I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls

"I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls", or "The Gipsy Girl's Dream", is a popular aria from The Bohemian Girl , an 1843 opera by Michael William Balfe, with lyrics by Alfred Bunn. It is sung in the opera by the character Arline, who is in love with Thaddeus, a Polish nobleman and political exile. ^[1]

In popular culture

The song was popular in the 19th and 20th centuries, and has been recorded many times by musicians. ^[2] It has also been parodied.

• Lewis Carroll's parody of the lyrics was published in Lays of Mystery, Imagination and Humour in 1855: ^[3]

  I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls,
  And each damp thing that creeps and crawls
  went wobble-wobble on the walls...

• The opera is featured in two short stories from James Joyce's 1914 collection Dubliners : "Clay" and "Eveline". ^[4]
• The 1941 Glenn Miller song "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Harlem" is an allusion to the song.
• The Irish singer Enya recorded an ambient, ethereal cover version for her third studio album, Shepherd Moons , released in 1994 as the fourth single for the album; this version was featured on the soundtrack of the 1993 Martin Scorsese film, The Age of Innocence . ^[5]
• The tune was used as the introductory music to the 1972 TV comedy series “In for a penny”.

References

1. Frank Weaver. "Music in the Works of James Joyce". James-joyce-music.com. Retrieved 2012-08-07.
2. James Michael Welsh; Peter Lev (2007). The Literature/Film Reader: Issues of Adaptation. Scarecrow Press. p. 13. ISBN   9780810859494.
3. Knight letter, Lewis Carroll Society of North America, 1994, p. 21
4. "I Dreamt That I Dwelt in Marble Halls", Music in the Works of James Joyce, james-joyce-music.com
5. The Age of Innocence (1993) – Soundtracks

External links

• 1909 recording by Elizabeth Wheeler