"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.
In popular culture
In addition to its regular performance in the opera, and in cast recordings of the opera, the aria, which was very popular in the 19th and 20th centuries, has been recorded many times by a variety of musicians as a stand-alone song. It has also been parodied.
Lewis Carroll's parody of the lyrics was published in Lays of Mystery, Imagination and Humour in 1855:
Booth Tarkington mentions the opera, though not by name, in his 1902 book The Two Vanrevels, and quotes a line of the aria "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls".
Willa Cather referenced the work in her short story "The Bohemian Girl", which incorporates quotes from some of the arias, including "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls". The plot of the story also has some substantial parallels to the opera.
The Bohemian Girl is mentioned in the short stories "Clay" and "Eveline" by James Joyce which are both parts of Dubliners. In "Clay", the character Maria sings some lines from "I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls". The aria is quoted again in Joyce's novel Finnegans Wake.
The song was recorded several times during the mid-twentieth century by Dame Joan Sutherland.
* The opera is mentioned, and the aria referred to several times, in the 1944 novel Dragonwyck, by Anya Seton, which is set in 1844. The song makes a brief appearance in the 1946 film adaptation of the book.
George Orwell's 1946 essay, Why I Write mentions that, in 1935, after enduring much hardship and disillusionment, he wrote "a little poem" which ended with the stanza:
A version is played and sung several times in the 1948 Jeanne Crain / William Holden movie Apartment for Peggy.
The first line of the song is sung and "scatted" in the number, "Swing," from the 1953 Broadway showWonderful Town.
The first line is sung, off-screen, by aspiring botanist Seymour in the 1960 film The Little Shop of Horrors.
A rather unexpected appearance of the song is in the 1966 Howard Hawks film El Dorado, where it is played in the saloon just prior to the climactic gunfight.
An ambient, ethereal version was recorded by The Irish singer Enya for her Grammy-winning 1991 album, Shepherd Moons: this version was featured on the soundtrack of the 1993 Martin Scorsese film The Age of Innocence.
Sinéad O'Connor recorded a version of the song for the soundtrack of the 1997 Irish film The Butcher Boy.
The aria is played and sung by the character Clementina Cavendish in the 1998 filmThe Governess.
Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber has recorded the song on two occasions: with singer Aled Jones on Jones' 2003 album Higher; and with harpist Catrin Finch on Lloyd Webber's 2006 album Unexpected Songs.
The song can be heard being played on the piano in the background of the Deadwood episode "Something Very Expensive at the Bella Union".
Norwegian soprano Sissel Kyrkjebø featured a version on her 2006 album Into Paradise.
It is sung by Nancy, played by Bethany Muir, in the closing scene of the final episode of the BBC television series Dickensian.
Australian harpist Siobhan Owen recorded the song in her album Lilium.
It was played at the start of the 1972 TV comedy series "In for a penny", which was set in a public convenience.
The song is played in the background of "The Case of the Fraudulent Foto" in Perry Mason.
The protagonist in Sarah Perry's novel Melmoth sings the song to a burn victim in a hospital in Manila and is later haunted by someone singing it in Prague.
The song can be heard many times in the background of the fictional Carlton Hotel in 1870s San Francisco, in Episodes of Have Gun - Will Travel. There it is played in a very up-tempo beat on piano.
