Now suppose Berlioz made an opera of the "Symphonie Fantastique", and made the 4th movement ("March To The Scaffold") with a libretto to add to the symphony orchestra version of this poetic symphony he wrote.
Berlioz writes in his program notes in that 4th movement that he was high on opium, and in his hallucinogenic dreams, he dreams that he murdered his lover and he himself is condemned to the guillotine. On the chopping block, just before the blade cuts his head off, Berlioz thinks about his last thoughts of her dead lover before he dies of decapitation.
Sure, Berlioz did write his opera called "The Damnation of Faust", but the Fantastic Symphony was of course, a large piece made out of 5 symphonic poems or "movements."
The libretto, in my guess, will likely involve a character that would play Hector Berlioz, and an opera chorus, and will likely have a scene similar to the end of the Francis Poulenc opera, "Dialogue of the Carmelites", where the Carmelites are beheaded--the guillotine scene. In addition, the libretto, would be written, in Berlioz's way, something like this:
SOLO:
Now I'm condemned to be cut off....
Forced to march on, I cannot scoff;
Gallows, execution...
O, that blade I see...is no fun!
O, that gulliotine stands,
As are fettered my hands,
O, guards push me to that supplice!
O, I cannot stand that thing of death,
It makes me tense with every breath,
Now let me die upon that platform please!
O, drums, sound that frightful roll
That precedes the blade's fall
Which sends a legal sign to all!
CHORUS:
Oh, that supplice!
SOLO:
O, drums, sound that frightful roll;
And now, I will not fail
Though I don't die in jail---
O, I am crying a terrible wail!!
I have memories of a lady that I killed...
And my awful arrest for this....
There was no more bliss....
For that dame I miss, I miss, I miss.....
Guillotine, cut off my own head, for I am ever tarnished!
Life now has no more meaning anymore, for murder's end that
I can never mend!
CHORUS:
He'll die!!!
SOLO:
Guillotine, now cut off my very life as if I'm wood not
varnished...
I can't bear it anymore; I want my life to end because I
have no more to send.
CHORUS:
He'll die!!!
SOLO:
Oh, guillotine, fall!!
CHORUS:
Dah duh duh duh duh duh, dah duh duh duh duh duh!
SOLO:
Oh, fall, blade of awe!!!
CHORUS:
Dah duh duh duh duh duh, dah duh duh duh duh duh!
SOLO:
O, my God, pray for me right now...
With praise as my head I bow...
O, give me mercy when I go to heaven......
O, Jesus, I'm goin' to face a punishment of me beheaded...
I can't repent, for it's too late and I have did the sin
that caused her to be dead!
O Jesus, cry, weep for me, for my own capital
chastisement.....
I'd die like you, as if I'm goin' to be crucified and die
without a hint!
Lord, cry for that dame!
CHORUS:
Dah duh duh duh duh duh, dah duh duh duh duh duh!
SOLO:
Cry, for she is slain!
CHORUS:
Dah duh duh duh duh duh, dah duh duh duh duh duh!
SOLO:
O, guillotine descend,
Come on, fall down and let my life come to an end....
(Note, this covers only the first two-thirds of the 4th movement)
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