BIZET Georges (1838 - 1875) Lot n° 20

L.A.S. "Georges Bizet", [fi n 1870], to Ernest GUIRAUD; 2 pages in-8 (light stains). During the war, about a project for a comic opera, Boccace (on a libretto by Victorien Sardou). He is perplexed: "My Boccace must be a baritone; but I will admit to you between us that Barré annoys me. I would like Gaillard: do you know the range of his voice? Does he sing easily on C D E F? - Can he pinch the F#, or even the G, if necessary? If you can give me this information soon, you will give me great pleasure. [...] If I could write a true baritone impossible for Barré and easy for Gaillard, I would be delighted. Where do you stand?... Besides, will there be a comic opera in 3 months?. Will Du Locle be there?. Will we be French...or Prussian? - Alas! I cannot tell you how much I am saddened by these horrors!... To have thought so much, to have suffered so much, to have taught so much, to have learned so much for so many centuries... and to be here!... Monstrous!" He asks for news from Paris: "Do we think that the theaters, the letters, the arts will still be of this world in a few weeks?... It would be so simple to gather in a closed field Hohenzollern, Guillaume, Bismarck, Prim, Ollivier... and the others .... to wait and watch... it would be interesting, human and economic. - I am obliged to decry the death of 100,000 Prussians!... Nice society, nice century! To hell with it!"....