Letter 3598a
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French text (original) [1]
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English translation
Copyright © 2010 by Luis Sundkvist
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20 Juin / 2 Juillet 1888
Kline, pres [= près
de] Moscou |
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20 June / 2 July 1888
Klin, near Moscow |
| Cher et très respecté Monsieur! |
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Dear and much esteemed Monsieur! |
| J'ai reçu Vos deux lettres et les manuscripts [= manuscrits]
de Marion et de Méfistofela. Pourquoi faut-il que pour la
troisième fois je me mette à Vous écrire le coeur tout plein d'angoisse
et torturé par le remord [= remords]? Pourquoi faut-il qu'au lieu d'exprimer
un vif contentement et la joie d'avoir à collaborer avec Vous,—je dois
[= doive] me confondre en excuses et chercher à me disculper devant Vous?
Cela est bien triste,—mais toute la faute en est à moi. Mû par le plus
noble des sentiments, Vous me tendez la main, Vous Vous donnez la peine
de chercher à m'ètre [= m'être] utile,—et chaque fois, au lieu de m'empresser
de profiter de Vos bontés je ne Vous adresse que des expressions de gratitude
dont Vous n'avez que faire. Pourquoi tout cela? Parceque il [= Parce qu'il]
y a une espèce de malentendu entre nous; parceque [= parce que] Vous paraissez
ne pas tout à fait comprendre ce à quoi j'aspire et tout en me comblant
de Vos bontés, Vous me rendez des services, qui me touchent infiniment,
qui m'inspirent pour Vous un vif et sincère sentiment d'admiration et
de reconnaissance—mais dont je ne profite pas. Il faut préciser la situation,
il faut que je Vous dise nettement ce que je désire, ce que je puis faire
et comment je puis me rendre effectivement digne de l'attention et des
témoignages d'amitié que Vous me prodiguez. |
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I have received your two letters and the manuscripts
of Marion [2] and Mefistofela [3]. Why must
I for the third time write to you with my heart all full of anguish and
tortured by remorse? Why must it be so that, instead of expressing my
keen satisfaction and joy at working with you, I have to surpass myself
in finding excuses and try to apologize to you? It is very sad, but the
blame is entirely mine. Stirred by the noblest of feelings, you extend
your hand to me, you give yourself the trouble of seeking to be of service
to me—and each time, instead of hastening to make use of your kindness,
I merely express to you my gratitude, which you have no need of. Why is
all this so? Because there is a sort of misunderstanding between us; because
you seem not to fully understand what I am striving for. You overwhelm
me with your kindness and render me services which touch me infinitely,
which inspire in me a keen and sincere feeling of admiration and gratitude
towards you, but which I cannot take advantage of. It is necessary to
clarify the situation, I have to tell you clearly what it is I desire,
what I am capable of doing, and how I can truly show myself to be worthy
of the attention and tokens of friendship which you lavish upon me.
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| Cher Monsieur! J'ai 48 ans; j'ai fait une grande quantité
de simphonies et 9 opéras, dont six sont plus ou moins sur le repertoire
[= répertoire] courant des Théatres [= Théâtres] Impériaux de Russie.
Je suis un grand travailleur et je ne demande qu'à ètre [= être] cloué
à ma table de travail,—mais je ne suis pas à l'âge où l'on est tellement
avide d'écrire pour le Théatre [= Théâtre], que [= où] l'on se contente
de chaque sujet pourvu qu'il y ait quelques situations dramatiques, de
l'amour et des effets de scène à profusion. Je sais ce qui convient à
mes facultés, l'expérience m'a appris de [= à] bien discerner ce qui est
dans la limite de mes forces; enfin je suis très difficile pour le choix
du poème. En ce moment (loin d'avoir des loisirs comme Vous le supposez)
je suis accablé de travail. Je dois faire une simphonie pour la Société
Philharmonique de Hambourg; je
dois faire l'ouverture et les entr-actes [= entr'actes] pour la Tragédie Hamlet de Shakespeare, car elle est promise [= ils sont promis]
depuis longtemps à la Direction de nos Théatres [= Théâtres]; je dois
faire pour cette même Direction la musique d'un ballet intitulé l'Ondine,
qui doit passer dans la saison 1889-1890 à Pétersbourg; j'ai promis
des concertos de [= pour; and in the following] piano, de violon, de violoncelle,
de flûte etc. à plusieurs artistes célèbres (entre autres deux de Paris, Diémer et Taffannel [= Taffanel]); j'ai une grande
quantité de commandes à remplir (de la part de mon éditeur Moscovite [=
moscovite]); ce sont des chœurs d'hommes, des chœurs de femmes, des pièces
de piano [= pour piano] etc; j'ai promis positivement à la Société
de musique de chambre de Pétersbourg un sextuor
pour instruments à cordes; une simphonie pour la grande Societé [= Société]
de musique symphonique de Prague
etc. etc. etc. etc. Et puis j'ai au moins une dizaine de poèmes d'opera
[= d'opéra] russes à ma disposition, dont deux me tentent fort
(La fille du Capitaine de Pouschekine et la Bayadere [=
Bayadère] de Goethe). Le premier de ses [= ces] poèmes a été fait par
le plus renommé de nos dramaturges dans l'intention de complaire à Sa Majesté l'Empereur, qui
depuis longtemps a exprimé le désir que je mette en musique ce sujet,
et chaque fois que j'ai l'honneur de me présenter à lui, Il me demande
si je vais bientot [= bientôt] me mettre au travail. |
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Dear Monsieur! I am 48 years old; I have written a large
number of symphonies
[4] and nine operas [5], of which six are more or less on the current
repertory of the Imperial Theatres in Russia. I am a hard worker and I
ask for nothing more than to be shackled to my writing-desk, but I have
reached an age when one is no longer so keen to write for the theatre
that one is content to take any subject as long as it contains a few dramatic
situations, and plenty of love and stage effects. I know what is suited
to my abilities; experience has taught me to discern well what lies within
the boundaries of my capacity; finally, I am very fastidious as regards
the choice of subject. At this moment (far from being unoccupied as you
imagine) I am swamped with work. I have to write a symphony for the Hamburg Philharmonic Society [6]; I have
to compose the overture and the entr'actes for Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, because I promised these to the Directorate of our
theatres long ago [7];
for this same Directorate I have to write the music for a ballet entitled Undina,
which is to be staged in
Petersburg during the 1889/90 season [8]; I have promised to write
concertos for piano, violin, cello, flute etc. for various renowned artists
(among these two from Paris: Diémer and Taffanel) [9]; I have
a large amount of commissions to carry out (from my Moscow publisher [Jurgenson]); these include
choruses for men's voices, choruses for women's voices, piano pieces etc.;
I have given a firm promise to write a string sextet for the Chamber
Music Society in Petersburg [10]; a symphony
for the Grand Society of Symphonic Music in Prague [11] etc., etc.,
etc. And then I have at least ten Russian opera libretti at my
disposal, two of which appeal to me very much (Pushkin's The Captain's
Daughter and Goethe's The Bayadere) [12]. The
first of these libretti has been written by the most distinguished of
our dramatists [Ippolit
Shpazhinskii] with a view to pleasing His Majesty the Emperor,
who for a long time has been expressing the wish that I should set this
subject to music, and each time I have the honour of an audience with
him, he asks me whether I will soon start work on this. |
| Voilà, Monsieur, sans exagération aucune
ce que j'ai devant moi. Très souvent je me demande: comment ferai-je pour
parvenir à remplir toutes les obligations que j'ai contractées? J'ai dépassé
depuis longtemps la moyenne de la vie; je suis sur le retour, sur la pente
fatale qui aboutit à la tombe et, en supposant que le Bon Dieu me prete
[= prête] une vingtaines [= vingtaine] d'années encore (ce qui deja [=
déjà] est très respectable), mes facultés productrices diminuent [= diminueront]
necessairement [= nécessairement] à mesure que je vieillirai et cependant
il faudra travailler car je ne conçois pas la vie autrement |
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This, Monsieur, is, without any exaggeration,
what I have in front of me. Very often I ask myself: how shall I get round
to fulfil all the obligations I have undertaken? I have long passed the
middle of my life; I am on the threshold of old age, on that fateful slope
which descends into the grave, and, supposing that God in His goodness
grants me twenty more years (which would be quite considerable), my creative
faculties must necessarily diminish as I get older, and yet I shall have
to work because I cannot conceive of life otherwise |
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Si je n'avais qu'à consulter mes penchants naturels, je
n'aurais maintenant qu'à faire tout mon possible pour tâcher de
m'acquitter de mes dettes simphoniques et ensuite de me mettre
à ecrire [= écrire] un opera [= opéra], peut[-]être le dernier et, j'ose
esperer [= espérer], le meilleur. Naturellement c'est un de ces deux poèmes
russes que je choisirais, car, n'ayant jamais ecrit [= écrit] que sur
des textes russes, ce serait plus facile, ce serait rester dans mon élément
naturel; et puis, comme je Vous l'ai dit, je n'ai que l'embarras du choix
et me sens tout pret [= prêt] à commencer, sûr que le resultat [= résultat]
serait bon car ces deux sujets (un surtout), ont le don de m'émouvoir,
d'activer mon inspiration, de me réchauffer au degré voulu.
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If I had only my natural inclinations to go by, I would
now just do all that I can in order to try to discharge my symphonic
debts and afterwards set about writing an opera, perhaps my last and,
I dare to hope, my best one. Of course it would be one of these two Russian
libretti which I would choose, since, given that I have always composed
to Russian texts, this would be much easier, it would mean staying in
my natural element; and, besides, as I have already told you, I am spoilt
for choice and feel quite ready to begin, certain as I am that the result
will be good because these two subjects (one especially) are able to move
me, to stoke my inspiration, to fire me up as required.
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| Voilà donc, cher et bon Monsieur Détroyat, comment
la ligne de conduite que j'ai à suivre est deja [= déjà] toute tracée.
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So there, dear and kind Monsieur Détroyat, you
can see how the line of conduct which I am to follow has already been
traced in its entirety. |
| Mais! … Paris
vaut bien une messe! Je confesse que mon ambition de faire un opera
[= opéra] français, pour un théatre [= théâtre] de Paris
est bien grande. Je n'ai pas besoin de Vous dire, car Vous le savez fort
bien, que tous les artistes ambitieux (et je n'en conçois pas d'autres)
aspirent à la publicité parisienne et que pour un faiseur d'opera [= d'opéra], Paris a toujours été et toujours
sera la Terre promise, le lieu de prédilection où il rève [= rêve]
parfois de gagner sa petite place, d'y prendre racines, de s'y implanter
d'une manière stable. Et c'est très naturel, car Paris seul donne la consécration
de la vraie célebrité [= célébrité]. Ajoutez à cela la simpathie passionée
que personnellement je nourris dans mon coeur pour la France, les Français
et Paris,—et Vous comprendrez que
je suis capable à [= de] bien de [= des] sacrifices pour réaliser un rève
[= rêve] ambitieux et depuis longtemps tendrement carressé [= caressé]! |
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But! … Paris
is well worth a mass! [13] I confess that I have a very great ambition
to write a French opera for a Parisian theatre. I have no need
to tell you, since you know it perfectly well, that all ambitious artists
(and I cannot conceive of any other kind) strive for Parisian publicity,
and that for an opera composer Paris
has always been and will always be the Promised Land, the place
where such a composer most of all likes to dream of winning his little
niche, of taking root and establishing himself there firmly. And this
is very natural, since Paris alone
can bestow true fame on one. Add to this the passionate sympathy which
I personally nourish in my heart for France, the French, and Paris—and you will understand that
I am capable of many sacrifices in order to fulfil an ambitious dream
which I have affectionately cherished for such a long time! |
| Aussi, quand on m'ouvre la perspective d'un opera [=
opéra] à moi fait pour Paris, monté
à Paris, suis-je très agréablement
ému et plein d'energie [= d'énergie] et de bonne volonté. Mais encore
faut-il que ce soit quelque chose de sûr!!! Vous me parlez par exemple
de faire Marion et de la représenter à Pétersbourg, se régalant
de l'espoir que peut-être après le succès Pétersbourgeois mon opera [=
opéra] sera donné en France. Mais alors, cher Monsieur Détroyat, pourquoi
ne monte[-]t'on pas à Paris un de
mes 6 operas [= opéras] déjà representés [= représentés] à Pétersbourg, et dont
quelques[-]uns (surtout un, Eugène Onéguine)
a [= ont] eu un succès retentissant? Si c'est de Pétersbourg qu'il s'agit,—je
préfère ecrire [= écrire] un opera [= opéra] russe, me conformant aux
exigences du génie national, ne faisant aucune violence sur ma manière
naturelle de travailler et surtout continuant à mettre en musique de la
poésie russe,—comme je l'ai toujours fait. Non! Que l'on me promette une
scène lirique Parisienen [= parisienne], que l'on me donne un poème d'opera
[= d'opéra] capable de reveiller [= réveiller] en moi la vraie inspiration,
et alors je suis capable de tout oublier, de tout remettre au calendes
grecques, de m'enchainer [= m'enchaîner] à ma table de travail et de prodiguer
tout ce qu'il y a en moi de facultés, de savoir faire, d'experience [=
d'expérience], de science musicale pour faire un opera [= opéra] français
digne de Paris et de ma chère patrie
que j'ambitionnerai de bien représenter auprès du public Parisien [= parisien] |
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Also, when I am presented with the prospect of writing
an opera for Paris and seeing it
staged in Paris, I am moved very
agreeably and am filled with energy and purposefulness. But, again, it
must be something which is certain!!! You say, for example, that I should
write Marion and have it staged in Petersburg, indulging
in the hope that after achieving success in Petersburg my opera might
perhaps be produced in France. But in that case, dear Monsieur Détroyat, why
not stage in Paris one of my six
operas which have already been staged in Petersburg, and of which
some (especially one of them: Evgenii Onegin)
have had a resounding success. If it is a question of Petersburg, then I prefer
to write a Russian opera, complying with the demands of the Russian national
genius, without doing any violence to my natural way of working, and,
above all, continuing to set Russian poetry to music, as I have always
done [14].
No! Let me have the promise of a Parisian opera stage, let me have an
opera subject capable of awakening true inspiration in me, and then I
shall be able to forget everything, to postpone everything else indefinitely,
to chain myself to my writing-desk and to deploy all the faculties, know-how,
experience, and musical knowledge that I have within me in order to compose
a French opera worthy of Paris and
of my dear fatherland, and which I would truly aspire to present to the
Parisian public. |
| Voilà ce que j'ai [= j'aurais] dû Vous dire depuis longtemps,
cher Monsieur, et ce qui aurait evité [= évité] l'ennui que je Vous ai
deja [= déjà] fait eprouver [= éprouver] et que je Vous fais eprouver
[= éprouver] en ce moment |
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This is what I ought to have told you a long time ago,
dear Monsieur, as it would have spared you the trouble which I have already
caused you and which I am causing you at present. |
| Maintenant, pour en revenir à Marion, je Vous
dirai, que ce sujet la [= sujet-là] m'est souverainement antipathique.
Certainement Vous avez magistralement arrangé en vue d'opera [= d'opéra]
le drame de Hugo. Mais c'est le drame lui mème [= lui-même] qui me déplait
[= déplaît]. Je ne suis pas un Hugolâtre; loin de là! Et parmi
touts [= tous] ses drames, Marion est celui que j'aime le moins. Je ne
comprends pas comment Didier ait put [= pu] si longtemps croire qu'il
avait affaire à une vierge, quand son instinct devait lui suggérer la
supposition du contraire, outre que Marion devait ètre [= être] montrée
au [= du] doigt—tellement sa triste celebrité [= célébrité] etait [= était]
grande. J'aime infiniment mieux l'amour d'Armand Duval pour Margurite,
dont il connaissait les antécedents [= antécédents]. Certes[,] le dévouement
d'une femme qui aime est bien touchant, mais encore faut-il qu'il se manifeste
non par un couchage avec l'immonde Laffemas, mais par un acte héroique
[= héroïque] quelconque. Je veux bien excuser et pardonner Marion,
mais je ne puis vaincre le dégout [= dégoût] qu'elle m'inspire. Et puis cet homme rouge qui passe! Il m'inspire de la haine et c'est le
seul sentiment qui reste vers la fin de la pièce dans mon coeur; la haine
et l'horreur l'emportent sur la compassion. Encore si Saverny et Didier
mourraient [= mouraient] pour une grande cause? Mais pour un duel? C'est
trop mesquin. Ce tyran d'homme rouge, persécutant la noblesse française
et versant son sang pour abattre sa fierté,—ce motif purement politique,
n'est pas, selon moi[,] la donnée d'un opéra. Que c'est stupide
de faire mourir deux hommes de distinction pour avoir tiré l'epée [= l'épée]
l'un contre l'autre, que son Eminence etait cruelle, combien l'arbitraire
est odieux, combien cette malheureuse Marion a dû souffrir dans les bras
de l'exécrable Laffemas, combien c'est heureux de vivre dans un temps
meilleur, combien Didier était naïf, etc. etc.—voilà les pensees [= pensées]
et les sensations que l'on éprouve en sortant de la lecture ou de l'audition
de ce drame. Ce n'est pas cela qu'on doit sentir à la fin d'un opéra.
La vie est une chose bien triste, l'homme est un ètre [= être] à plaindre,—mais
il y a quelquechose [= quelque chose] qui peut nous faire oublier les
misères de la vie humaines [= humaine]: ce sont l'amour, la foi, la patrie,
les grandes idées, les grands dévouements etc. etc. Voici à peu près ce
qu'on doit ressentir en sortant d'un Théatre [= Théâtre] lirique |
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Now, to return to Marion [15], I must
tell you that this subject displeases me tremendously. Of course, you
have adapted Hugo's drama in a masterly way for the opera stage. But it
is the drama itself which displeases me. I am not an admirer of Hugo—quite
on the contrary! And among all his dramas it is "Marion" which I like
the least. I cannot understand how Didier could for such a long time believe
that he was adoring a virgin, since his instinct should have led him to
suppose the opposite, not to mention the fact that people would have been
pointing their fingers at Marion—so great was her sad notoriety. I like
infinitely more the love of Armand Duval for Marguerite [Gautier] [16], of whose
past he was aware. Certainly, the devotion of a loving woman is very touching—it
should, though, manifest itself not in her sleeping with the vile Laffemas [17], but
in some heroic act. I am quite willing to excuse and forgive Marion,
but I cannot overcome the disgust which she awakens in me. And then
that red man who walks past! He provokes my hatred, and this is the
only feeling which remains in my heart towards the end of the play. Hatred
and horror get the better of compassion. Also, if only Saverny and Didier
were to die for a great cause! But for the sake of a duel? That is too
mean. And that tyrannical red man who pursues the French nobility
and sheds its blood in order to check its pride—this purely political
motif has in my view no place in an opera. How silly it is to have
two high-ranking men killed just because they had drawn their swords against
one another, how cruel was His Eminence, how hateful arbitrariness is,
how much this poor Marion must have suffered in the arms of the repulsive
Laffemas, what good fortune it is to be living in better times, how naïve
Didier was, etc. etc.—these are the thoughts and feelings one has after
reading or sitting through a performance of this drama. It is not what
one should feel at the end of an opera. Life is a very sad affair, man
is a creature to be deplored, but there are things which can cause us
to forget the miseries of human existence. I mean such things as love,
faith, one's fatherland, lofty ideas, strong devotions etc. etc. It is
something like this that one should feel when walking out of an opera-house.
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| Mais je m'aperçois que j'ai deja [= déjà] trop longtemps
parlé et que je Vous fatigue par cette longue lettre. Résumons |
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However, I realize that I have been going on for too
long already and that I am tiring you with this long letter. Let us sum
up: |
| 1) Et d'abord je dois dire encore et encore que Vous
ètes [= êtes] bon, que je Vous admire et que je Vous aime de tout mon
coeur |
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1) and first of all I must say again and again that you
are kind, that I admire you, and that I love you with all my heart.
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| 2) Que j'ai eu tort de ne pas Vous dire dès le commencement
tout ce que je Vous ai dit aujourd'hui |
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2) that I was wrong not to tell you from the very start
everything that I have said to you today. |
| 3) Que je veux bien ecrire [= écrire] un opera [= opéra]
français, que je désire de tout mon coeur que ce soit Vous qui soyez mon
poète, mais que pour cela il faut: a) que j'aie un sujet parfaitement
conforme à la nature et à la mesure de mes moyens[;] b) que j'aie en vue
une scène Parisienne [= parisienne], mais non d'une manière vague,—au
contraire, d'une manière très positive (que ce soit l'Opera [= l'Opéra]
Comique, un nouveau Théatre [= Théâtre] lirique—cela m'est égal, mais
que ce soit un vrai Théatre [= Théâtre], existant deja [= déjà]. NB.
Je n'ose même pas songer au Grand Opera [= Opéra], car je sais combien
c'est impossible |
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3) that I very much want to write a French opera, that
with all my heart I wish you might be my poet [= librettist], but that
for this to be so it is necessary: a) that I have a subject which suits
perfectly the nature and extent of my capacities; b) that I have a Parisian
stage in mind, but not in a vague way—on the contrary, it must be a quite
specific one (whether it is the Opéra-Comique or a new opera-house, that
doesn't matter to me, but it must be a real, already existing theatre). NB. I do not dare even just to dream of the Grand Opéra, since
I know how impossible that is. |
| Voilà, cher et bon Monsieur[,] ce que je tenais à Vous
dire et maintenant j'espère qu'il n'y aura plus de malentendus entre nous
et que je n'aurai plus le chagrin de dire non quand de tout mon
coeur je voudrais dire oui |
|
This, dear and kind Monsieur, is what I had to say to
you, and now I hope that there will be no more misunderstandings between
us and that I shall no longer be in the unpleasant situation of saying
"no" when with all my heart I would like to say "yes".
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| Je Vous remercie pour toutes Vos bontés et je Vous supplie
de ne pas m'en vouloir |
|
I thank you for all your kindness and beg you not to
be angry with me. |
| Recevez l'assurance de mes sentiments les plus cordiaux |
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Please accept the assurance of my most cordial feelings.
|
| P. Tchaïkovsky |
|
P. Tchaikovsky |
| P.S. Je Vous expédie les deux manuscripts [= manuscrits];
quant à la Georgienne [= Géorgienne], j'espère que bientot [= bientôt]
Vous l'aurez reçu[e]. Pardon! |
|
P.S. I am returning to you the two manuscripts
[the libretti for Marion and Mefistofela]. As for the Géorgienne [18], hopefully you will soon have received it.
I am sorry! |
Notes:
- Transcription of the French text and indication
of errors by Thomas Kohlhase in 'Bisher
unbekannte Briefe, Notenautographe und andere Čajkovskij-Funde' (1998),
p. 243–248. The following notes are also based on Prof. Kohlhase's commentary
in this publication [back]
- Détroyat
had based his libretto on Victor Hugo's drama in verse Marion Delorme
(1829), which is set in the France of Cardinal Richelieu and deals with
the life and adventures of the famous courtesan Marion Delorme [back]
- This libretto for a ballet in five acts with vocal
numbers was based on Heinrich Heine's Der Doktor Faust. Ein Tanzpoem
in fünf Akten (1847), in which Mephistopheles is represented by a ballerina,
hence "Mefistofela" [back]
- Symphonies Nos. 1 to 5 and the Manfred symphony [back]
- The Voevoda (1867–68), Undina (1869, almost
fully destroyed by the composer), The Oprichnik (1870–72), Vakula the Smith
(1874), Evgenii Onegin
(1877–78), The Maid of
Orleans (1878–79), Mazepa (1881–83), Cherevichki (1885;
new version of Vakula the
Smith), and The
Enchantress (1885–87) [back]
- At the time of this letter Tchaikovsky was working
on his Symphony No. 5,
which was to be dedicated to Theodor Avé-Lallemant,
chairman of the Hamburg Philharmonic
Society [back]
- The French actor Lucien Guitry, who was based
in Saint Petersburg at
the time, had asked Tchaikovsky to compose an overture and some entr'actes
for a production of Hamlet in late March/early April 1888. Although
the production did not go ahead, Tchaikovsky continued working on his overture-fantasia Hamlet that
summer and completed the instrumentation on 7/19 October 1888 [back]
- In November 1886, Ivan Vsevolozhskii had
commissioned Tchaikovsky to write the music for a ballet Undina for the
next season. The composer asked his brother Modest to provide the
libretto, and the project was again discussed in October 1887, but it was
eventually abandoned, since neither Tchaikovsky nor the designated choreographer Marius Petipa were satisfied
with the libretto [back]
- The Piano Concerto No. 3
(dedicated to Louis Diémer)
was a reworking of the unfinished Symphony in E♭ major. Tchaikovsky eventually decided
to make this concerto a one-movement work, completing it on 3/15 October
1893. It was not until October 1893 that Tchaikovsky apparently started
making some sketches for a Flute Concerto, which
was intended for the virtuoso Claude-Paul Taffanel. In
1893 he also made some sketches for a Cello Concerto, which
his friends the cellists
Anatolii Brandukov and Iuliian Poplavskii had
for a long time been urging him to write. Nothing is known of Tchaikovsky's
plans for a second violin concerto [back]
- Tchaikovsky had already begun sketches for a string
sextet in June and July 1887, but it was only in the summer of 1890 that
he resumed work on what was to become the Souvenir de Florence [back]
- This seems again to refer to the Symphony No. 5, which
earlier in the letter Tchaikovsky had described as intended for the Hamburg Philharmonic Society. On
18/30 November that year Tchaikovsky would in fact conduct his new symphony
in Prague, just thirteen days after
the première in Saint Petersburg [back]
- Both of these libretti were prepared for Tchaikovsky
by Ippolit Shpazhinskii,
his librettist on the recently completed opera The Enchantress. However,
both The Captain's
Daughter (based on Pushkin's novel of 1836) and The Bayadere (based
on Goethe's ballad Der Gott und die Bajadere) remained unrealized
projects [back]
- The famous phrase attributed to Henri de Navarre,
when shortly before his coronation as Henri IV he renounced Protestantism
in order to secure the allegiance of his Catholic subjects [back]
- Undina and The Maid of Orleans
were of course based on foreign subjects, but the librettos for these two
operas were drawn largely from, or inspired by, translations by Vasilii
Zhukovskii, whose renderings of German poems and other works into Russian
in the early nineteenth century came to be seen very much as an organic
part of Russian literature [back]
- Here is a brief summary of the plot of Victor Hugo's
verse drama: At the start of the play, La Courtisane Marion, who has assumed
the name Marie, is shown leading a very secluded life, encouraged by the
devoted and chaste love of Didier, a mysterious nobleman who is always dressed
in black. A duel takes place between Didier, a man of morose temperament,
and the Marquis de Saverny, a spurned former lover of La Courtisane, but
in the middle of the fighting the two rivals are arrested by the guards
of Cardinal Richelieu and condemned to death. Marion is able to help Didier
to escape. Eventually Didier (who is arrested again) finds out that his
beloved Marie is in fact Marion Delorme, and he curses her for her immoral
ways. Before his execution, however, Didier recognizes Marion's willingness
to sacrifice herself for him [back]
- The leading characters in Alexandre Dumas (fils)'s
successful novel La Dame aux Camélias (1848), which he later adapted
into the even more famous play (1852). The latter served as the basis for
the libretto of Verdi's opera La Traviata, whose passionate sincerity Tchaikovsky praised (despite
his reservations about Verdi's
musical style) [back]
- A spy in the service of Cardinal Richelieu [back]
- Another libretto or scenario which Détroyat had sent Tchaikovsky
earlier that year, and which was based on Chateaubriand's novel Les amours
du Cosaque et de la Géorgienne. In letter 3563b
to Détroyat, 10/22 May 1888, Tchaikovsky explains why he could not warm
to this subject either [back]
This page was last updated
on 26 February 2012
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