paroles de chanson Phaedra, Op.93: In May, in brilliant Athens - Dame Janet Baker feat. English Chamber Orchestra & Steuart Bedford

Hang me in brilliant affluence on my marriage day
My childless eyes saw shelter from the smile of Theseus
Death was frowning in an isle
Hippolytus, I saw his face turn white
I lost and there's where I saw only night
Capricious burnings flickered through my bleak abandoned flesh
I could not breathe or speak
I faced my flaming executioner, Aphrodite, my mother's murderer
I tried to calm her wrath by flowers and praise
I built her a temple, fretted months and days on decoration
Alas, my hungry open mouth thirsting with adoration tasted truth
Venus resigned her altar to my new god
You monster
You understood me too well
Why do you hang these features petrified, polite?
My mind whirls
What have I to hide?
Phaedra, Phaedra
I'm here, nestle before you
Phaedra, Phaedra, I'm here, nestle before you
I love you
Fool, I love you
Fool, I love you, love you, love you, love you
Fool, I adore you
Oh, but if it's in that my mind approve my first defection, prince
Oh, but I loved your youth, your youth liked openly and fed
My treason with cowardly compliance, till I lost my reason
Alas
Alas, my violence to resist you made my face inhuman, hateful
I was afraid to kiss my husband lest I loved his son
I made you fear him, this was easily done
You loathed me more, I ached for you no less
Misfortune magnified your loveliness
The wife of Theseus now demoniacal
Silence
The wife of Theseus now demoniacal
Look
Look, this monster ravenous for her execution will not flinch
I want your slot, Spasmodic
I'll finish