Gounod's only setting of the poetry of Victor Hugo, Sérénade from 1855-1857, is one of his few songs with virtuoso displays for the voice. And yet the melismas that end each verse are so effortless an expansion of the melody of each verse and so much a part of the sensual line of the song that they seem less displays of virtuosity than an essential part of the expression of Hugo's poetry. Like Gounod's Venise and Ou voulez-vous aller?, Sérénade is a barcarolle, albeit the swaying motion of the piano accompaniment has nothing to do with Venetian boat songs and everything to do with the gentle swaying of lovers in each other's arms described in the poem. Although in the wrong performance Sérénade can seem hopelessly cloying, in the right performance it is still an affecting melodie whose faint trace of sentimentality can be endlessly ingratiating. Gounod also made arrangements of the song accompanied by harmonium and cello, and later composers have added further felicities to it, but Sérénade is a song best left in its simple original form.

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