Autograph letter signed ("Massenet") mentioning Pauline Viardot
Octavo. 3 pp. of a bifolium. Dated Paris, April 21, [18]95, In French (with translation).
Massenet is worried that his messages have not reached Pauline Viardot: the post office has returned one of his letters. He does not want Viardot to think him unreliable, and asks his correspondent to reassure him.
"I immediately answered Madame Viardot's excellent letter - I have since telegraphed and written her... The post office returned one of my letters... wrong address? ... I am sorry to appear so 'inexact' in Madame Viardot's eyes. Excuse me - Reassure me."
Slightly browned; creased at folds; initials "B.D." embossed to upper portion of leaves.
Massenet was "the most prolific and successful composer of opera in France at the end of the 19th century and into the beginning of the 20th... [His] place in the history of French music is secure, for although he is not to be bracketed with Berlioz or Debussy or even Bizet, he generously satisfied the tastes of the 'belle époque' and retained his standing as a master of the lyric stage for well over a generation." Hugh MacDonald in Grove Music Online.
Pauline Viardot (1821-1910), a highly distinguished French singer, teacher, and composer of Spanish origin, "came from a family of singers: her father was the elder Manuel García, her mother María Joaquina Sitches, her brother the younger Manuel García and her sister Maria Malibran... Viardot not only inspired composers such as Chopin, Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Saint-Saëns, Liszt, Wagner and Schumann with her dramatic gifts, but also collaborated on the composition of roles created especially for her." Beatrix Borchard in Grove Music Online.
Item #23328
Price: $300.00 other currencies