No One Else

Darwin and I have been listening to the original Broadway cast recording of Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, an artsy rendering of part of War and Peace by Tolstoy. (Spoiler alert: the great comet is as negligible an element of the show as it was in the novel. But I'm sure it looked spectacular on stage.)

This musical did a lot of avant-garde stuff, but I think one of the reasons it couldn't breach the mainstream consciousness like Hamilton is because it seems to actively eschew singable melodic lines for an emotional soundscape which relies heavy on recitative. I don't need all the fingers on one hand to count the songs that have a tune that you can hum. 

The best of these songs, however, is a beautiful aria by Natasha, alone and lonely, reflecting on how she met her absent fiancé, Prince Andrey. 

 

NATASHA: 

The moon—

First time I heard your voice

Moonlight burst into the room

And I saw your eyes

And I saw your smile

And the world opened wide

And the world was inside of me

And I catch my breath

And I laugh and blush

And I hear guitars 

You are so good for me

I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you

Oh the moon

Oh the snow in the moonlight

And your childlike eyes

And your distant smile

I’ll never be this happy again

You and I

And no one else

We’ve done this all before

We were angels once

Don’t you remember?

Joy and life 

Inside our souls

And nobody knows

Just you and me

It’s our secret

This winter sky

How can anyone sleep?

There was never such a night before!

I feel like putting my arms round my knees

And squeezing tight as possible

And flying away

Like this...

Oh the moon

Oh the snow in the moonlight

And your childlike eyes

And your distant smile

I’ll never be this happy again

You and I

You and I

You and I

And no one else

Maybe he’ll come today

Maybe he came already

And he’s sitting in the drawing room

And I simply forgot