Claude Debussy (1862-1918) - photo 1
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) - photo 2
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) - photo 3
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) - photo 4
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) - photo 5

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Starting price
£ 100
Auction dateClassic
15.12.2023 11:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
Archive
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Archive
ID 1109017
Lot 217 | Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Autograph letter signed ('Claude Debussy') to [Lorenzo Parodi], 80, avenue du Bois de Boulogne, Paris, 17 February 1910
In French. 1½ pages, 214 x 180mm, with accompanying autograph transcription, one page, 150 x 113mm. Envelope. Provenance: Sotheby's, 6 December 1996, lot 65.

Reports of a scandalous refusal to perform Pélléas et Mélisande in Genoa. The recipient has asked Debussy to come to Genoa to supervise a performance of Pélléas et Mélisande, and Debussy writes of his regret that he cannot come immediately: 'I have just been ill, and I absolutely must be present at the rehearsals of a new work of mine which is being performed at the Concerts-Colonne on Sunday (20 February) ... Nobody regrets this more than me, being sure of the sympathy of the Genoese, and then there are indications on the dramatic movement of Pélléas which I can only give in an effective way if I am on the spot'. Debussy goes on to ask for Parodi's view of an extraordinary report which appeared in the journal Gil Blas on the previous day (he provides a transcription) that the orchestra and singers in Genoa were refusing to continue with rehearsals of Pélléas, with the words 'It's too difficult! ... And it isn't music!'. Debussy remarks that 'it is the first time, as far as I know, that performers, singers, assume the right to refuse to play a work announced in the programme of a theatre...!'. He therefore asks Parodi what is really happening: 'Is it true, or rather has not a little upset between artists and managers been simply blown up, as may happen anywhere?'.

Lorenzo Parodi (1856-1926) was a Genoese composer and critic. The work whose premiere Debussy was to attend on 20 February 1910 was 'Ibéria' from Images pour orchestre, which was to be performed by the Orchestra Colonne under Gabriel Pierné at the Théâtre du Châtelet.
Artist:Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918)
Place of origin:France
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
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United Kingdom
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