Captive

Also from Les Orientales, La Captive drew Berlioz’s attention as early as1832, quite by chance, and retained it for sixteen years, during which time he wrote the original voice and piano version, added a cello obbligato, orchestrated it and then, in 1848, completed a second and longer orchestral version. If his fascination for this particular poem - which, though exquisitely evocative, is faintly comic in its equation of slavery on the one hand and nice weather on the other - is a little difficult to understand, the lyrical inspiration of the song is indisputable.