Sveriges Radio P2 will play Malmö Opera's A Little Night Music live on Saturday
sverigesradio.se17.55 onwards Swedish time. Got to remember to listen to that!
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
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Frid: Look, little one, the summer night is smiling.
Petra: Just think, you’re a poet too.
Frid: Oh yes! The summer night has three smiles, and this is the first—between midnight and daybreak—when young lovers open their hearts and bodies. Can you see it back there at the horizon, a smile so soft that one has to be very quiet and watchful to see it at all?
Petra: The young lovers …
[…]
Frid: Now the summer night smiles its second smile:
for the clowns, the fools, the unredeemable.
Petra: Then she smiles for us.
Frid: Are you thirsty? Do you want a beer?
Petra: I said that she smiles for us.
Frid: I agree. (Drinks) Now she smiles for us.
Petra: Will you marry me?
Frid: Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
[…]
Petra: And then the summer night smiled for the third time.
Frid: For the sad, the depressed, the sleepless, the confused, the frightened, the lonely.
Ingmar Bergman, Sommarnattens leende