Letter 3581a

Tchaikovsky Research
Revision as of 22:58, 2 December 2019 by Brett (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Date 30 May/11 June 1888
Addressed to Léonce Détroyat
Where written Frolovskoye
Language French
Autograph Location unknown [1]
Publication Tchaikovsky Research Bulletin No. 2 (April 2011), p. 23-25 (with English translation, p. 25-27)
Чайковский. Новые материалы к творческой биографии (2013), p. 352-354 (with Russian translation, p. 354-358)

Text and Translation

French text
(original)
English translation
By Luis Sundkvist
Kline près Moscou
30 Juin/11 Juillet 1888

Cher et très respecté Monsieur!

Que Vous ètes bon! Combien je suis touché par le ton si bienveillant, si amical de Votre lettre! Non seulement Vous ne m'en voulez pas, comme je le craignais un peu (car la susceptibilité des auteurs quelque supérieurs qu'il soient est bien grande), mais Vous poussez Votre bonté jusqu'à vouloir persèverer dans l'intention de collaborer avec moi. Merci, cher Monsieur! Et je commencerai par affirmer ce que Vous aviez deja présumé. Effectivement, le sujet de Juan Padilla est trop revolutionnaire pour la Russie. Et d'ailleurs, je Vous avouerai que [je] suis peu porté pour des sujets de ce genre. C'est trop tragique, trop compliqué, trop grand opéra! Je voudrais quelque chose de très poètique et en mème temps de très simple, très intime et humain! Quelque chose qui ait le don de remuer profondément tous les cœurs, mais non éblouir les yeux par un spectacle grandement et richement monté! Et puisque Vous m'autorisez à trouver un sujet, [je me] permettrai d'en soummettre plusieurs à Votre jugement. Je n'ai jamais pu comprendre pourquoi aucun compositeur français ne s'est jamais inspiré par les Comédies d'Alfred Musset (si ce n'est pas la Carmosine cependant)? Quant à moi je ne trouve rien de plus délicieusement poetique et de touchant que Les Caprices de Marianne, ou bien le Chandelier. On dit que ces chefs-d'œuvre ne sont pas assez scèniques. Peut ètre! Mais des connoisseurs aussi profonds et aussi habiles que Vous et M[onsieu]r Gallet, ne pourriez Vous pas adapter à la scène et aux exigences d'un scénario d'opera les données de ces magnifiques et puissantes œuvres d'un poète, que je considère comme l'un des plus grands qui aient jamais existé? Je prefererais surtout Les Caprices de Marianne et souvent j'ai songé à en faire un opera russe. Mais la langue russe (très belle et très riche) ne se prète pas assez dans sa duresse et sa saveur tout soit peu barbare à ce genre de poèsie trop exquise, trop subtile, trop délicieusement fine pour qu'une autre langue que la Votre, en rende tout le charme. Mon Dieu, que je me sens emballé quand je pense au bonheur de pouvoir mettre en musique quelque chose d'Alfred <Musset>; je Vous ecris ces lignes, les larmes aux yeux,–gage sûr de l'inspiration sincère et féconde. Je suis bien curieux d'apprendre ce que Vous pensez de mon idée.

Quant à des sujets russes, – je Vous dirai franchement que si j'en trouvais un, – c'est dans notre langue que je désirerai le libretto. Je me sens incapable de mettre en musique des personnages russes parlant français. Que l'on traduise mes operas sur des sujets russes dans toutes les langues du monde, – je ne demande pas mieux et si par impossible une telle chance m'arrivait – je m'en réjouirais profondément, – mais de la à pouvoir faire un opera russe sur des paroles françaises ou italiennes il'y a bien loin.

Les tragèdies d'Oseroff, dont Vous parlez, Monsieur, ont été faites dans un temps ou pour ainsi dire il n'y avait pas encore de littérature russe, ou la langue litteraire russe, n'était pas encore inventée. Cet homme avait beaucoup de talent, mais pas assez cependant pour crèer un genre national et trouver des voies nouvelles. Il ne savait qu'imiter avec beaucoup de savoir-faire Racine et Corneille, mais il n'y a rien au monde de plus hétérogène que les chefs-d'œuvre de ces grands <auteurs> tragiques et le génie litteraire russe. Aussi ses productions sont elles tombées dans l'oubli les plus profond et je me rendrais ridicule en Russie si j'évoquais les fantômes de Dmitry Donskoï, de Xenia et autres personnages historiques russes qu'Oseroff avait déguisés en hèros grecs parlant une belle langue française traduits en mauvais russe. Vous ne sauriez croire, Monsieur, ne connaissant que la bonne traduction française, combien les tragédies d'Oseroff sont fausses, dépourvues de sincèrité et d'originalité et combien, malgré son talent d'imitation il est inférieur à Vos grands auteurs tragiques, qui avaient le talent d'etre vrais malgré toutes les entraves des trois unités et autres exigences pseudo-classiques, et dont les personnages parlent en si beaux vers!

Enfin, cher et très respecté Monsieur, puisque Vous ètes aussi bon et condescendant pour moi, veuillez prendre en considération que je me sens capable de faire un bon opera sur des paroles françaises seulement si le sujet n'est pas russe. Mon vœu le plus cher serait de pouvoir mettre en musique un poème d'opéra tiré d'une comédie d'Alfred Musset et adapté et mis en vers par M[onsieu]r Gallet et Vous.

Veuillez bien transmettre à M[onsieu]r Gallet l'expression de ma vive reconnaissance pour l'attention flatteuse qu'il veut bien me témoigner et croyez, cher et bon M[onsieu]r Détroyat[,] à mes sentiments les plus cordiaux pour Vous.

Votre bien dévoué serviteur,

P. Tchaïkovsky

C'est avec l'impatience la plus vive que je vais attendre Votre réponse.

Klin, near Moscow
30 June/11 July 1888 [2]

Dear and most respected Sir!

How good you are! How touched I am by the so well-disposed and friendly tone of your letter! Not only are you not angry with me — something that I had been fearing a little (because authors, no matter how eminent they may be, are always highly susceptible) — but you drive your kindness so far as to wish to persevere in your intention of collaborating with me. Thank you, dear Monsieur! And I shall start by confirming what you had already supposed. The story of Juan Padilla is indeed too revolutionary for Russia. Besides, I must confess to you that I am but little inclined towards subjects of that kind. It is too tragic, too complicated, too much like grand opera! I would like something very poetic and at the same time very simple, very intimate and human! Something endowed with the ability to move everyone's hearts deeply, without dazzling one's eyes by a grandly and lavishly staged spectacle! And since you give me permission to look for a subject myself, I shall take the liberty of submitting several to your judgement. I have never been able to understand why no French composer has ever let himself be inspired by Alfred de Musset's Comédies (with the exception possibly of Carmosine)? As far as I am concerned, I cannot think of anything more deliciously poetic and touching than Les Caprices de Marianne or also Le Chandelier. It is said that these masterpieces are not sufficiently effective for the stage. That may well be so! However, could such discerning and skilful connoisseurs as you and Monsieur Gallet not manage to adapt for the stage and with a view to the requirements of an operatic scenario the essential elements of these magnificent and powerful works by a poet whom I consider to be one of the greatest to have ever lived? I would prefer Les Caprices de Marianne above all, and I have often dreamed of making a Russian opera out of it. However, the Russian language (for all its great beauty and richness) does not, on account of its roughness and its ever so slightly barbaric flavour, lend itself sufficiently well to this genre of poetry, which is too exquisite, too subtle, too deliciously refined for it to be possible that any language other than yours could render all its charm. My Lord, how thrilled I feel when I think of the good fortune of being able to set to music something by Alfred de Musset. I am writing these lines to you with tears in my eyes — a sure pledge of sincere and fertile inspiration. I am very curious to find out what you think of my idea.

As for Russian subjects, I shall tell you frankly that if I were to find one, I would wish the libretto to be in our language. I feel incapable of setting to music Russian characters speaking in French. Let my operas on Russian subjects be translated into all the languages of the world – I could not ask for anything better, and if, contrary to all likelihood, such good fortune were to befall me, it would delight me profoundly, but from there to being able to write a Russian opera on a French or Italian text, it is a very long way indeed.

The tragedies by Ozerov which you mention, Monsieur, were written at a time when, so to speak, there was no Russian literature yet, when the Russian literary language had not yet been created. This man had a lot of talent, though not enough to enable him to create a national genre and to find new paths. All he knew was how to imitate, with a great deal of skill, Racine and Corneille, but there is nothing on earth more disparate than the masterpieces of those great tragic authors and the Russian literary genius. Moreover, his works have fallen into the deepest oblivion, and I would make myself a laughing-stock in Russia if I were to evoke the phantoms of Dmitry of the Don, Kseniya and other Russian historical figures whom Ozerov dressed up as Greek heroes talking in beautiful French and subsequently translated into poor Russian. You cannot imagine, Monsieur, given that you are familiar only with a good French translation, how false Ozerov's tragedies are, how devoid of sincerity and originality, and how, in spite of his talent for imitation, he is so much inferior to your great tragic authors, who possessed the talent of being true, all the fetters of the three unities and other pseudo-classical requirements notwithstanding, and whose characters utter such beautiful verses!

In short, dear and highly esteemed Monsieur, since you are so kind and generous towards me, could you please take into consideration that I feel capable of writing a good opera on a French text only if the subject is not Russian. My most cherished wish would be to be able to set to music an operatic libretto drawn from a comedy by Alfred de Musset and adapted and versified by Mr Gallet and you.

Could you please convey to Mr Gallet the assurance of my keen gratitude for the flattering attention which he is so kind as to bestow upon me, and I would ask you, dear and good Mr Détroyat, to believe in the most cordial feelings which I have for you.

Your most devoted servant,

P. Tchaikovsky

It is with the keenest impatience that I shall await your reply.

Notes and References

  1. The autograph was auctioned in 1992 in Paris in 1992 — see Vente à Paris – Drouot-Richelieu. Mercredi 8 avril 1992, salle no. 7 (Paris, 1992), where it appears as lot no. 130 (incorrectly dated 30 June/11 July 1888"). A photocopy of the original letter was kindly provided to us by Thierry Bodin, the manuscript expert consulted when the letter was auctioned.
  2. The date written by Tchaikovsky at the top of the letter — "30 Juin/11 Juillet 1888" — is obviously incorrect because there is not a difference of twelve days between the old style and new style dates he indicated. In contrast to other letters (mainly those written from Russia to foreign correspondents) in which he made a mistake in the date, here it is not the usual case of his having confused an OS date for a NS one, or vice versa — leading to one of the two dates at least being correct — but, rather, that he wrote the correct day of the month ("30") in the OS date, but the wrong month ("June"), leading to both the OS and NS dates being incorrect. The letter from Détroyat to which Tchaikovsky is replying here bears the date "Paris, 3 June 1888" (NS). When Tchaikovsky sat down to write his reply at Frolovskoye eight days later, on 30 May/11 June, he had "30 May" in his mind as the day of the month (according to the Russian calendar), but seeing "3 June" on his correspondent's letter in front of him caused him to make a slip of the pen and to write "30 June" as the OS date, though he was still proceeding from the assumption that the current month had 31 days when he calculated the (equally mistaken) NS date as "11 July". A glance at the contents of the other letters exchanged by Tchaikovsky and Détroyat in 1888 confirms that the correct date must be "30 May/11 June" — thus, Tchaikovsky in this letter proposes writing a French opera based on one of Musset's plays, and it is this suggestion that Détroyat comments on in his letter to Tchaikovsky from Paris on 6/18 June when he explains that Musset's sister had forbidden any adaptations of her late brother's works for the opera stage.