Théophile Gautier a lost work

Have we found all the works of Th. Gautier? It's far from it.

After all the research of Viscount Sp. de Lovenjoul, so diligent and so piously attentive, there is still room for curious discoveries. This is how we were able to find traces of an unknown ballet, composed at the request of Berlioz, and unfortunately lost.

On November 5, 1847, Berlioz moved to London. Jullien, the famous and disturbing impresario, had hired him as director of the Drury Lane theater: permanent position, handsome salary, sumptuous life, and above all, hope of making his music triumph, with an orchestra of his own, in front of an audience that he hoped enlightened, it was for Berlioz his dream realized; This time it was glory and security, in the “musical dictatorship”, so long awaited.

His illusions were dissipated after the first rehearsals. Nothing was planned or organized. He found the orchestra mediocre and the singers mediocre. To begin with, he had to play Italian music, which he hated. And above all, the repertoire was lacking. It would have been necessary to launch new products with great success; however, he could only count on an opera by Balfe, which was quite ordinary.

It was then that Jullien had the idea of putting on a ballet. But who was better qualified to compose a ballet than Th. Gautier? Giselle, then La Péri, caused a furore, not only in Paris, but in London itself, where the author came in person to supervise the performances.

Berlioz therefore wrote to the happy author of Fortunio, who, at that time, installed in an elegant hotel on Avenue Lord-Byron, savored the delights of opulence, alas! short-lived. Berlioz knew him. Many times he had found in him a benevolent critic, if not a very musical one, devoted to the cause of art, and always ready to support innovators in the most stormy battles. Besides, weren't they both journalists? He therefore addresses him familiarly, with the hasty brevity of a businessman, but not without that courteous elegance from which he never departs.

« London, November 12, 1847. My dear Gautier, »
» Jullien asks me to ask you for a ballet libretto, pretty, graceful, brilliant, and anti-bourgeois, as you know how to do them. It would be put on (the ballet) by Coralli senior with whom you could get along in Paris before his departure. But the work would have to be performed on February 1st without fail. Do you want to accept this task, and can you complete it quickly enough?... And finally, in the case of a positive and affirmative response, what would be your conditions?...
» Please reply letter by letter, either to Jullien or to me, Harley Street, No. 76, London. Don't worry about the music, it will be done quickly. Jullien has several people who will take care of it. It would take a ballet in one or two acts, of much shorter duration than that of Giselle. Do this. Farewell. A thousand friendships. »

But Gautier was an influential critic, very widespread throughout the world. Berlioz, always concerned about public opinion, did not fail to add a triumphant “communiqué”, to silence the slanderers.
« We start our performances of English opera in three weeks. My concerts at Drury Lane will wait until January 15 for the arrival of the beau monde and the Court. Jullien wants it to be flamboyant. I have a magnificent orchestra which would do honor to many theaters I know. I will try to make these artists lions with all their hair. HECTOR BERLIOZ. »
Gautier accepted, set his conditions, and on December 13, Berlioz wrote to him: « My dear Gautier, Jullien thanks you and accepts your proposal of a thousand francs per act. Please see Coralli as soon as possible and tell him that he should come to London to put on your ballet in the last week of January. Send us an outline of the Ballet right away so we can write the music. Our affair takes the most magnificent turn. I don't have time to tell you more today. All yours, HECTOR BERLIOZ. »

Berlioz is obviously happy with this affair. It is all the more timely as the theater is far from prospering, performances have begun, and revenues, initially encouraging, soon decline. The public remains indifferent; quickly the deficit increases. This is apparently the reason why Berlioz has so little time, and gives so few details...

New difficulty to put on the ballet well, you would need a good director, good artists. Berlioz has none. New letter to Gautier: he asks him to look, since he is there (December 22).
« My dear Gautier, Coralli has just told me that he was not free; our ballet masters are incapable of properly staging the work you are preparing for Drury Lane; So see if you could persuade either Mazilier or Mabille to make this little trip. We are also missing two young dancers for pas de trois with Miss Fuoco. Jullien can only give them five hundred francs a month and travel expenses. Tell me a word about all this. All yours. H. BERLIOZ. »

However, Gautier had finished the ballet. He sent it. But in London, difficulties multiplied. Impossible to complete the troop. Let Gautier therefore go to the management of the Opera, and since Duponchel does not care about letting his artists and collaborators go abroad, let him use his influence with the overzealous director to obtain the necessary executions. We must hurry: February 1st is near. Will everything be ready on time?...

This time, it's Jullien who writes. To stimulate Gautier's nonchalance, he multiplies his compliments and opens up all kinds of golden perspectives. The letter is dated Edinburgh (January 21, 1848); Jullien, in fact, was giving a series of concerts across the United Kingdom at that time: the elite of the orchestra. was with him, only the non-values remained in London for Berlioz.

« My dear Monsieur Gautier, I received your charming ballet and I hope to put it on for the closing of my theater. I have just written to Mazilier. If he can be in London before the end of this month, with Miss Fuoco, a dancer of some sort and two little girls... let's say two more or less learned rats; it will be possible to perform your ballet with Iphigénie by Gluck which should end our season with a bang,

» Use all your influence with Duponchel so that he helps us in this matter, because Mazilier nor the others can move from Paris without his permission, and if everyone cannot be in London before February 1st, the matter will not be resolved. is no longer possible, there would no longer be the material time to put on the work properly before the theater closes.
» Now, as I very much want this first business that I am doing with you not to be postponed until next year, I come to ask you to do it as quickly as possible.
» Your subject is charming... The music is already almost done, the sets are in progress, everything would go well if you could send Mazilier, Miss Fuoco, a principal dancer, and two little dancers. All this can be done in two days if you take care of it seriously, and this matter may lead to other more important ones. I will talk to you about this in London where I will be on February 1st and where I will expect you before the 5th of the same month. I am your most devoted. JULLIEN. »

As was to be expected, the ballet was not ready for February 1st. Berlioz, moreover, had fallen ill at the end of January. In Paris, the storm was brewing. The revolution broke out (February 1848). It led to the bankruptcy of Gautier's publisher, the suspension of the Press, and as a result the ruin of poor Théo, who had to sell his horses and carriage, and reduce himself, as he himself said, to a completely republican sobriety.

The ballet was never performed. What did he become? Was it taken up later in another form? This is what we cannot say, these few traces being the only ones that we have been able to find.

René Jasinski.