Talk:Louise (opera)

The Saint-Pol-Roux story
Grove (unlike Oxford) says the libretto is by the composer or Saint-Pol-Roux but the story is pretty dubious. Can we have more details? -- Klein zach  03:01, 18 February 2009 (UTC)


 * In Steven Huebner's French Opera at the Fin de Siecle book (pages 432-434 including footnotes) there is much discussion of this point. I could copy out bits if you don't have access to it. My reading is that most is by Charpentier but some parts by the Symbolist.


 * Cg2p0B0u8m (talk) 10:10, 18 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes, I don't know this book. Do you think the "eleven thousand gold francs" stuff is nonsense? -- Klein zach  10:49, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

I'll copy out some of it later when I have a moment, for you to judge. The amount may refer to the lump-sum Charpentier paid after the premiere to get Saint-Pol-Roux to relinquish his rights. Cg2p0B0u8m (talk) 11:32, 18 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Here it is - probably ought to be distilled to a sentence or two in a footnote. (There is more of course)

<<…In one of the early issues of L’Endehors… an article by Saint-Pol-Roux in support of Charpentier following a recent performance of Napoli by Lamoureux… Sibyllinne and celebratory, the poet [Saint-Pol-Roux] inducted the composer into the confraternity of ‘Magnifiques’… Saint-Pol-Roux’s symbolism had a real social mission…

Saint-Pol-Roux’s assistance to Charpentier extended beyond this public coronation. Charpentier had already drafted a scenario, some (and possibly all) of the libretto, and the music for the first act of Louise when he returned to Paris from his Rome sojourn in 1890…

Only Charpentier’s name appears as the librettist on all printed sources, but fuelled by the massive royalties that the opera generated, rumours soon surfaced that the poet had written large parts of the libretto… Georges de Bouhelier, who claimed to have heard Charpentier read the libretto early on, vehemently denied that Saint-Pol-Roux’s contribution extended beyond a few emendations and suggestions.

…evidence unearthed by Theophile Briant, Saint-Pol-Roux’s biographer and presented in the magazine Samedi-Soir in 1952… noted that among the poet’s papers he had found ‘about fifty pages’ which contained multiple drafts for the libretto… At some point after the spectacularly successful premier of Louise, Saint-Pol-Roux seems to have relinquished his rights to Charpentier for a lump-sum payment; that is the implication in an unpublished letter from Charpentier to an official at the Societe des Auteurs wherein the composer complains about his former friend’s continuing pressure to extract money from him

The extent of Saint-Pol-Roux’s involvement remains unclear.>> Cg2p0B0u8m (talk) 23:16, 18 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes, that's all plausible - and worth including in the notes. The success of the opera presented Charpenter's friends with an opportunity to cash in on that success, and no doubt Saint-Pol-Roux did make some contributions to the libretto. -- Klein zach  00:44, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

'Depuis le jour' as a popular concert piece
Someone removed the reference to 'Depuis le jour' being performed separately from the opera. This can easily be verified by a Google search. The piece has been performed and recorded by many, many artists. -- Klein zach  09:42, 9 September 2010 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 22:30, 29 April 2016 (UTC)