Title Page of Blue-Beard
Songs (piano only):
Duet: Twylight Glimmers (Selim and Fatima)
The Carsee as the Bride (chorus)
Duet: tink a tink (Beda and Shacabac)
OVERVIEW:
Michael Kelly and Anna Maria Crouch performed as Selim and Fatima in Blue-Beard ( Drury Lane, 17 January 1798). Kelly admitted that he was inspired by seeing the performance of Grétry’s Raoule Barbe Bleu in Paris in 1790, but he insisted that in his own production at Drury Lane he “did not introduce a single bar from Grétry” ( R 1:358). Kelly needed no defense against borrowings from Grétry, for the entire production, both score and libretto, are radically different. Colman and Kelly gave their Blue-Beard a Turkish setting. The characters names are changed: Isaure and the knight Vergy in Gretry’s opera, become Fatima and Selim. [Track: Overture] begins by conjuring the secret tryst of the lover, moves on to the pomp of Abomelique’s arrival, and effectively anticipates the danger confronted by Fatima. In their opening duet (I.i.1-17; 8-11), Selim and Fatima attempt to elope. As she climbs from her window on a ladder of silken ropes, their song [Track: Duet: Twylight Glimmers (Selim and Fatima)], mimics her descending steps, “ Pit a pat, pit a pat, ” down the ladder:
Fatima
Selim .
Twilight glimmers o'er the Steep:
Fatima! Fatima! wakest thou, dear?
Grey-eyed Morn begins to peep:
Fatima! Fatima! Selim's here!
Here are true-love's cords attaching
To your window.---List! List!
( Fatima opens the Window.)
Fati.
Dearest Selim! I've been watching;
Yes, I see the silken twist.
Sel.
Down, Down, Down, Down, Down!
Down the Ladder gently trip;
Pit a pat, pit a pat,---haste thee, dear!
Fati.
O! I'm sure my foot will slip!
(With one foot out of the Window.)
Sel.
Fatima!---
Fati.
Well Selim?---
Sel.
Do not fear!
(She gets upon the Ladder---they keep time in singing to her steps as she descends, towards the end of the last line she reaches the ground and they embrace.
Both.
Pit a pat, pit a pat, Pit a pat,
Pit a pat, pit a pat---Pat, Pat, Pat.
Fatima ’s father, Ibrahim, foils the lovers’ attempt to elope. He drives off Selim, and tells Fatima that she must marry the powerful and wealthy Bashaw, Abomelique. Kelly provides a strident Turkish [Track: March] and Track: Chorus for the arrival of Abomelique [Mark his approach (chorus) ] (I.i.135-142; 22-25). In Abomaleque’s departure with his bride, the sounds of his triumph subdue the ineffectual resistance of Fatima [Track: The Carsee as the Bride (chorus) ]. As in the opening duet, with its “ Pit a pat, pit a pat” of Fatima’s descent, Kelly reveals in subsequent songs his recurrent fascination with musical mimicry: the instrumental echoing of natural sounds and the vocal echoing of instrumental sounds. This, of course, is the feature that made Kelly’s “Woodpecker Tapping” so memorable. In the duet of Shacabec and Beda (I.i.58-76; 30-33), Kelly plays with the tinking, clinking sounds of the guitar: [Track: Duet: tink a tink (Beda and Shacabac)] .
Yes, Beda,---This, Beda, when I melancholy grow,
This tinking heart-sinking soon can drive away.
Beda .
When hearing sounds cheering, then we blythe and jolly grow;
How do you, while to you, Shacabac, I play?
Tink, tinka, tinka, tink---the sweet Guittar shall cheer you.
Clink, clinka, clinka, clink---So gaily let us sing!
Shac .
Tink, tinka, tinka, tink---A pleasure 'tis to hear you,
While, neatly, you sweetly, sweetly touch the string!
Both .
Tink, tinka, &c.
Shac .
Once sighing, sick, dying, Sorrow hanging over me,
Faint, weary, sad, dreary, on the ground I lay;
There moaning, deep groaning, Beda did discover me---
Beda .
Strains soothing, Care smoothing, I began to play.
Tink, tinka, tinka, tink,---the sweet Guittar could cheer you:
Clink, clinka, clinka, clink, so gaily did I sing!
Shac .
Tink, tinka, tinka, tink,---A pleasure 'twas to hear you,
While, neatly; You sweetly, sweetly touch'd the string!
Both .
Tink, tinka, &c.
In the Glee at the opening of Act II, a band of Turkish soldiers prepare an ambush, plotting to give their signal with the “tapping on the drum” (II.ii.1-10; 49-53). [Track: Glee: Stand close (rub a dub)]
Stand close!---Our Comrade is not come:
Ere this, he must be hovering near;---
Give him a Signal we are here,
By gently tapping on the Drum.
Rub, Dub, Dub.
A Comrade's wrong'd: Revenge shall work:
Thus, till our project's ripe, we lurk;---
And still, to mark that we are here,
Yet not alarm the distant ear,
With caution, ever and anon,
The Drum we gently tap upon.
Rub, Dub, Dub.
Poets and composers have often attempted to echo the hoof-beats of horses. The familiar galloping of Gioachino Rossini’s Overture to Guillaume Tell or Franz von Suppé’s “Light Calvary Overture” were nineteenth-century versions of an echoic game that dates back at least as far as Virgil’s onomatopoeia in the Aeneid: “Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quitit ungula campum,” translated by Dryden as “Then struck the hoofs of the steed on the ground with a four-footed trampling.” While Abomelique threatens to behead her with his scimitar, Fatima, her sister Irene, and the slave Shacabac hold look out from the turret for the arrival of Selim and his comrades. Just as the rescue seems too late, they hear the galloping, galloping [Track: The Turret] (II.vi.84-109; 62-68):
Fati.
Look from the Turret, sister dear!
And see if succour be not near.---
O tell me what do you descry?
Ire.
Nothing but dreary Land and Sky.
Fati., Ire., Shac.
Alas! Alas! then I/You/She, must die!
Abom.
Prepare.---
Fati.
---He calls! Look out, again!
Look out, look out across the plain!
Ah me! does nothing meet your eyes?
Ire.
I see a Cloud of Dust arise.
Fati., Ire., Shac.
That Cloud of Dust a hope supplies!
Abom.
No more delay.
Fati.
A moment stay!
Fati.
O, watch the Travellers, my Sister dear!
Ire.
I'll wave my handkerchief, 'twill draw them near.
Shac.
They'll see it speedily, and hurry here,
Abom.
Prepare!
Ire., Shac.
I see them galloping, they're spurring on amain!
Now, faster galloping, they skim along the plain!
Abom.
No more delay.
Fati.
A moment stay!
Fati., Ire., Shac.
They come.
Abom.
Prepare!
Fati., Ire., Shac.
They'll be too late!
Now they dismount!---They're at the Gate!---
Abom.
Prepare!
This not-for-profit site is intended to make vocal music and lyrics of the of the early 19th century in the British Isles, Europe, Canada, the United States, and Australia more accessible. It includes contemporary music of the period and later settings (e.g., Brian Holmes's complete score for Death's Jest Book and Lori Lange's settings of Byron lyrics). For further information, contact Paul.Douglass@sjsu.edu