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Hector Berlioz: Harold en Italie; III Sérénade
Or, if you want to hear and see the whole work: Harold en Italie
Charles Gounod: Faust
It’s that unpleasant Mr. Mephistopheles again…
Vous qui faites l’endormie
N’entendez-vous pas,
O Catherine, ma mie,
Ma voix et mes pas? …
Ainsi ton galant t’appelle,
Et ton cœur l’en croit! …
Ah, ah, ah!
N’ouvre la porte,
ma belle,
Que la bague au doigt.
Catherine que j’adore,
Pourquoi refuser
A l’amant qui vous implore
Un si doux baiser?
Ainsi ton galant supplie
Et ton cœur l’en
croit! … Ah, ah, ah!
Ne donne un baiser,
ma mie,
Que la bague au doigt! …
Ah, ah, ah!
You who pretend to sleep
Do you not hear,
O Catherine, my love,
My voice and my footsteps?
Thus your suitor calls to you,
And your heart believes him…
Ah, ah, ah! …
Don’t open the door,
my pretty one,
Till the ring is on your finger!
My beloved Catherine,
Why do you deny
To your entreating lover
So sweet a kiss?
Thus your suitor pleads
And your heart believes him!… Ah, ah, ah!…
Don’t grant any kisses, my pretty one,
Till the ring is on your finger!
Ah, ah, ah!
Georges Bizet: La jolie fille de Perth; Sérénade
This was very popular in the dim and distant past when I was young but now seems to have fallen out of favour; the only libretto I could find was in Italian. Hmmm!
Gioachino Rossini: The Barber of Seville, Act I Serenade
Claude Debussy: Préludes, Book I, IX La sérénade interrompue
Carl Nielsen: Serenata in vano
Benjamin Britten: Albert Herring
Sid’s ‘serenade’ (41:24)
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The Art of Listening 
A most ingenious and enjoyable selection. Particularly liked Alain Vanzo in the Bizet serenade. With such immaculate French diction surely his love must have been requited …?