GOUNOD Charles (1818-1893)

4 L.A.S. " Ch. Gounod ", Spa, London [and Paris] 1872-1876 and s.d., to various; 9 pages and a half in-8, the 1st on the letterhead Château d'Alsa. Spa September 1, 1872, to a friend [the poet Giuseppe ZAFFIRA]. He talks to him about melodies written on his words (it is about the collection Biondina), and he says his impatience to see his scenario and the first act: "it is necessary a masterpiece; your idea will be received only in this condition by the public - bold, strange, insane, absurd, - all that you will want: but more that it will be all that, more it is necessary that it is SUBLIME! In a postscript, he proposes some alterations to the verses, "because of the musical prosody"... London February 27, 1874, to a lady [the poetess Jeanne de CHAMBRUN], thanking her for news of her friend the painter Ernest HÉBERT... "Until my last day, I will endeavor to devote to my art all that will be able to make it love more and of my fellow men and myself, and I will bless the pains whose recollection will have been for something there "... February 12, 1875, to Édouard COLONNE. He harasses him with questions about the interpretation of his piece, and in particular about the reciting voice: "it is necessary that it is held with safety, and stated with authority"... February 3, 1876, to the art editor Ernest Gambert. "I have no women's choirs to point out to you in my works; apart from those of the Queen of Sheba, or of Mireille [...]. I am waiting, to give Polyeucte, until I have what it takes to play it. I have just finished a Grande Messe with orchestra and choir, which will be played at St Eustache next winter "... [ Suffering, he will not be able to take part in the competition for the Prix de Rome, and asks his friend to give his attention " to the cantata of the young Fournier, pupil of our late colleague Léo Delibes, and already 2nd Grand Prix "... An issue of the Galerie contemporaine, littéraire, artistique devoted to him is attached.