Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Nicola LeFanu
La Cancion De La Luna (1994)
- Novello & Co Ltd (World)
Commissioned by Music at Oxford with funds from Southern Arts
- str4tet
- Countertenor
- 10 min
- Garcia Lorca
Programme Note
In October 1992, my opera Blood Wedding (libretto by Deborah Levy, after Lorca) received its premier production by the Women's Playhouse Trust. The part of the Moon was created by Nicholas Clapton. This chamber work, newly-composed in regard to both text and medium, revisits the world of Lorca's moonlit forest, setting the whole of Lorca's original speech for the Moon. The Moon is one of the personifications of death, stalking the lovers as they hide in the forest.
Nicola LeFanu
The Moon’s Song
Round swan in the river,
Cathedrals’ eye,
Feigned dawn upon the leaves
Am I: and they shall not escape!
Who ps hiding, who is sobbing,
In the valley undergrowth?
Abandoned to the breeze
The moon shall leave a knife
That waits in leaden ambush
To become a pain of blood.
Let me enter! I come frozen
Over windows, over walls!
Open roofs and breasts up
And let me warm myself!
I am cold! My dreaming metal
Ashes seek a fiery crest
O’er the hills and streets.
The snow, though, bears me
On its jasper shoulders,
Cold and hard
Pond-waters drown me.
And so tonight my cheeks
Shall get red blood,
As shall the rushes
Wreathed round air’s broad ankles.
I’ll tolerate no woods or shadows,
They must not escape!
I need a breast to enter
In which to warm myself!
A heart! I want a heart,
And hot, let it flow down
The mountains of my breasts!
Oh, let me in, Oh, let me in!
I’ll have no shadows. And my beams
Must get in everywhere,
Dark trunks must rustle
With the sound of moonlight,
So that tonight my cheeks
May get sweet blood,
As shall the rushes
Wreathed round air’s broad ankles.
Who is hiding? Show yourself!
No! No! They shan’t escape!
The horse will shine
With diamond fever, thanks to me.
from Federico Garcia Lorca, Bodas de sangre, Act III, translated by Eric
Southworth.
Nicola LeFanu
The Moon’s Song
Round swan in the river,
Cathedrals’ eye,
Feigned dawn upon the leaves
Am I: and they shall not escape!
Who ps hiding, who is sobbing,
In the valley undergrowth?
Abandoned to the breeze
The moon shall leave a knife
That waits in leaden ambush
To become a pain of blood.
Let me enter! I come frozen
Over windows, over walls!
Open roofs and breasts up
And let me warm myself!
I am cold! My dreaming metal
Ashes seek a fiery crest
O’er the hills and streets.
The snow, though, bears me
On its jasper shoulders,
Cold and hard
Pond-waters drown me.
And so tonight my cheeks
Shall get red blood,
As shall the rushes
Wreathed round air’s broad ankles.
I’ll tolerate no woods or shadows,
They must not escape!
I need a breast to enter
In which to warm myself!
A heart! I want a heart,
And hot, let it flow down
The mountains of my breasts!
Oh, let me in, Oh, let me in!
I’ll have no shadows. And my beams
Must get in everywhere,
Dark trunks must rustle
With the sound of moonlight,
So that tonight my cheeks
May get sweet blood,
As shall the rushes
Wreathed round air’s broad ankles.
Who is hiding? Show yourself!
No! No! They shan’t escape!
The horse will shine
With diamond fever, thanks to me.
from Federico Garcia Lorca, Bodas de sangre, Act III, translated by Eric
Southworth.
Media
La cancion de la luna: Cancion de la Luna
