Geneviève Bréton, a cultured and passionate woman, was a fixture in the literary and artistic salons of her time, surrounded by composers, painters, and young Parnassian poets of her generation. Saint-Saëns likely met her through his friend, the orientalist painter Henri Regnault, a Prix de Rome laureate, with whom she fell madly in love in Italy in 1867.  Saint-Saëns likely met her through his friend, the orientalist painter Henri Regnault, a Prix de Rome laureate, with whom she fell madly in love in Italy in 1867.

A handsome young man already celebrated for his art, Regnault also fascinated Saint-Saëns with his 'exquisite tenor; voice [...] alluring in its timbre and irresistible in its attractiveness, just as he was himself', as the composer would later recall in 1913. Regnault premiered several of his compositions: 'In 1868, Regnault was the first to embody the role of Samson in the second act of the celebrated opera "Samson et Dalila", created during a private evening performance. Saint-Saëns renewed their collaboration by entrusting the artist with two of the Mélodies persanes, composed for tenor voice.' (Manon Bertaux). The Mélodies persanes op. 26, based on verses by the Parnassian poet Armand Renaud, consist in their published version of three works for tenor ('Sabre en main', 'Au Cimetière', 'Tournoiement') and three for contralto ('La Brise', 'La Splendeur vide', 'La Solitaire'). They form one of Saint-Saëns's most famous cycles and belong to the golden age of French mélodie.

This manuscript for voice and piano, with its ardent, colourful tone, can unquestionably be linked to this set of melodies begun in June 1870 and sold by Saint-Saëns to his publisher Hartmann shortly afterwards. However, Manon Bertaux's research has shown that 'the composer sold Hartmann an incomplete cycle, having composed his final melodies at the beginning of the Siege of Paris [from September onward]". Dated November 1870, our melody - as far as we know unknown to biographers and musicologists - is one of those composed in the midst of the Franco-Prussian war: 'Serving as a National Guard during the Siege of Paris, [Saint-Saëns] continued his activities as a musician and composer alongside his duties guarding the ramparts'. It appears that both the text and music of this composition remained entirely unpublished and were never sent to Hartmann.
For his part, the painter Henri Regnault, enlisted as a maverick, also risked his life in an attempt to break the siege, much to the dismay of Geneviève, who confided her worries in her now famous diary (Ramsay, 1985). The young lovers had finally become engaged after years of opposition from the young woman's mother. Saint-Saëns likely offered this exquisite melody to Geneviève as a betrothal gift - a radiant piece of warmth for the anxious young woman. Transcribed here is the first of its two verses:

 [Kadouja, the singer,
In cloak of night,
Who waits beneath the holm oak
At fall of light,
Sings to the warrior grim,
Fierce and fey,
A rose-hued hymn.]

« Ka-douja la chanteu-se 
Au manteau noir
Qu'on trouve sous l'y-eu-se
Quand vient le soir,
chante au guerrier mo-ro-se,
Prompt au courroux,
Un chant couleur de ro-se »

The composer drew directly from their dramatic circumstances, transposing into an Oriental setting Geneviève's nightly watch for 'the warrior' Henri to return from patrol. In addition to fitting seamlessly within the known Mélodies persanes, the exotic imagery of this work also reflected Geneviève's personal tastes. She was an avid traveler and deeply enamored of Regnault's Orientalist paintings- he had gifted her depictions of harems and Moorish architecture. During their rare moments together, she dreamt of escaping from the starving and freezing capital with him: 

'The danger was near, yet Paris continued making music. It was cold enough to freeze a man to death on the quays, the wind cut like a knife. But we thought of Tangier, the white patio, the reviving warmth, our next home, freedom,' she wrote in her diary on 10 December, shortly after writing this manuscript dated November 1870.

It is not known whether the piece was sung by the painter-tenor during those months of siege, at evenings that Geneviève recalls in her notes. However, it is documented that he sang two Mélodies persanes entrusted to him by Saint-Saëns: 'Au cimetière' and 'Sabre en main', a warlike piece with a steady rhythm and bold vocal flourishes, which the composer would later dedicate to Regnault's memory upon the publication of the Mélodies persanes in 1872.

This deeply moving gift from Saint-Saëns was composed on the eve of the greatest tragedy in the life of the young dedicatee - Henri Regnault would be shot in the temple two months later at the age of 27,

'killed by the Prussians at Buzenval, just days before the armistice signed on January 28. Saint-Saëns was devastated by the loss of this dear friend, a talented painter and fine singer with whom he had shared so many musical moments" (Société Camille Saint-Saëns)'. 

On hearing of his death, the composer is said to have wept for three days. At his funeral, Saint-Saëns played his Marche héroïque  himself on the organ, dedicating it to his fallen friend, as well as 'Au cimetière'  [At the cemetery], the Mélodie persane Regnault had sung only days before his death - as if, unknowingly, he had performed his own funeral elegy. 'Who would have thought as he sang: "To-day the roses; To-morrow the cypress!" that the prophecy would come true so soon?' Saint-Saëns later wrote in École buissonnière, Notes et souvenirs.

A magnificent, previously unpublished musical offering by Saint-Saëns, virtuoso pianist and composer of genius, rediscovered no less than 154 years after it was written. This "seventh" Mélodie persane, still unpublished, brings together two lovers of tragic fate -Bréton and Regnault, the 'singer' devoted to her 'warrior'.

An exceptional unpublished autograph manuscript of a Persian melody for voice and piano, composed by Camille Saint-Saëns during the Siege of Paris in November 1870, enriched with a autograph inscription: 'A Geneviève Bréton / Hommage de respectueux dévouement' [To Geneviève Bréton / In homage with respectful devotion], signed and dated on the second page 'Nov 1870 C. Saint Saëns'.

 
The lyrics of the piece were directly inspired by its dedicatee, the fiancée of the painter and tenor Henri Regnault, 'the most musical of all the painters' (Saint-Saëns, École buissonnière), (translation by Edwin Gile Rich), who was the first performer of several other Mélodies persanes.

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