The programme explores Baudelaire's Fleurs du mal, an expression of personal torment and the conflict between Catholic morals and debauchery in 19th-Century Paris. Antony Sher reads from the texts, with Imogen Stubbs reading complementary works by Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound and TS Eliot.
With the voice of Jean-Louis Barrault and music influenced by Baudelaire from Debussy, Duparc, Serge Gainsbourg and Diamanda Galas, as well as Takemitsu and Messiaen.
Flowers of Evil
Antony Sher (reader)
Imogen Stubbs (reader)
Producer's note
Les Fleurs du mal, a unified volume of poetry,is the summit of Baudelaire's literary achievements. First published in 1857, it became the centre of a court-room scandal which resulted in the seizing of Les Fleurs and the censoring of 6 poems considered by the Public Prosecutor to be too decadent and erotic for the Catholic bourgeoisie of 19th-century France.
Rather than safeguard the Public from decadence, the court case threw Baudelaire into the limelight where his work received praise from Hugo, Mallarme and Verlaine. Baudelaire's Fleurs du mal became fundamental to the symbolist and modernist movements, T. S. Eliot even proclaiming Baudelaire as the father of modern literature.
This edition of Words and Music draws on the poetry of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal. The selected Fleurs explore not only Baudelaire's own personal torment, but also the conflict between Catholic morals and the debauchery of 19th-century Paris.
The sequence of poems corresponds to Baudelaire's life chronology: from Parisian scenes back to his childhood memories (the poems written specially for his mother), then through the 'love cycles', his anger and rebellion to death and nothingness. For each Baudelaire poem, I have chosen a complementary text that captures similar sentiments.
Antony Sher reads exclusively from Les Fleurs, capturing the different psychological states of Baudelaire as a Pierrot figure: devilish in the 'Gamblers' and 'The Soul of Wine'; wistful in his childhood memories, 'I have not forgotten . . .' and 'You used to be jealous . . .'; seething with rage in 'You'd sleep with anyone . . .' and his traumatized prayer to Satan from 'Satan's Litanies'; and his shattering grief in 'Elevation' and 'Day's End'.
Imogen Stubbs acts as Baudelaire's mirror-image and reads complementary texts that capture his psychological states. Vachel Lindsay's 'What the Ghost of the Gambler said' and Joseph Roth's story of the Holy Drinker conjure up the debauched world of Baudelaire's Paris while Thomas Hardy's 'After the Burial' and Lewis Carroll's 'A Nursery Darling' represent Baudelaire's grief for both his father and lost relationship with his mother (his father died when he was only 6 and, a year later, his mother remarried the diplomat Jacques Aupick). Ezra Pound's violent poem, 'To a Friend Writing on Cabaret Dancers', and Walt Whitman's 'A Hand-Mirror', depict Baudelaire's increasingly warped view of the women who scarred his adult life and then Shakespeare's 'Like as the waves . . .' together with T. S. Eliot's 'In silent corridors of death' express the emptiness of grief about which Baudelaire writes so beautifully toward the end of Les Fleurs.
The voice of the legendary French actor Jean-Louis Barrault also appears throughout the programme, on a crackly LP, as if he is Baudelaire himself, speaking to us from beyond the grave.
Many composers and French chansonniers have also been influenced by Les Fleurs du mal: from Debussy and Duparc to Serge Gainsbourg, and George Chelon to Diamanda Galas, all of whom are represented in this Words and Music.
I chose to begin the programme with the Bells of l'Eglise St. Marie tolling behind Messiaen's Sortie: Le Vent de l'Esprit (Messe de la Pentecote) which, juxtaposed with Baudelaire's introductory poem to 'The Reader', captures the conflict between morality and debauchery that is key to Les Fleurs. Two dedications to Baudelaire follow, one literary in the words of Thomas Lux, and the other musical, by Serge Gainsbourg.
Bells act as a reminder of Catholicism throughout the programme and reappear after Satan's 'Prayer', over the closing bars of Diamanda Galas's sinister Heautontimoroumenos, and in T. S. Eliot's 'Silent Corridors of Death'. Musical bells also permeate the programme from Parisian Bells played by Paul O'Dette as day breaks over the city to Ravel's Vallee des Cloches (Miroirs) just before Baudelaire's 'Confession' to his lover. Takemitsu's Day Signal and Night Signal, played by the brass of London Sinfonietta, frame the programme and also, in a sense, Baudelaire's life.
Other music that I have chosen reflects the setiments of the literary sequence. Yann Tiersen's quintessentially French Cleo au trapeze colours the squalid world of Baudelaire's 'Gamblers' while Prokofiev's 'Precipitato' from Piano Sonata No.7 expresses the frenzied drunkenness of the impish 'Soul of Wine'. C. P. E. Bach's 'Andantino patetico' from Sonata in C minor penetrates the souls of Thomas Hardy's grieving family while Varese's Hyperprism conjures up the violence of Cabaret dancers and John Tavener's Dhyana, the emptiness and melancholy of Baudelaire's 'Meditation'. And at the height of anger, the centre of the programme is Diamanda Galas singing to Satan from high.
This is a programme that recreates the claustrophobic world of Baudelaire and also reveals something of his character and thoughts.
Elizabeth Arno (Producer)
Playlist
00:00:00
BELLS
(St. Marie Church bells - BBC Sound FX)
(070491 [01]
00:00:08
MESSIAEN
Sortie:Le Vent de l'Esprit
(Messe de la Pentecote)
Olivier Messiaen (organ - l'eglise de la Sainte-Trinite Paris)
EMI CD4 CZS 7 67400 2
T5
00:00:42
BAUDELAIRE, trans. RICHARD HOWARD*
To the Reader
Read by Antony Sher
00:04:25
THOMAS LUX
'It's still the same, Charles'
Read by Imogen Stubbs
00:05:16
SERGE GAINSBOURG
Baudelaire
Serge Gainsbourg (singer)
Alain Goraguer And His Orchestra
MERCURY 558 828-2
T11
00:07:17
BAUDELAIRE
La Crepescule du matin
Jean Louis Barrault (reader)
Les Poetes Maudits - Baudelaire
London LL.1010
Side 1 Band 4
00:07:21
ANONYMOUS
Campanae Parisienses
Paul O'Dette (lute)
HELIOS CDH 55146
T11
00:07:57
BAUDELAIRE,trans. RICHARD HOWARD*
La Crepescule du matin (Twighlight: Daybreak)
Read by Antony Sher
00:09:40
TAKEMITSU
Day Signal
London Sinfonietta
Oliver Knussen (conductor)
DG 453 495-2
T1
00:11:34
YANN TIERSEN
Cleo au trapeze
Yann Tiersen (accordion & toy piano)
VIRGIN 7243 8454042 5
T7
00:12:40
BAUDELAIRE, trans. RICHARD HOWARD*
Gamblers
Read by Antony Sher
00:14:09
VACHEL LINDSAY
What the Ghost of the Gambler said
Read by Imogen Stubbs
00:14:49
WERT
Vox Clamantis (De Vlaamse Polyfonie)
Capella Sancti Michaelis
Currende Consort
Erik Van Nevel (director)
EUFODA 1160
T19
00:18:08
PROKOFIEV
Precipitato (Piano Sonata No.7, Op.83)
Maurizio Pollini (piano)
DG 447 431-2
T6
00:18:57
BAUDELAIRE, trans. RICHARD HOWARD*
The Soul of Wine
Read by Antony Sher
00:23:12
ANON
Estampie italienne (saltarello)
Allegorie
Alpha 054
T3
00:21:39
JOSEPH ROTH, trans. MICHAEL HOFMANN
The Legend of the Holy Drinker, Ch.2
Read by Imogen Stubbs
00:22:59
BAUDELAIRE
Le vin du solitaire
Georges Chelon (singer)
Joel Roulleau (guitar)
EPM 985962
T21
00:24:29
BAUDELAIRE, trans. RICHARD HOWARD*
Parisian Landscape
Read by Imogen Stubbs
00:25:47
BOULANGER
D'un matin de printemps (extract)
Philharmonic orchestra of Luxembourg
Mark Stringer (conductor)
TIMPANI 1C1046
T5
00:27:29
BAUDELAIRE, trans. RICHARD HOWARD*
'I have not forgotten . . .'
Read by Antony Sher
00:28:10
THOMAS HARDY
After the Burial
Read by Imogen Stubbs
00:29:18
CPE BACH
Andantino Patetico (Sonata in C minor)
Mikhail Pletnev (piano)
DG 459 614 -2
T6
00:31:09
LEWIS CARROLL
A Nursery Darling
Read by Imogen Stubbs
00:31:56
BAUDELAIRE, trans. RICHARD HOWARD*
'You used to be jealous . . . '
Read by Antony Sher
00:33:09
DEBUSSY
Le jet d'eau
Alison Hagley (soprano)
The Cleveland Orchestra
Pierre Boulez (conductor)
DG 471 614 -2
T12
00:38:40
BAUDELAIRE
Le Jet d'eau
Jean Louis Barrault (reader)
Les Poetes Maudits
Baudelaire
London LL.1010
SIDE 1 Band 1
00:38:50
BAUDELAIRE, trans. RICHARD HOWARD*
Le Jet d'eau
Read by Antony Sher & Imogen Stubbs
00:39:51
RAVEL
La Vallee des cloches (Miroirs)
Cecile Ousset (piano)
EMI CDC 7499422
T19
00:43:35
BAUDELAIRE, trans. RICHARD HOWARD*
Confession
Read by Antony Sher
00:46:20
EZRA POUND
To a Friend Writing on Cabaret Dancers
Read by Imogen Stubbs
00: 49:50
VARESE
Arcana (Extracts)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Riccardo Chailly (conductor)
Decca 460 208 -2
T4
00:51:32
DIAMANDA GALAS
Heautontimoroumenos
Diamanda Galas (vocals & synthesizers)
Album: The Divine Punishment & Saint of the Pit
MUTE CD STUMM 33
T5
00:51:40
BAUDELAIRE, trans. RICHARD HOWARD*
'You'd sleep with anyone . . .'
Read by Antony Sher
00:52:55
WALT WHITMAN
A Hand-Mirror
Read by Imogen Stubbs
00:54:19
BAUDELAIRE, trans. RICHARD HOWARD*
Prayer (from Satan's Litanies)
Read by Antony Sher & Imogen Stubbs
00:56:36
DUPARC
L'invitation au voyage
Felicity Lott (soprano)
Graham Johnson (piano)
HMU 9021219
T1
01:00:09
BAUDELAIRE
Elevation
Jean Louis Barrault (reader)
Les Poetes Maudits - Baudelaire
London LL.1010
Side 1 Band 2
01:00:35
BAUDELAIRE, trans. RICHARD HOWARD*
Elevation
Read by Antony Sher
01:00:34
TAVENER
Dhyana
Nicola Benedetti (violin)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Andrew Litton (conductor)
DG 476 619 -8
T3
01:05:30
BAUDELAIRE, trans. RICHARD HOWARD*
Meditation
Read by Antony Sher
01:06:28
BAUDELAIRE
Recueillement
Jean Louis Barrault (reader)
Les Poetes Maudits - Baudelaire
London LL.1010
SIDE 1 Band 3
01:06:50
SHAKESPEARE
'Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore'
Read by Imogen Stubbs
01:07:45
TAKEMITSU
Night Signal
London Sinfonietta
Oliver Knussen (conductor)
DG 453495 -2
T7
01:10:46
T. S. ELIOT
In silent corridors of death
Read by Imogen Stubbs
01:11:41
TALLIS
Miserere nostri
Gabrieli Consort
Paul McCreesh (director)
DG 477 6605
T1
01:14:01
BAUDELAIRE, trans. RICHARD HOWARD*
Day's End
Read by Antony Sher
*BAUDELAIRE, trans. RICHARD HOWARD: Fleurs du mal (Harvester, 1982)
