Faust:

Ballad of the King of Thule -

Jewel Song

In the third act of Gounod’s Faust - an opera based on Goethe’s drama of the same name and first performed in Paris in 1859 - Marguerite, who has just met Faust, wonders who the noble-looking stranger is. Attracted to him without acknowledging it to herself at this stage and subconsciously fearing that a man of his rank would not be faithful to a girl of such a lowly station as hers, she sits at her spinning wheel and sings the Ballad of the King of Thule. Set by Gounod in an appropriately folk-song style, the ballad - about a king who remained faithful to his mistress after her death and even until his own - gives her encouragement as her thoughts twice wander off to her meeting with Faust.

Putting such things out her head, she finds at her door a humble bunch of flowers from Siebel, a poor student who is in love with her, and a casket of jewels left on Faust’s behalf by his evil genius Mephistopheles. Unable to resist the temptation, she tries on the jewels and inspects her new appearance in the mirror thoughtfully left for her in the casket. The aria in which she expresses her delight at what she sees - “Ah, je ris de me voir si belle” in the French original - is one of the most brilliant waltz songs in the whole operatic repertoire.