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BERLIOZ, Hector (1803-1869). Fine autograph letter signed to Carolyne, Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein, Paris, 20 February 1858, full of news of musical life in Paris, his creative endeavours, a visit from Wagner and expressions of deep gratitude to the Princess and musings on life, 'Je ne crois à rien; c'est à dire, je crois que je ne crois à rien. Donc je crois à quelquechose. Voyez à quoi servent les mots, et où conduit les raisonnement...Il n'y a de réel que les sentiments et les passions.- quelle bêtisse je vous dis là! et la douleur? et la mort? et les sots? et les imbeciles?...et mille autres trop réalles réalités!..', black ink, 8 pages on two bifolia, 8vo, (205 x 132mm).
Berlioz opens his letter to the Princess with a rundown of how busy he has been in Paris and how he has had to deal with people forcing themselves on him, 'des diners forcés, des balles forcés (sans calembourg)'. He then goes on to talk about von Bülow conducting one of his overtures in Berlin and the critical reaction to it. He announces that Wagner visited him on the same day as von Bülow's concert. This was in fact on 14 February when Berlioz read Wagner the libretto of Les Troyens. Wagner subsequently wrote to von Bülow in somewhat disparaging terms about the poem. Wagner was also supposed to arrange for Berlioz to meet Liszt's son-in-law, M.Ollivier, but they were unable to meet. Ollivier was the husband of Blandine, the daughter of Liszt and Marie d'Agoult.
Berlioz reports that Henry Litolff is in Paris and that his debut the previous Sunday at the concert of the Society of Young Artists of the Conservatory was a great success and that his fourth symphonic concerto had an enormous effect. The concert also included works by Haydn, Bruck and Brunot. He then goes on to express his surprise that at a revival of Alceste in Weimar the bourgeois were allowed to enter the theatre, 'Si j'étais le grand Duc j'enverrais ces soirs là a chacun de ces braves gens, un jambon et deux bouteilles de bierre en faisant prier de rester chez eux.' Later in the letter he returns to this theme and requests the Princess to ask Liszt to congratulate Mme Milde on the way she played Alceste and again rails against the bougeoisie being permitted to see Alceste.
Importantly Berlioz states that he will soon have finished his score, referring to the score of Les Troyens, which for the preceding two years, the Princess, during his visits to the Altenburg in Weimar, had been urging Berlioz to complete. Berlioz promises to send the finalised libretto to the Princess, which he indeed did and to which she responded with a substantial critique, fulfilling her rôle as a kind of muse for Les Troyens.
Berlioz returns to giving news of his life in Paris, how he has read the libretto [of Les Troyens] before a gathering of members of the Institute, had dinner with the Prince Napoleon, when they discussed the situation at the Opera, and how he dined at M.Royer's (the director of the Opera) with Halévy, whose La Magicienne will be the first new opera performed there in three years. He goes on to note that von Bülow has asked for the parts for to his cantata L'Imperiale and that he is putting them at his disposal, with the warning that the text is not translated into German and that a Berlin choir singing in German will produce some strange sounds.
He bemoans the fact that the Paris Conservatory is still playing the same works and quotes act II scene 1 of Molière's Don Juan. Reverting to social news, Berlioz writes that the director of the museum gives brilliant artistic soirées at the Louvre and that sometimes good music and sometimes bad music is performed there. At the Prince Youssoupoff's he met Mme Fould (the wife of Achille Fould, who presided over the reorganisation of the Opera and was a member of the Emperor's Privy Council), who reproached him for not having come to see her since they met in Rome in 1831!
Before concluding the letter with expressions of gratitude for all the encouragement that she has given him, Berlioz relates that an imperial chamberlain offered to ask the Empress's permission for him to read Les Troyens to the Emperor, but that this came to nothing as nobody dared to speak to Her Majesty on this subject. 'Dites que j'ai tort de ne croire à rien.'
An effusive letter full of news of Berlioz's activities in the Paris of Napoleon III, written at the time he was completing Les Troyens.
The letter is published in Berlioz, correspondence générale, Paris, 1989, vol.5, no.2279.
Berlioz opens his letter to the Princess with a rundown of how busy he has been in Paris and how he has had to deal with people forcing themselves on him, 'des diners forcés, des balles forcés (sans calembourg)'. He then goes on to talk about von Bülow conducting one of his overtures in Berlin and the critical reaction to it. He announces that Wagner visited him on the same day as von Bülow's concert. This was in fact on 14 February when Berlioz read Wagner the libretto of Les Troyens. Wagner subsequently wrote to von Bülow in somewhat disparaging terms about the poem. Wagner was also supposed to arrange for Berlioz to meet Liszt's son-in-law, M.Ollivier, but they were unable to meet. Ollivier was the husband of Blandine, the daughter of Liszt and Marie d'Agoult.
Berlioz reports that Henry Litolff is in Paris and that his debut the previous Sunday at the concert of the Society of Young Artists of the Conservatory was a great success and that his fourth symphonic concerto had an enormous effect. The concert also included works by Haydn, Bruck and Brunot. He then goes on to express his surprise that at a revival of Alceste in Weimar the bourgeois were allowed to enter the theatre, 'Si j'étais le grand Duc j'enverrais ces soirs là a chacun de ces braves gens, un jambon et deux bouteilles de bierre en faisant prier de rester chez eux.' Later in the letter he returns to this theme and requests the Princess to ask Liszt to congratulate Mme Milde on the way she played Alceste and again rails against the bougeoisie being permitted to see Alceste.
Importantly Berlioz states that he will soon have finished his score, referring to the score of Les Troyens, which for the preceding two years, the Princess, during his visits to the Altenburg in Weimar, had been urging Berlioz to complete. Berlioz promises to send the finalised libretto to the Princess, which he indeed did and to which she responded with a substantial critique, fulfilling her rôle as a kind of muse for Les Troyens.
Berlioz returns to giving news of his life in Paris, how he has read the libretto [of Les Troyens] before a gathering of members of the Institute, had dinner with the Prince Napoleon, when they discussed the situation at the Opera, and how he dined at M.Royer's (the director of the Opera) with Halévy, whose La Magicienne will be the first new opera performed there in three years. He goes on to note that von Bülow has asked for the parts for to his cantata L'Imperiale and that he is putting them at his disposal, with the warning that the text is not translated into German and that a Berlin choir singing in German will produce some strange sounds.
He bemoans the fact that the Paris Conservatory is still playing the same works and quotes act II scene 1 of Molière's Don Juan. Reverting to social news, Berlioz writes that the director of the museum gives brilliant artistic soirées at the Louvre and that sometimes good music and sometimes bad music is performed there. At the Prince Youssoupoff's he met Mme Fould (the wife of Achille Fould, who presided over the reorganisation of the Opera and was a member of the Emperor's Privy Council), who reproached him for not having come to see her since they met in Rome in 1831!
Before concluding the letter with expressions of gratitude for all the encouragement that she has given him, Berlioz relates that an imperial chamberlain offered to ask the Empress's permission for him to read Les Troyens to the Emperor, but that this came to nothing as nobody dared to speak to Her Majesty on this subject. 'Dites que j'ai tort de ne croire à rien.'
An effusive letter full of news of Berlioz's activities in the Paris of Napoleon III, written at the time he was completing Les Troyens.
The letter is published in Berlioz, correspondence générale, Paris, 1989, vol.5, no.2279.