[GOUNOD Charles]. INGRES Jean Dominique (1780-1867).

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  3. [GOUNOD Charles]. INGRES Jean Dominique (1780-1867).
  4. Lot n° 320 
Lot n° 320
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[GOUNOD Charles]. INGRES Jean Dominique (1780-1867).
5 L.A.S. "Ingres", 1856-186, to Charles GOUNOD; 9 pages in-8 or small in-8 (small cracks repaired). Beautiful correspondence from the painter to his musician friend. [Ingres was director of the Villa Medici, when Gounod came to work there after his Prix de Rome. Ingres took a liking to the young musician; they often made music together]. [1856 ?]. On a possible candidacy of Gounod for the post of Director of the Musical Conservatory of Toulouse, to which the painter pushes him, however unwillingly: " because I would lose you in what I love most in the world, the Divine Music of which you are the illustration and the personified soul. [...] The most beautiful country like Italy, a country of coconuts, by the way, a country of beautiful voices and which loves music, that is what militates in its favour [...] I would have something to say to you about what you know only too well, about our cannibalistic and savage days; and only God knows what we may become. Poor France, beautiful Paris, beautiful Society, what have we done with it? "... 18 January 1858. He congratulates Gounod for his last opera (Le Médecin malgré lui) : " Reber told me all the good things about it in admiring terms [...] that persuades me more and more, what I know and what you must be still thereafter one of the glories of our musical art "... 20 March 1859. After the premiere of Faust he warmly congratulates him on his "magnificent and just triumph which has filled me with joy: what a host of beauties united! There is a very prolonged source of a beautiful future for the Théâtre Lyrique, whose staging is admirable, and for you, dear friend, an undeniable glory and a place reserved for the great chair, and for art. What a delightful Marguerite Mme Carvalho is! She has electrified us...". Meung 5 November 1859. Beautiful and long letter with erasures and corrections, about Orpheus and Eurydice by GLUCK, revised by BERLIOZ, directed by Léon Carvalho who asks Ingres for ideas for the entrance to the Underworld "according to Homer and Virgil! Here they are in substance: In the middle of a dark forest, under awful rocks, is a deep cave surrounded by a lake (the Cocyte). There, at the entrance of the abyss reside the Infernal Divinities who guard the entrance. There is the iron bed where the Furies lie; in the middle of this lair a great Elm spreads its foliage which conceals the dreams. There are also many monsters, Geryon, the Centaurs, the Hydra of Lerna, the Harpies, the Lernaeus, the harpies, &c... But here, in my opinion, are the active characters, the Chorus at last, who should replace the Demons, their use is false and absurd, the ancients gave them a completely different use. First; the Shadows, the Larvae, represented by a skeleton covered with a shroud, bad Genius. The masks, lemurs, horrible spectres, the Furies or Eumenides, Thisiphone, Shrew, Alecto, livid heads topped with snakes, they are dressed in black or brown, their dress is girdled with a snake, one holds a whip with which she tears the body of the guilty, the other holds a dagger, and the other snakes that she waves. The Fates arrive attracted by the sound of the lyre [...] and were moved to tears [...] beautiful young women, if I may say so, with white hair, their foreheads are girded with a golden band, their clothing is white. They have wings (but ad libitum) their spindle is of black and white thread; that is all. One might object that these Divinities are all of the female gender. The chorus is written for men, but such characters have no sex, and then in the shadows, tears, spectres, they are all male voices [...] What a beautiful spectacle this scene is, enriched with the ancient Greek style! Congratulations for The Queen of Sheba: " I listened to it with tender interest and I recognized in it, as always, the magnificent talent that makes you a superior man and a first-rate artist! The instrumentation is admirable and there are several pieces of remarkable originality".
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