SAINT-SAËNS Camille (1835 - 1921) 14 L.A.S., 1855-1908,... Lot 185

SAINT-SAËNS Camille (1835 - 1921) 14 L.A.S., 1855-1908, mostly to the BARBIER family; 29 pages in-8. Letters addressed to librettist Jules Barbier, then to his son Pierre, also a poet and librettist. To Jules BARBIER. St Valery en Caux August 4, 1855... "Sea bathing this time has given me colic as well as a good number of St Valéry bathers. It's very unpleasant, as you can imagine. [...] As for the forced delay in our business, that's a completely secondary matter; get well first, then we'll see. I pride myself on being one of those of your friends who love you for more than your hemistiches [...] I ask only one thing of you: don't put me back after Messrs Chelard and de Hartog. May comic opera be light for them! If they manage to do one. By the way, I've become acquainted with the score of Jaguarita. I won't say, as Lamartine did to Dumas, that my opinion is one of admiration; but rather, my opinion is one of questioning. Is it really by Halévy? Is it not by Clapisson? or rather by Adam? is it written for voices or for eels? is it really music? would colic have turned my head? [...] These, among a thousand others, are the thoughts that collide in my poor brain on reading this strange jam"... - Le Cateau February 1, 1875. Oscar Stoumon, the new director of La Monnaie, is in Paris; Barbier should talk to him about the Stamp... - [1877]. Talks with Carvalho. "Deprived of the poetic character that music gives so well and that nothing can replace, your characters will have no consistency and consequently will not interest, at least that is my intimate conviction, and I will tell no one but you. [...] Finally, I believe in the success of the opera and doubt very much that of the drama"... - Evian, September 28, 1890. He doesn't want to recommend "a musician I don't know to a priest I don't know either. It can't be done, all the more so as I've had to put up with it in the past, and more than once, for having dealt with such matters with abbots to whom I had not been previously introduced. These gentlemen retain all their unction for the needs of their holy ministry, and sometimes have not the slightest urbanity left for ordinary life. [...] Only Gounod who knows how to swim in holy water"... To Pierre BARBIER. - September 25, 1891. "Phryné is a piécette made several years ago and not by Gallet. I gave it back to the author and asked him for it again, but I'm afraid I'm not even capable of doing this bluette in two acts"... - November 15, 1895. "I won't tell you that our little domestic quarrel is of great interest, you wouldn't believe me, but it's a very charming pretext for music, the way it's presented. I think you must have thought of a role for Madame Delna, and there would certainly be something to do. The practical disadvantage is that it's impossible to get interested in this madman. From then on, he can say the most beautiful things in the world; they'll please if they're pretty and well sung, but they'll lose a good half of their value as they travel from the performer to the listener like driving force carried by an electric wire. And how can a singer give the immaterial impression of the follet! [...] I know it's a shame to lose such lovely verses, but you do them so easily! A small, slight woman, as lively as a bird, that's how I see the role"... - July 6, 1908. He leaves for Dieppe, then goes to the fêtes in Béziers. As for Pierre's friend: "There was an excellent piece in her work, the malédiction à la mer and the passage that follows; that's what won her the prize. She'll do as Gluck did and use it later for something else. - October 27, 1908: "I don't have the cruelty of asking you to sacrifice your verses, but I can't help deploring the fact that you've gone down this road. You speak of Don Juan! but Don Juan is a lyrical character. A mother who wants to prevent her daughter from going wrong, intrigues and money matters, are not. Prose would have allowed you to make the 2nd act clearer, and to convey the political importance of this young race's virginity, which is clumsily understood"... Etc. - November 21, 1911. "Lately a small music journal has inaccurately quoted lines from Faust to show their ridiculousness. I wanted to avenge your father and sent a correction that was not inserted. - October 25, 1912. He confides a secret to her: "I have just given 10,000 f. to a member of my family. I really can't go on like this. Sure, it's good to pay your father's debts, but yours was the victim of a