peaceful contemplation of the beautiful sights of nature, yet everywhere, whether in town or in the countryside, the beloved image keeps haunting him and throws his spirit into confusion.
One evening in the countryside, he hears two shepherds (literal translation, forgive me). This pastoral duet of their conversation, the setting, the gentle rustling of the trees in the wind, some causes for hope he recently imagined, all conspire to restore his heart to an unaccustomed feeling of calm. But what if she betrayed him?
Convinced his love is unappreciated, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose of narcotic, too weak to cause death, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions. He dreams he has killed his beloved, that he’s condemned, led to the scaffold, and witnesses his own execution.
He sees himself at a witches’ Sabbath, a hideous gathering of shades, sorcerers and monsters who come together for his funeral. The beloved melody appears once more, but has now lost its noble and shy character.
Spoiler alert: It’s all a dream! The symphony was first performed in 1830, but Berlioz continued to make revisions until 1845. Today the work is widely popular, especially the March to the Scaffold, the symphony’s fourth movement.
Mr. Carlin is assisted by Sarah Davis and Nina Struss with the color guard, by Alan Conner and David Struss with the drumline, and by Nathan Bell with the front ensemble. The Pride of Rock Island brings 120 musicians to the activity.
Peter Carlin, Michael Tollanaer et Megan Bartlett, chefs de musique. Alysha McElroy-Hodges, Jennifer Michel et Meghan Wells, tambour-majors
