Opera-savvy folks: can you save my sanity & identify this snippet of melody?

Cafe Society
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Argh. About a half-hour ago I started humming this melody–out of literally nowhere, since I wasn’t listening to any music that reminded me of it. Thing is, I am having a total senior moment (okay, middle-age moment) and cannot figure out what the bloody thing is from. I can’t even remember the beginning of it.

WARNING: VERY BAD SINGING FROM SOMEONE WHO HASN’T SUNG FOR REALSIES IN AT LEAST A DECADE, IS NOT WARMED-UP, AND ALSO HAS POOR PITCH. I apologize to every musician in the world for what you’re about to hear, but I don’t have an instrument handy so all I’ve got is my old-crone voice and Sound Recorder.

The snippet. Forgive me for the cringeworthy vocal. Esp. those of you who have perfect pitch, because I’m sure I’m flat as hell a lot of the time.

What I know (or think I know):

  • The aria/solo/whatever is in a major key, and the first note I sing is the tonic. But in the section I’m singing, the piece begins a bunch of modulations starting with a move to IV, then to V. For example, I think the first note is either a B or B-flat (again: no perfect pitch-haver, me), and the first interval rises a seventh up to either A or A-flat before going down the scale to either E or E-flat.

  • It’s from an opera, 99.999999999% certain it’s French, and a pretty well-known part of the opera, at that.

  • The fact that it’s French makes me strongly suspect (90% certainty) it’s from either Carmen, Faust or (not likely) Tales of Hoffman.* I suppose there’s a miniscule chance it’s from Samson and Delilah, but I barely know that so it’s even less likely than ToH.

  • The reason I highly doubt it’s Tales of Hoffman, although musically it would fit in there, is that I “hear” the libretto in French (though I can’t remember any of the actual words, sigh). I don’t know *ToH *very well in French except for Olympia’s aria; my primary exposure to it was when we performed it in my high school, which we did in English. Carmen and Faust, however, I’ve sung in their original language.

  • It’s from a solo (or at least this portion of it is solo) but I don’t think it’s an aria–possibly the first half of a duet, or the beginning of a small ensemble moment?

  • I think it’s sung by a tenor; possibly soprano? Part of me feels as if I’ve sung it myself a kabillion years ago when I was a singer (and if so I’m even more embarrassed)–and I’m a soprano, or at least I was. But OTOH, I could’ve sung it while practicing just because it was pretty.

Okay, shutting up now. Help?

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Well, the beginning sounds like Samson et Dahlila’s "Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix " but the latter part, not so much. Hope this helps. Link

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Final scene of Faust? ‘Oui c’est moi je t’aime’, ‘Anges pures…’

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BINGO. Well done!!! Holy cow, I can’t believe you got that from my poor rendition–which was even worse than I thought, since I got the beginning note and modulation completely wrong. You’re good!

Dang, and it’s not Faust who starts it after all, but Marguerite, which means I sang that part myself! Yipe. Last night I was homing in on “Anges Purs” for that very reason–we did the trio/finale in a concert during my junior year of high school–but completely blanked on anything before the “Anges Purs” part kicked in.

For anyone interested, I’ll link directly to the beginning of ‘Oui c’est moi je t’aime’, with the part I was trying to remember showing up about 13 seconds later.

Bless you, thank you, and bravo (brava?) MickNickMaggies! And I’d better stock up on Ginko or something because I cannot believe I didn’t remember something I actually frickin’ sang myself. Oy.

Edited to add: Oops sorry, and thank you too, Two Many Cats!

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Faust is just about the only opera I know through and through (and a frequent earworm) so you got lucky!