Monsieur,
I am told that you are going to perform in your divine manner at Saltzburg1 that very beautiful masterpiece by Mozart, Don Juan from the most exquisite of all the Masters. Do you not think it would be wonderful if the hall were to reproduce the hall from the era? I for example would come as the Dauphine Marie Antoinette of Austria, intended for martyrdom, Princesse Metternich as Abbé Dubois or Chardin, the great painter of intimate life, the Landgrave de Hesse as Beethoven on account of his infirmities. Monsieur do you not think it would be interesting etc.
*
Monsieur,
with the aim of popularizing with the public a work which is and
deserves to be from this day on one of the purest glories of French music,
I am organizing an extraordinary performance of Gounod's Faust,
executed by our foremost artists. Convinced that you will recognize the
great artistic and patriotic interest of such an endeavour, I send you,
Monsieur, my faithful good wishes.
For the Société des Grandes Auditions, President for 1906.
E. de Caraman Chimay Greffulhe.
*
Monsieur,
I am organizing for Wednesday the 17th at Bois Boudran2
some tableaux vivants which will feature Leonardo da Vinci's Giaconda.
At the same time I would like people to hear the instruments that the
artist would have had played during the poses and I would be happy to talk
about this project with you which will at the same time symbolize through
painting and music the ideals of the Master who justly cultivated all of
the arts. Could you dine here next Wednesday so that we can discuss this
project?
Please accept my most faithful good wishes.
Elisabeth de Caraman Chimay
Comtesse Greffulhe.
*
Monsieur,
I am intending to restore to the curious comic opera L'Ile du
Rêve3 its full decor, and have it performed on the
island in the Bois de Boulogne, aptly known as the Isle of Swans..! On
account of my personal relationships with both M. Dujardin Beaumetz4
and Comte Thibaut de Sainte Seine, I would be given every facility, which
would not be given to any theatre and even subsidized to have brought from
the neighbouring Jardin d'Acclimatation those savages who act as extras in
anima vili! The performance, as I do not need to stress to a poet
such as yourself, would take place in the open air. You could have the
piano under some creepers. And the - intended! - coincidence of the date
of the performance with the arrival in Paris of my cousin Prince Orloff5
could not fail to attract that evening in the Ile... du
Rêve, an elegant crowd, that the music alone, as you know better
than anybody, is powerless to bring out from their homes. And finally to
add to the truly Tahitian! impression that the scenery will provide there
will be played: in the place of certain airs from your production, some
selections from Gaugin in the words of Charles Morice6 sung in
two voices by Madame Legrande and Comtesse Kleinemichel, this music
having, as you know, a power of evocation, due perhaps to Gaugin's lengthy
stay in Tahiti or some other cause, such as no other has. The role of Loti
will be taken in the first act by Haentjens, and in the second and third
by Becq de Fouquières.
Please accept my most faithful good wishes.
Signed: The Incomparable one.
To M. le Buninuls
9, rue Alfred du Vigny, Paris
The exclamation marks are not mine but feature in the actual letter. They no doubt represent bursts of laughter in writing.) Read the three pages of the letter carefully
*
Monsieur,
I have a genuine admiration for the opera: Île du Rêve! It occurs to me that it would be delightful to have it performed in the Renaissance setting of Bois-Bourdan where the sound of my husband's horns in the forest would imitate the calls of Tahitian hunters in the tropical undergrowth! Let me know what you think of my project and please accept this expression of my most distinguished affection.
Élizabeth Comtesse Henry Greffulhe.
Written in playful letters to Reynaldo Hahn, c.July 1906. From Lettres
à Reynaldo Hahn. The final letter was first published in "Lettres
et dédicaces inédites de Proust et de quelques correspondants", BIP,
no. 40, 2010, p. 9-18.
1. Allusion to Hahn's trip to Saltzburg in August 1906.
2. Château de Bois-Boudron, at Nangis, Seine-et-Marne, property of Comte and Comtesse Henri Greffulhe.
3. A Polynesian idyll in three acts by Pierre Loti, Hartmann and A. Alexandre, with music by Reynaldo Hahn. First performed at the Opéra-Comique, 23 March 1898.
4. Henri-Charles-Etienne Dujardin-Beaumetz (1852-1913), ancient deputy, was under secretary to the État aux Beaux-Arts from 24 January 1905 to 15 January 1912.
5. Probably Colonel Prince Alexis Orloff, attaché to the Russian embassy.
6. Refers to the Tahitian memoirs of Paul Gaugin, died in 1903. He
published them in collaboration with Charles Morice (1861-1919) under
the title Noa-Noa, 1900.
Created 19.09.19
Updated 10.05.22