Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Song Lyric of the Day (Barber and Menotti, on Why ‘Must the Winter Come So Soon?’)

“Must the winter come so soon?
Night after night I hear the hungry deer
Wander weeping in the woods
And from his house of brittle bark hoots the frozen owl.”—American composer Samuel Barber (1910-1981), “Must the winter come so soon?”, from the opera Vanessa (1957), with English lyrics by Italian-American librettist Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007)
 
It seems like we were just making the acquaintance of the fall of 2024 when winter began blowing its icy breath on us. A lifelong resident of the Northeast, I expect as much. But this morning, a friend now living in Florida texted me that it was only 35 degrees down there.
 
Well, no bother. I can always wear a heavy sweater and pull a blanket tighter inside when it gets cold. On the other hand, when the temperatures turn subtropical, aside from cranking up the AC and staying indoors, there’s not much you can do on those muggy summer days.
 
For now, anyway, take what comfort you can in the lovely lyrics and music from Barber’s collaboration with Menotti.
 
I took the image accompanying this post, by the way, 14 years ago this month, only a few miles from where I live in Bergen County, NJ. It’s easy to imagine both “the hungry deer” that “wander weeping in the woods” evoked by Barber and Menotti, as well as the “hazy shade of winter” that Simon and Garfunkel sang about in the Sixties.

No comments: