185-739: Louis Marie-Anne Couperus (10 June 1863 – 16 July 1923) was a Dutch novelist and poet. His oeuvre contains a wide variety of genres: lyric poetry , psychological and historical novels , novellas, short stories , fairy tales , feuilletons and sketches . Couperus is considered to be one of the foremost figures in Dutch literature . In 1923, he was awarded the Tollensprijs (Tollens Prize). Couperus and his wife travelled extensively in Europe and Asia, and he later wrote several related travelogues which were published weekly. Louis Marie-Anne Couperus
370-496: A captain of the grenadiers , who would later commit suicide (December 1913). In April 1890 the Nieuwe Gids (New Guide) published a review of Eline Vere , written by Lodewijk van Deyssel , in which he wrote "the novel of Mr. Couperus is a good and a literary work". Couperus also met a new friend, writer Maurits Wagenvoort, who invited Couperus and painter George Hendrik Breitner to his home. A second edition of Eline Vere
555-527: A descant superimposed over a version of the first prelude of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier . In its original form it is for violin with piano; the words of the Hail Mary were added to the melody later. Gounod's output of liturgical and other religious music was prolific, including 23 masses, more than 40 other Latin liturgical settings, more than 50 religious songs and part-songs, and seven cantatas or oratorios. During his lifetime his religious music
740-501: A Mass (1862), a Stabat Mater (1867), twenty shorter pieces of liturgical or other religious music, two cantatas – one religious, one secular – and a Marche pontificale for the anniversary of the coronation of Pius IX (1869), later adopted as the official anthem of the Vatican City . Gounod's last opera of the 1860s was Roméo et Juliette (1867), with a libretto that follows Shakespeare's play fairly closely. The piece
925-672: A birthday gift. Couperus' health deteriorated rapidly and apart from lung and liver problems Couperus suffered from an infection in his nose. During Couperus birthday party a sum of 12,000 guilders was handed over to him and speeches were held by Lodewijk van Deyssel and minister Johannes Theodoor de Visser; Couperus was also appointed knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion . During the following reception minister Herman Adriaan van Karnebeek and Albert Vogel , among many others, paid Couperus their respect. On 11 July 1923, Couperus
1110-449: A coma for three days Gounod died on 18 October, at the age of 75. A state funeral was held at L'église de la Madeleine , Paris, on 27 October 1893. Among the pallbearers were Ambroise Thomas , Victorien Sardou and the future French President Raymond Poincaré . Fauré conducted the music, which at Gounod's wish was entirely vocal, with no organ or orchestral accompaniment. After the service, Gounod's remains were taken in procession to
1295-597: A contemporary as "the greatest teacher then living" – and in 1836 he was admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris . There he studied composition with Fromental Halévy , Henri Berton , Jean Lesueur and Ferdinando Paer and piano with Pierre Zimmerman . His various teachers made only a moderate impression on Gounod's musical development, but during his time at the Conservatoire he encountered Hector Berlioz . He later said that Berlioz and his music were among
1480-537: A farewell letter to Veen in which he told Veen this was the end of their business relationship. During the summer of 1907 Couperus wrote in Siena the story Uit de jeugd van San Francesco van Assisi' ("From the youth of St. Francis of Assisi ") to be published in Groot Nederland . From this period on Couperus claimed that the days of novels were counted and that short stories (called short novels by Couperus) were
1665-444: A few are well known. Michael Kennedy writes that Gounod's music has "considerable melodic charm and felicity, with admirable orchestration". He adds that Gounod was "not really a master of the large and imposing forms, in this way perhaps being a French parallel to Sullivan ". There is wide agreement among commentators that he was at his finest more often in the earlier decades of his career than later. Robert Orledge judges that in
1850-475: A few years later. Gounod lived his last years at Saint-Cloud, composing sacred music and writing his memoirs and essays. His oratorio Saint Francois d'Assise was completed in 1891. On 15 October 1893, after returning home from playing the organ for Mass at his local church, he suffered a stroke while working on a setting of the Requiem in memory of his grandson Maurice, who had died in infancy. After being in
2035-528: A fictitious relationship between a knight and his high-born lady". Initially imitating the lyrics of the French troubadours and trouvères, minnesang soon established a distinctive tradition. There was also a large body of medieval Galician-Portuguese lyric . Hebrew singer-poets of the Middle Ages included Yehuda Halevi , Solomon ibn Gabirol , and Abraham ibn Ezra . In Italy, Petrarch developed
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#17327808707642220-688: A foreword to Footsteps of Fate in 1891, and English painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema , who was a brother-in-law of Gosse. Via Oxford , Couperus and his wife returned to the Netherlands, where he finished Fidessa in December 1898. Couperus and his wife then left for the Netherlands Dutch Indies and arrived at the end of March 1899 in Tanjung Priok . In June they visited Couperus sister Trudy and her husband Gerard Valette, who
2405-707: A great composer. In February 1871, Julius Benedict , the director of the Philharmonic Society, introduced Gounod to a singer and music teacher, Georgina Weldon . She quickly became a dominant influence in Gounod's professional and personal life. There was much inconclusive conjecture about the nature of their relationship. Once peace was restored in France during 1871, Anna Gounod returned home with her mother and children, but Gounod stayed on in London, living in
2590-411: A larger scale than Sapho , suffers from a libretto that Huebner describes as an "unhappy blend of historico-political grand opera and the supernatural". He observes that in the traditions of grand opera it features processions, ballets, large ensemble numbers, and "a plot where the love interest is set against a more or less clearly drawn historical backdrop". Announcing a rare revival of the work in 2018,
2775-592: A leading patron of the arts in Vienna, arranged for Gounod's setting of the Requiem Mass to be performed. It was warmly received, and its success led Stockhammer to commission a second Mass from the composer. From Vienna, Gounod moved on to Prussia . He renewed his acquaintance with Fanny Hensel in Berlin and then went on to Leipzig to meet her brother. At their first encounter Mendelssohn greeted him, "So you're
2960-475: A letter from his publisher L.J. Veen, in which he complained that Couperus' books did not sell. In May 1903 Couperus published Dionyzos-studiën ("Studies of Dionysus ") in Groot Nederland , in which Couperus paid tribute to classical antiquity (a doctrine without original sin ) and especially to the god Dionysus. Couperus left that year (1903) again for Italy (Venice) and went to Nice in September. During
3145-536: A lifelong admirer. Despite the brevity of Sapho ' s run, the piece advanced Gounod's reputation, and the Comédie-Française commissioned him to write incidental music for François Ponsard 's five-act verse tragedy Ulysse (1852), based on the Odyssey . The score included twelve choruses as well as orchestral interludes. It was not a successful production: Ponsard's play was not well received, and
3330-733: A meeting with the Dutch consul in London, René de Marees van Swinderen and a diner at the house of H. H. Asquith . The next day Couperus went to the Titmarsh club , where he met William Leonard Courtney , and heard Lady Astor , whom he had previously met in Constantine, speak in the House of Commons . Soon after this Couperus and his wife returned to the Netherlands. In the Netherlands Couperus prepared himself for his journey to
3515-670: A pension close to the Santa Maria Novella ; here Couperus wrote in November 1893 a sketch, Annonciatie , a literary description of the painting of the same name by Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi in the Uffizi gallery. In December Couperus and his wife visited Rome, where Couperus wrote San Pietro (his impression of St. Peter's Basilica ), Pincio , Michelangelo's cupola , Via Appia and Brief uit Rome ("Letter from Rome"). In these works, Couperus gave references to
3700-659: A performance of Calderóns El mayor encanto, amor in the Künstler-Theater and a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Residenz-Theater. When Couperus celebrated his 50th birthday, Het Vaderland paid tribute to him by letting his friends and admirers publish praising words. Those friends and admirers included but were not limited to Frans Bastiaanse, Emmanuel de Bom, Henri van Booven, Ina Boudier-Bakker, Marie Joseph Brusse (the father of Kees Brusse ), Herman Heijermans and Willem Kloos. A committee
3885-415: A performance of the latter in 1835 he later recalled, "I sat in one long rapture from the beginning of the opera to its close". Later in the same year he heard performances of Beethoven's Pastoral and Choral symphonies, which added "fresh impulse to my musical ardour". While still at school Gounod studied music privately with Anton Reicha – who had been a friend of Beethoven and was described by
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#17327808707644070-531: A play written by Henrik Ibsen ; reference to the leading character of Ghosts is made when Eline Vere is delirious with fever and cries: "Oh god, the ghosts, approaching grinning" – also the suicide by the main characters in Eline Vere and in Ghosts by taking an overdose of morphine is the same. Between 17 June until 4 December 1888, the novel Eline Vere was published in the Dutch newspaper Het Vaderland ;
4255-404: A poem written so that it could be set to music—whether or not it actually was. A poem's particular structure, function, or theme might all vary. The lyric poetry of Europe in this period was created by the pioneers of courtly poetry and courtly love largely without reference to the classical past. The troubadors , travelling composers and performers of songs, began to flourish towards the end of
4440-406: A precise technical meaning: Verse that was accompanied by a lyre , cithara , or barbitos . Because such works were typically sung, it was also known as melic poetry. The lyric or melic poet was distinguished from the writer of plays (although Athenian drama included choral odes, in lyric form), the writer of trochaic and iambic verses (which were recited), the writer of elegies (accompanied by
4625-542: A result in De Haagsche Post, as well as many epigrams . For his friend Herman Roelvink he translated the play written by George Bernard Shaw , Caesar and Cleopatra (1916). As from December 1916 he restarted writing his weekly sketch in Het Vaderland , for example Romeinsche portretten (Roman portraits), during which he was inspired by Martial and Juvenal . He also continued giving performances for
4810-472: A reviewer in the Algemeen Handelsblad wrote: "The writer has talent". Meanwhile, Couperus wrote a novella called Een ster ("A Star"), which was published in "Nederland" and made a journey to Sweden. In this period of his life, Couperus was an active member of the drama club of writer Marcel Emants ("Utile et Laetum" meaning 'useful and happy'), and here he met a new friend, Johan Hendrik Ram,
4995-592: A rise of lyric poetry during the 18th and early 19th centuries. The Swedish "Phosphorists" were influenced by the Romantic movement and their chief poet Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom produced many lyric poems. Italian lyric poets of the period include Ugo Foscolo , Giacomo Leopardi , Giovanni Pascoli , and Gabriele D'Annunzio . Spanish lyric poets include Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer , Rosalía de Castro , and José de Espronceda . Japanese lyric poets include Taneda Santoka , Masaoka Shiki , and Ishikawa Takuboku . In
5180-517: A series of profiles of pension guests whom Couperus had met during his travels in Rome and elsewhere. He also had a meeting with Dutch actress Theo Mann-Bouwmeester, who suggested to change Langs lijnen van geleidelijkheid into a play; although this plan did not come into reality for Couperus it opened possibilities for his books in future. When World War I began, Couperus was in Munich. On 27 August 1914
5365-563: A specific aversion against the book. Couperus and his wife moved to The Hague, where Couperus wrote Majesteit ("Majesty"), after he had read an article in The Illustrated London News about Nicholas II of Russia . Gerrit Jäger, a play writer, wrote a theatre performance of Noodlot ; it was performed in 1892 by the Rotterdam theatre company, and the then-famous Dutch actor Willem Royaards [ nl ] , who
5550-462: A task at which many of his colleagues tried and failed". As well as church and concert music, Gounod was composing operas, beginning with La Nonne sanglante (The Bloody Nun, 1854), a melodramatic ghost story with a libretto that Berlioz had tried and failed to set, and that Auber , Meyerbeer , Verdi and others had rejected. The librettists, Eugène Scribe and Germain Delavigne , reworked
5735-444: A teaching career and decided to continue writing literature instead. At the end of 1887 he started to write what was to become his most-famous novel, Eline Vere . Shortly before Couperus wrote Eline Vere , he had read War and Peace and Anna Karenina , written by Leo Tolstoy . The structure of Couperus' book Eline Vere was similar to that of Anna Karenina (division into short chapters). He had also just read Ghosts ,
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5920-454: A translation of Edmond Rostands Cantecler , although the play was never performed on stage. During this time Couperus started making performances as an elocutionist . His first performance at the art room Kleykamp for an audience of students from Delft was a huge success. The decor consisted of a Buddha and a painting made by Antonio da Correggio that Abraham Bredius had lent for this occasion. Couperus read De zonen der zon (Sons of
6105-455: A translation of Vitruvius ' De architectura and Couperus wrote about it in Het Vaderland . Meanwhile, het Hofstadtoneel (Residence Theater) was about to perform the stage version (made by Elisabeth Couperus-Baud) of Eline Vere ; this play received bad product reviews. During this period of his life Couperus read the works written by Quintus Curtius Rufus , Arrian and Plutarch to find inspiration for his next work Iskander . The year 1919
6290-539: A waltz song ("Je veux vivre, dans ce rêve"), but Romeo's "Ah! levè-toi, soleil" was judged one of Gounod's finest tenor arias. Although never as popular as Faust , Roméo et Juliette continues to hold the stage internationally. Gounod had no further success with new operas. His three attempts, Cinq-Mars (1877), Polyeucte (1878), and Le Tribut de Zamora (1881), were all taken off after brief runs, and have seldom been seen since. The two symphonies, in D major and E-flat major, cannot be precisely dated. The first
6475-519: A winner of the Prix de Rome it was not a distinguished position. The organ of the church was poor, and the choir consisted of two basses, a tenor and a choirboy. To compound Gounod's difficulties, the regular congregation was hostile to his attempts to improve the music of the church. He expressed his views to a colleague: It is high time the flag of liturgical art took the place occupied hitherto in our churches by that of profane melody. [Let us] banish all
6660-463: Is Valentin's "Avant de quitter ces lieux", which Gounod, rather reluctantly, wrote for the first London production, where the star baritone required an extra number. Among the popular numbers from the score is the ballet music, written when the Opéra – where a ballet interlude was mandatory – took over presentation of the work in 1869. The ballet makes full use of the Opéra's large orchestral resources; it
6845-509: Is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. The term for both modern lyric poetry and modern song lyrics derives from a form of Ancient Greek literature , the Greek lyric , which was defined by its musical accompaniment, usually on a stringed instrument known as a kithara , a seven-stringed lyre (hence "lyric"). It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though song lyrics are often in
7030-414: Is a three-act comedy, regarded as a masterpiece by Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky . Cooper says of the score that Gounod seems to have learned more from Mozart than from Rossini or Auber, and to have "divined by instinct the great comic possibilities of what passed at that time for a ferociously 'learned' style, namely counterpoint." The piece held its place in the repertory during the latter part of
7215-451: Is in many ways both the culmination of medieval courtly love poetry and the beginning of Renaissance love lyric. A bhajan or kirtan is a Hindu devotional song . Bhajans are often simple songs in lyrical language expressing emotions of love for the Divine . Notable authors include Kabir , Surdas , and Tulsidas . Chinese Sanqu poetry was a Chinese poetic genre popular from
7400-613: Is love. Notable authors include Hafiz , Amir Khusro , Auhadi of Maragheh , Alisher Navoi , Obeid e zakani , Khaqani Shirvani , Anvari , Farid al-Din Attar , Omar Khayyam , and Rudaki . The ghazal was introduced to European poetry in the early 19th century by the Germans Schlegel , Von Hammer-Purgstall , and Goethe , who called Hafiz his "twin". Lyric in European literature of the medieval or Renaissance period means
7585-453: Is not a profound work, but is "well filled with the kind of ingratiating tunes that Gounod could turn out so effectively". Although La Reine de Saba was a failure, it contains three numbers that gained moderate popularity: the Queen's big aria‚ "Plus grand dans son obscurité", King Solomon's "Sous les pieds d'une femme" and the tenor solo "Faiblesse de la race humaine". Mireille (1865)
Louis Couperus - Misplaced Pages Continue
7770-422: Is now frequently omitted in live performances, particularly in productions outside France, but the ballet suite became a popular concert item, independent of the opera. The recitatives generally used instead of the original spoken dialogue were composed by Gounod in an early revision of the score. Writing of Philémon et Baucis , Huebner comments that there is little dramatic music in the score and that most of
7955-418: Is required for song lyrics in order to match lyrics with interchangeable tunes that followed a standard pattern of rhythm. Although much modern lyric poetry is no longer song lyrics, the rhythmic forms have persisted without the music. The most common meters are as follows: Some forms have a combination of meters, often using a different meter for the refrain . For the ancient Greeks , lyric poetry had
8140-668: Is sometimes used in the occasional modern productions of the piece, such as that by Laurent Pelly at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in 2016. Faust (1859) appealed to the public not only because of its tunefulness but also for its naturalness. In contrast with grand operas by Gounod's older contemporaries, such as Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots or Rossini's William Tell , Faust in its original 1859 form tells its story without spectacular ballets, opulent staging, grand orchestral effects or conventionally theatrical emotion. "The charm of Faust lay in its naturalness, its simplicity,
8325-552: The New York Herald to attract future guests. As of 27 November 1909 Couperus started publishing weekly serials in the Dutch newspaper Het Vaderland ; he also published Korte arabesken ("Short Arabesques", 1911, with publisher Maatschappij voor goede en goedkoope lectuur) and a cheap edition of De zwaluwen neêr gestreken... ("The Swallows Flew Down", with publisher Van Holkema & Warendof). In December 1910 Couperus wrote in his sketch Melancholieën ("Melancholia") about
8510-676: The Birmingham Triennial Music Festival in England. The two were enthusiastically taken up by the British public and on the continent, and in their day were widely ranked with the oratorios of Handel and Mendelssohn. The Philharmonic Society in London unsuccessfully sought to commission a symphony from the composer in 1885 (the commission eventually went to Saint-Saëns); fragments of a third symphony exist from late in Gounod's career, but are thought to date from
8695-531: The Black Mountain movement with Robert Creeley , Organic Verse represented by Denise Levertov , Projective verse or "open field" composition as represented by Charles Olson , and also Language Poetry which aimed for extreme minimalism along with numerous other experimental verse movements throughout the remainder of the 20th century, up into today where these questions of what constitutes poetry, lyrical or otherwise, are still being discussed but now in
8880-461: The Cimetière d'Auteuil [ fr ] near Saint-Cloud, where they were interred in the family vault. Gounod is best known for his operas – in particular Faust . Celebrated during his lifetime, Gounod's religious music became unfashionable in the 20th century and little of it is regularly heard. His songs, an important influence on later French composers, are less neglected, although only
9065-727: The Dominican preacher Henri-Dominique Lacordaire and he was inspired by paintings in the city's churches. Unlike Berlioz, who had been unimpressed by the visual arts of Rome when he was at the Institute ten years earlier, Gounod was awed by the work of Michelangelo . He also came to know and revere the sacred music of Palestrina , which he described as a musical translation of Michelangelo's art. The music of some of his own Italian contemporaries did not appeal to him. He severely criticised operas by Donizetti , Bellini and Mercadante , composers he described as merely "vines twisted around
9250-525: The Farnese Hercules , which inspired him to start writing his next novel, Herakles . The first chapters of Herakles appeared during the first half of 1912 in Groot Nederland . Couperus then stayed in Sicily, where he visited Syracuse and Messina ; he and his wife then returned to Florence. During this period he visited Pisa and then travelled to Venice, where he attended the inauguration of
9435-667: The Greco-Turkish War broke out and influenced life in Florence as well. Couperus wrote a sketch called De jonge held ("The Young Hero") about the son of friends in Italy who returned wounded from the front . In December Couperus and his wife left for Sicily but spent some time in Orvieto , where they stayed in the same hotel that Bertel Thorvaldsen had once visited. Hereafter they travelled to Naples, where Couperus admired
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#17327808707649620-764: The Gymnasium Willem III in Batavia. In the summer of 1878 Couperus and his family returned to the Netherlands, where they went to live in a house at the Nassaukade (plein) 4. In The Hague Couperus was sent to the H.B.S. school; during this period of his life, he spent a lot of time at the Vlielander-Hein family (his sister was married to Benjamin Marius Vlielander Hein); later their son, François Emile Vlielander Hein (1882–1919),
9805-677: The Haagsche Post to Egypt; his travelogues were published weekly. In Africa he visited Algiers , travelled to Constantine , Biskra , Touggourt and Timgad and then continued his journey to Tunis and the ruins of Carthage , where he met a pupil of Marie-Louis-Antoine-Gaston Boissier. After this Couperus went back to Algiers, because he wanted to see the boxing skills of Georges Carpentier . Afterwards he wrote: I thought that in my life I have written too many books and boxed too little. On 3 May 1921 Couperus and his wife returned to Marseille and travelled to Paris, in time to be present at
9990-611: The Menaechmi ; this book was published with Nijgh & Van Ditmar in 1917. Couperus read Ludwig Friedländers Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms in der Zeit von August bis zum Ausgang der Antonine to increase his knowledge of Ancient Rome which he needed for De Comedianten . In these years Couperus met S.F. van Oss, who was the founder of De Haagsche Post , who asked if Couperus would be willing to write for his magazine. Couperus later published his travelogues (made during his travels to Africa, Dutch East Indies and Japan) as
10175-738: The Philharmonic Society and at the Crystal Palace , St James's Hall and other venues. Proponents of English music complained that Gounod neglected native composers in his concerts, but his own music was popular and widely praised. The music critic of The Times , J. W. Davison , rarely pleased by modern music, was not an admirer, but Henry Chorley of The Athenaeum was an enthusiastic supporter, and writers in The Musical World , The Standard , The Pall Mall Gazette and The Morning Post called Gounod
10360-629: The Prix de Rome for composition, for his cantata Fernand . In doing so he was surpassing his father: François had taken the second prize in the Prix de Rome for painting in 1783. The Prix brought the winner two years' subsidised study at the French Institute in Rome and a further year in Austria and Germany. For Gounod this not only launched his musical career, but made impressions on him both spiritually and musically that stayed with him for
10545-749: The Théâtre-Lyrique in March 1859. One critic reported that it was presented "under circumstances of uncommon excitement and expectation"; another praised the work but doubted if it would have enough popular appeal to be a commercial triumph. The composer later recalled that the opera "did not strike the public very much at first", but after some revision and with a good deal of vigorous promotion by Gounod's publisher, Antoine de Choudens, it became an international success. There were productions in Vienna in 1861, and in Berlin, London and New York in 1863. Faust has remained Gounod's most popular opera and one of
10730-584: The Villa Madama and the Colosseum (among other things). He also paid a visit to the Borgia Apartment and wrote a number of sketches about Lucrezia and Pinturicchio , who had painted her. In 1911 he wrote in Groot Nederland a sketch about Siena and Ostia Antica . He read Gaston Boissier 's Promenades archéologiques and made long walks through the ancient ruins of Rome. He also visited
10915-568: The futuristic meeting of 12 December, which was also attended by Giovanni Papini and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti , at whom potatoes were thrown. Couperus admired them for their courage to speak despite the fact the public made so much noise they could hardly be heard. He also went to see the Mona Lisa , which had been found after it was stolen, at the Uffizi. Couperus said about new things such as futurism: The only thing that always will triumph in
11100-724: The sonnet Een portret ("A Portrait") and Uw glimlach of uw bloemen ("Your smile or your flowers"). In 1882, Couperus started reading Petrarch and had the intention to write a novel about him, which was never realized, although he did publish the novella In het huis bij den dom ("In the house near the church"), loosely inspired by Plutarch . When Couperus just had finished his novella Een middag bij Vespaziano ("An Afternoon at Vespaziano"), he visited Johannes Bosboom and his wife Anna Louisa Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint , whose works Couperus greatly admired. Couperus let Mrs. Bosboom-Toussaint read his novella, which she found very good. In 1883 Couperus started writing Laura ; this novella
11285-460: The sonnet form pioneered by Giacomo da Lentini and Dante 's Vita Nuova . In 1327, according to the poet, the sight of a woman called Laura in the church of Sainte-Claire d'Avignon awoke in him a lasting passion, celebrated in the Rime sparse ("Scattered rhymes"). Later, Renaissance poets who copied Petrarch's style named this collection of 366 poems Il Canzoniere ("The Song Book"). Laura
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#173278087076411470-489: The sonnet . In France, La Pléiade , a group including Pierre de Ronsard , Joachim du Bellay , and Jean-Antoine de Baïf , aimed to break with earlier traditions of French poetry, particularly Marot and the grands rhétoriqueurs , and began imitating classical Greek and Roman forms such as the ode . Favorite poets of the school were Pindar , Anacreon , Alcaeus , Horace , and Ovid . They also produced Petrarchan sonnet cycles . Spanish devotional poetry adapted
11655-485: The " Funeral March of a Marionette " (1879), an orchestration of an 1872 solo piano piece. The Petite Symphonie (1885), written for nine wind instruments, follows the classical, four-movement pattern, with a slow introduction to the sonata form first movement. The commentator Diether Stepphun refers to its "cheerfully contemplative and gallant wit, with all the experience of human and musical maturity". Gounod's Ave Maria gained considerable popularity. It consists of
11840-427: The 11th century and were often imitated in successive centuries. Trouvères were poet-composers who were roughly contemporary with and influenced by the troubadours but who composed their works in the northern dialects of France . The first known trouvère was Chrétien de Troyes ( fl. 1160s–80s). The dominant form of German lyric poetry in the period was the minnesang , "a love lyric based essentially on
12025-476: The 12th-century Jin Dynasty through to the early Ming . Early 14th century playwrights like Ma Zhiyuan and Guan Hanqing were well-established writers of Sanqu. Against the usual tradition of using Classical Chinese , this poetry was composed in the vernacular. In 16th-century Britain, Thomas Campion wrote lute songs and Sir Philip Sidney , Edmund Spenser , and William Shakespeare popularized
12210-452: The 1850s and 1860s Gounod introduced to French opera a combination of "tender, lyrical charm, consummate craftsmanship, and genuine musical characterization", but his later works tend to "sentimentality and banality ... in his quest for inspired simplicity". Cooper writes that as Gounod grew older he began to suffer from "what might be described as the same cher grand maître complex as infected Hugo and Tennyson ". Huebner observes that
12395-440: The 19th century, but by the time Sergei Diaghilev revived it in 1924 Gounod was out of fashion. In Stravinsky's words, "[Diaghilev's] dream of a Gounod 'revival' failed in the face of an indifferent and snobbish public who did not dare applaud the music of a composer not accepted by the avant-garde". For his revival Diaghilev commissioned Erik Satie to compose recitatives to replace the original spoken dialogue, and that version
12580-556: The 19th century and came to be seen as synonymous with poetry. Romantic lyric poetry consisted of first-person accounts of the thoughts and feelings of a specific moment; the feelings were extreme but personal. The traditional sonnet was revived in Britain, with William Wordsworth writing more sonnets than any other British poet. Other important Romantic lyric writers of the period include Samuel Taylor Coleridge , John Keats , Percy Bysshe Shelley , and Lord Byron . Later in
12765-529: The American New Criticism returned to the lyric, advocating a poetry that made conventional use of rhyme, meter, and stanzas, and was modestly personal in the lyric tradition. Lyric poetry dealing with relationships, sex, and domestic life constituted the new mainstream of American poetry in the middle of the 20th century, following such movements as the confessional poets of the 1950s and 1960s, who included Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton .
12950-742: The Dutch East Indies, China and Japan. He and his wife left for the Dutch East Indies on 1 October 1921 aboard the mail ship Prins der Nederlanden . They left the ship at Belawan to stay with their friend Louis Constant Westenenk at Medan . In Batavia he dined with Governor-General Dirk Fock and also held public performances, where he would read out his books. After a visit to the Borobudur Couperus and his wife visited Surabaya and Bali . On 16 February they left for Hong Kong and Shanghai. In Japan they visited Kobe and Kyoto ; in this last place Couperus became seriously ill,
13135-527: The German Romantic revival of the folk-song tradition initiated by Goethe , Herder , and Arnim and Brentano 's Des Knaben Wunderhorn . France also saw a revival of the lyric voice during the 19th century. The lyric became the dominant mode of French poetry during this period. For Walter Benjamin , Charles Baudelaire was the last example of lyric poetry "successful on a mass scale" in Europe. In Russia , Aleksandr Pushkin exemplified
13320-511: The German translator of his books and who would also translate Psyche into German. With Elisabeth Couperus-Baud he left the Netherlands in May 1898 for a short trip to London, where they met friends and visited Ascot Racecourse ; Alexander Teixeira de Mattos introduced Couperus and his wife during a high tea to English journalists and literary people. Couperus also met Edmund Gosse , who had written
13505-438: The Netherlands, it turned out that Couperus' kidneys and liver were affected. Despite his illness Couperus wrote a series of sketches for Het Vaderland and Groot Nederland . He also was able to visit the opera again and went to see Aida . In 1923 the couple moved to De Steeg, where Couperus received the rather prestigious Tollens prize . Meanwhile, a committee was formed to celebrate Couperus' 60th birthday and gather funds as
13690-548: The Opéra-Comique described the score as "refined, sombre, and labyrinthine". A reviewer praised its "verve and imagination ... colourful and percussive music, well adapted to evoke the horror of the situations ... quite voluptuous in the arias (in a score that one can nevertheless find rather academic in parts)". Cooper classes Le Médecin malgré lui (1858) as one of Gounod's finest works, "witty, quick-moving and full of life". In complete contrast to its predecessor, it
13875-462: The Quartet of Act 1 where each character has an independent part, making effective counterpoint in dramatic as well as musical terms". Gounod revised the work in 1858 and again, more radically, in 1884, but it was never a success. The one fairly well known number from the score, Sapho's "O ma lyre immortelle", is a reworking of a song he had composed in 1841. La Nonne sanglante (1854), a work on
14060-545: The Things that Pass . He also met Frank Arthur Swinnerton during a lunch and went to a Russian ballet in the Prince's Theater , where the orchestra was conducted by Ernest Ansermet . He also met with his English publisher, Thornton Butterworth, visited a small concert, where Myra Hess played and also had meetings with George Moore and George Bernard Shaw. Couperus also had his photograph taken by E.O. Hoppé after which he had
14245-466: The Weldons' house. Weldon introduced him to competitive business practices with publishers, negotiating substantial royalties, but eventually pushed such matters too far and involved him in litigation brought by his publisher, which the composer lost. Gounod lived in the Weldons' household for nearly three years. The French newspapers speculated about his motives for remaining in London; they speculated
14430-404: The age of 75. Few of Gounod's works remain in the regular international repertoire, but his influence on later French composers was considerable. In his music there is a strand of romantic sentiment that is continued in the operas of Jules Massenet and others; there is also a strand of classical restraint and elegance that influenced Gabriel Fauré . Claude Debussy wrote that Gounod represented
14615-651: The audience at the Comédie-Française had little interest in music. During the 1850s Gounod composed his two symphonies for full orchestra and one of his best-known religious works, the Messe solennelle en l'honneur de Sainte-Cécile . It was written for the St Cecilia 's day celebrations of 1855 at Saint-Eustache , and in Flynn's view demonstrates Gounod's success in "blending the operatic style with church music –
14800-570: The center of The Hague. In 1883 Couperus saw Sarah Bernhardt performing in The Hague, but was more impressed by her dresses than her performance itself. The next year, John Ricus Couperus, father of Louis Couperus, sold his family estate "Tjicoppo", located in the Dutch East Indies and gave order to build a house at the Surinamestraat 20, The Hague . Here Couperus continued writing poetry and his study of Dutch literature . In June 1885 he
14985-493: The century, the Victorian lyric was more linguistically self-conscious and defensive than the Romantic forms had been. Such Victorian lyric poets include Alfred Lord Tennyson and Christina Rossetti . Lyric poetry was popular with the German reading public between 1830 and 1890, as shown in the number of poetry anthologies published in the period. According to Georg Lukács , the verse of Joseph von Eichendorff exemplified
15170-490: The context of hypertext and multimedia as it is used via the Internet. Charles Gounod Charles-François Gounod ( / ɡ uː ˈ n oʊ / ; French: [ʃaʁl fʁɑ̃swa ɡuno] ; 17 June 1818 – 18 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod , was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been Faust (1859); his Roméo et Juliette (1867) also remains in
15355-581: The countryside near Dieppe and then to England. The house in Saint-Cloud was wrecked by the advancing Prussians in the build-up to the Siege of Paris . To earn a living in London, Gounod wrote music for a British publisher; in Victorian Britain there was a great demand for religious and quasi-religious drawing room ballads, and he was happy to provide them. Gounod accepted an invitation from
15540-653: The course of the Boer Wars as military diplomats . In March 1900 Couperus and his wife travelled back to the Netherlands, where in De Gids the text of Inevitable was published. In October 1900 Couperus and his wife moved to Nice , where Couperus read Henryk Sienkiewicz ' With Fire and Sword , The Deluge and Quo Vadis , while his own The Hidden Force was published in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, Couperus started to work on his new novels Babel and De boeken der kleine zielen ("The Book of Small Souls"). In 1902 he
15725-445: The critic Patrick O'Connor as an attempt by the composer to repeat the success of Méphistophélès' Veau d'or from Faust . Gounod revised the work, even giving it a happy ending, but in the 1930s Reynaldo Hahn and Henri Büsser prepared a new edition for the Opéra-Comique, restoring the work to its original tragic five acts. Gounod's last successful opera was Roméo et Juliette (1867). Gustav Kobbé wrote five decades later that
15910-417: The death of Berlioz in 1869, Gounod had been generally regarded as France's leading composer. He returned to a France in which, though still well respected, he was no longer in the vanguard of French music. A rising generation, including members of the new Société Nationale de Musique such as Bizet, Emmanuel Chabrier , Gabriel Fauré and Jules Massenet , was establishing itself. He was not embittered, and
16095-494: The death of his father, mother, sister and brother: In the second part of 1910, Couperus started to write a novel again, despite the fact he earlier had said he never would write one again. This novel was to be called Antiek toerisme, een roman uit Oud-Egypte ("Tourism in Antiquity, a Novel from Ancient Egypt") and was published in Groot Nederland . The book would be rewarded with the " Nieuwe Gids prize for prose" in 1914. At
16280-570: The details about the life and works of a resident in the Dutch East Indies Couperus derived from his brother-in-law De la Valette. He characterized The Hidden Force as: The Hidden Force gives back especially the enmity of the mysterious Javanese soul and atmosphere, fighting against the Dutch conqueror. Meanwhile, Couperus received a letter from his friend Johan Hendrik Ram, in which Ram wrote that he and lieutenant Lodewijk Thomson were about to travel to South Africa to follow
16465-571: The earlier years of the 20th century rhymed lyric poetry, usually expressing the feelings of the poet, was the dominant poetic form in the United States, Europe, and the British colonies . The English Georgian poets and their contemporaries such as A. E. Housman , Walter de la Mare , and Edmund Blunden used the lyric form. The Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore was praised by William Butler Yeats for his lyric poetry; Yeats compared him to
16650-573: The end of 1910, Couperus and his wife gave up their pension in Nice and travelled to Rome. In Rome Couperus collected and rearranged some of his serials, which he intended to publish in a book, Schimmen van schoonheid ("Shadows of Beauty"). Since Couperus and publisher L.J. Veen were unable to agree on the payment of Couperus, Couperus then published Schimmen van schoonheid and Antiek Toerisme with publisher Van Holkema en Warendorf. In Rome Couperus visited Museo Barracco di Scultura Antica , San Saba ,
16835-715: The end, above everything, is beauty . In these years he started reading Giovanni Papini's Un uomo finito ; he compared the new literary movement to which Papini belonged, with those of the Tachtigers in the Netherlands. He wrote an article about Papini's book, which he called magnificent, an almost perfect book, and he compared Papini with Lodewijk van Deyssel. Papini and Couperus met in Florence and Couperus found Papini rather shy. Meanwhile, Elisabeth Couperus-Baud translated Pío Baroja 's La ciudad de la niebla . During this time Couperus' Wreede portretten (Cruel portraits) were published in Het Vaderland . De Wrede portretten were
17020-507: The essential French sensibility of his time. Gounod was born on 17 June 1818 in the Latin Quarter of Paris, the second son of François Louis Gounod (1758–1823) and his wife Victoire, née Lemachois (1780–1858). François was a painter and art teacher; Victoire was a talented pianist, who had given lessons in her early years. The elder son, Louis Urbain (1807–1850), became a successful architect. Shortly after Charles's birth François
17205-482: The exhibition in the Belle Arti in Florence, where also Dutch painters exhibited their work. Here he met Willem Steelink and Arnold Marc Gorter , who gave him a warm welcome. Couperus wrote about the travelling he and his wife constantly did: your living or not living, what hast thou found, O thou poor seekers, O thou poor vagabonds, rich in suitcases? Couperus spend the winter of 1911–1912 in Florence; meanwhile
17390-432: The fact that Gounod's reputation began to wane even during his lifetime does not detract from his place among the most respected and prolific composers in France during the second half of the 19th century. Gounod wrote twelve operas, in a variety of the genres then prevailing in France. Sapho (1851) was an early example of opéra lyrique , smaller-scale and more intimate than grand opera but through-composed , without
17575-485: The festivities held for the canonization of Joan of Arc . On 1 June, Couperus and his wife left for England, where they would meet Alexander Teixeira de Mattos and during which visit Couperus wrote With Louis Couperus in London-Season ; these stories were published in the Haagsche Post . In England Couperus met Stephen McKenna and Edmund Gosse. McKenna had written the forewords for Majesty and Old People and
17760-572: The first of a new type, opéra lyrique , but at the time it was thought by some to be a throwback to the operas of Gluck , written sixty or seventy years earlier. After difficulties with the censor, who found the text politically suspect and too erotic, Sapho was given at the Paris Opéra at the Salle Le Peletier on 16 April 1851. It was reviewed by Berlioz in his capacity as a music critic; he found some parts "extremely beautiful …
17945-496: The first time. In his novel De zwaluwen neergestreken (The swallows flew down), he wrote about his youth: In the Dutch East Indies, Couperus also met his future brother-in-law for the first time, Gerard de la Valette (a writer and official at the Dutch Indian Government who would marry his sister Trudy), who wrote in 1913 about his relationship with Couperus: After he finished primary school, Couperus attended
18130-403: The flute, rather than the lyre) and the writer of epic. The scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria created a canon of nine lyric poets deemed especially worthy of critical study. These archaic and classical musician-poets included Sappho , Alcaeus , Anacreon and Pindar . Archaic lyric was characterized by strophic composition and live musical performance. Some poets, like Pindar extended
18315-610: The forms, the lyric meters of the Greeks adapted to Latin. Catullus was influenced by both archaic and Hellenistic Greek verse and belonged to a group of Roman poets called the Neoteroi ("New Poets") who spurned epic poetry following the lead of Callimachus . Instead, they composed brief, highly polished poems in various thematic and metrical genres. The Roman love elegies of Tibullus , Propertius , and Ovid ( Amores , Heroides ), with their personal phrasing and feeling, may be
18500-466: The great Rossinian trunk, without its vitality and majesty" and lacking Rossini's spontaneous melodic genius. For the last year of his Prix de Rome scholarship, Gounod moved to Austria and Germany. At the Court Opera in Vienna he heard The Magic Flute for the first time, and his letters record his joy at living in the city where Mozart and Beethoven had worked. Count Ferdinand von Stockhammer,
18685-639: The greatest emotional influences of his youth. In 1838, after Lesueur's death, some of his former students collaborated to compose a commemorative mass ; the Agnus Dei was allocated to Gounod. Berlioz said of it, "The Agnus, for three solo voices with chorus, by M. Gounod, the youngest of Lesueur's pupils, is beautiful – very beautiful. Everything in it is novel and distinguished – melody, modulation, harmony. In this piece M. Gounod has given proof that we may expect everything of him". In 1839, at his third attempt, Gounod won France's most prestigious musical prize,
18870-511: The highest poetic level of drama", and others "hideous, unbearable, horrible". It did not draw the public and closed after nine performances. The opera received a single performance at the Royal Opera House in London later in the same year, with Viardot again in the title role. The music received more praise than the libretto, and the performers received more than either, but The Morning Post recorded, "The opera, we regret to say,
19055-492: The house at the Jacob van der Doesstraat 123. During this time Gerrit Jäger committed suicide by drowning. Couperus now started working on what was to become Wereldvrede ("World Peace") and wrote a translation of Flaubert 's La Tentation de Saint Antoine . In 1894 an English translation was made by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos of Majesteit ; reviewers were not satisfied, and in the Netherlands Couperus new novel Wereldvrede
19240-556: The house of an amateur singer, Georgina Weldon , who became the controlling figure in his life. After nearly three years he broke away from her and returned to his family in France. His absence, and the appearance of younger French composers, meant that he was no longer at the forefront of French musical life; although he remained a respected figure he was regarded as old-fashioned during his later years, and operatic success eluded him. He died at his house in Saint-Cloud , near Paris, at
19425-547: The international repertory. He composed a large amount of church music, many songs, and popular short pieces including his " Ave Maria " (an elaboration of a Bach piece) and " Funeral March of a Marionette ". Born in Paris into an artistic and musical family, Gounod was a student at the Conservatoire de Paris and won France's most prestigious musical prize, the Prix de Rome . His studies took him to Italy, Austria and then Prussia, where he met Felix Mendelssohn , whose advocacy of
19610-567: The lyric for religious purposes. Notable examples were Teresa of Ávila , John of the Cross , Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz , Garcilaso de la Vega , Francisco de Medrano and Lope de Vega . Although better known for his epic Os Lusíadas , Luís de Camões is also considered the greatest Portuguese lyric poet of the period. In Japan, the naga-uta ("long song") was a lyric poem popular in this era. It alternated five and seven-syllable lines and ended with an extra seven-syllable line. Lyrical poetry
19795-558: The lyric mode, and it is also not equivalent to Ancient Greek lyric poetry, which was principally limited to song lyrics, or chanted verse. The term owes its importance in literary theory to the division developed by Aristotle among three broad categories of poetry: lyrical, dramatic , and epic . Lyric poetry is one of the earliest forms of literature. Much lyric poetry depends on regular meter based either on number of syllables or on stress – with two short syllables typically being exchangeable for one long syllable – which
19980-672: The madman my sister has told me about", but he devoted four days to entertaining the young man and gave him much encouragement. He arranged a special concert of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra so that his guest might hear the Scottish Symphony , and played him some of the works of Bach on the organ of the Thomaskirche . Reciprocating, Gounod played the Dies Irae from his Viennese Requiem, and
20165-410: The metrical forms in odes to a triad, including strophe , antistrophe (metrically identical to the strophe) and epode (whose form does not match that of the strophe). Among the major surviving Roman poets of the classical period, only Catullus ( Carmina 11 , 17 , 30 , 34 , 51 , 61 ) and Horace ( Odes ) wrote lyric poetry, which was instead read or recited. What remained were
20350-543: The more when it was suggested that he had declined the French President's invitation to return and succeed Auber as director of the Conservatoire. In early 1874 his relations with Davison of The Times , never cordial, descended into personal hostility. The pressures on him in England and the comments about him in France brought Gounod to a state of nervous collapse, and in May 1874 his friend Gaston de Beaucourt came to London and took him back home to Paris. Weldon
20535-607: The music of Bach was an early influence on him. He was deeply religious, and after his return to Paris, he briefly considered becoming a priest. He composed prolifically, writing church music, songs, orchestral music and operas. Gounod's career was disrupted by the Franco-Prussian War . He moved to England with his family for refuge from the Prussian advance on Paris in 1870. After peace was restored in 1871 his family returned to Paris but he remained in London, living in
20720-479: The musical scholar Roger Nichols and the composer's biographer Gérard Condé also find a debt to Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony in the slow movement of the First. Gounod's sometime pupil Bizet took the First as his model for his own Symphony in C (1855). Late in life Gounod started but did not complete a Third Symphony. A complete slow movement and much of a first movement survive. Other orchestral works include
20905-453: The next twenty years. Other music he composed during his three years' scholarship included some of his best-known songs, such as "Où voulez-vous aller?" (1839), "Le Soir" (1840–1842) and "Venise" (1842), and a setting of the Mass ordinary , which was performed at the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome. In Rome, Gounod found his strong religious impulses increased under the influence of
21090-583: The night at the then famous Hotel des Indes . The family settled in a house in Batavia, located on the Koningsplein and the mother of Couperus and his brother Frans (who was suffering from peritonitis ) returned to the Netherlands in December 1873; his mother returned to the Dutch East Indies in April 1874. So Couperus spent part of his youth (1873–1878) in the Dutch East Indies, going to school in Batavia. Here he met his cousin, Elisabeth Couperus-Baud , for
21275-446: The novels of the future. Couperus would write a series of short stories, which he published the then coming years in magazines such as "De Locomotief", " De Telegraaf " and the "Kroniek". During the winter of 1908 Couperus resided in Florence, where he translated John Argyropoulos ' Aristodemus ; he published his translation in Groot Nederland . In August 1908 Couperus and his wife started a pension lodge in Nice and placed an advert in
21460-473: The numbers are "purely decorative accretions to the spoken dialogue". For the 1876 revival at the Opéra-Comique, which established the work in the repertory there until the Second World War, Gounod reduced it to two acts. For a revival by Diaghilev in 1924, the young Francis Poulenc composed recitatives to replace the spoken dialogue. The music critic Andrew Clements writes of La Colombe that it
21645-651: The opera written by Charles Gounod Le tribut de Zamora ; he later used elements of this opera in his novel Eline Vere . In 1885 plans were made to compose an operetta for children. Virginie la Chapelle wrote the music, and Couperus provided the lyrics for De schoone slaapster in het bosch ("Sleeping beauty in the forest"). The opera was staged by a hundred children at the Koninklijke Schouwburg (Royal Theatre) in The Hague. In January 1885 Couperus had already written one of his early poems, called Kleopatra . Other writings from this period include
21830-626: The organising committee of the Annual International Exhibition to write a choral piece for its grand opening at the Royal Albert Hall on 1 May 1871. As a result of its favourable reception he was appointed director of the new Royal Albert Hall Choral Society, which, with Queen Victoria 's approval, was subsequently renamed the Royal Choral Society . He also conducted orchestral concerts for
22015-503: The peak of her fame, was able to secure for him a commission for a full-length opera. In this Gounod was exceptionally fortunate: a novice composer in the 1840s would usually, at the most, be asked to write a one-act curtain raiser . Gounod and his librettist, Émile Augier , created Sapho , drawing on Ancient Greek legend. It was intended as a departure from the three genres of opera then prevalent in Paris – Italian opera , grand opera and opéra comique . It later came to be regarded as
22200-425: The period include Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Novalis , Friedrich Schiller , and Johann Heinrich Voß . Kobayashi Issa was a Japanese lyric poet during this period. In Diderot's Encyclopédie , Louis chevalier de Jaucourt described lyric poetry of the time as "a type of poetry totally devoted to sentiment; that's its substance, its essential object". In Europe, the lyric emerged as the principal poetic form of
22385-575: The period is Martin Opitz ; in Japan, this was the era of the noted haiku -writer Matsuo Bashō . In the 18th century, lyric poetry declined in England and France. The atmosphere of literary discussion in the English coffeehouses and French salons was not congenial to lyric poetry. Exceptions include the lyrics of Robert Burns , William Cowper , Thomas Gray , and Oliver Goldsmith . German lyric poets of
22570-464: The public in the evening. In 1917 he wrote the novel Het zwevende schaakbord (The floating chessboard), about the adventures of Gawain ; this novel was first published as a serial in the Haagsche Post. He read as research for this book Jacob van Maerlant 's Merlijns boec and Lodewijk van Velthem's Boec van Coninc Artur ("Book of King Arthur"). In July 1918 publisher L.J. Veen sent Couperus
22755-405: The public, and in November 1888 Gounod conducted the 500th performance at the Opéra. Away from opera, Gounod wrote the large-scale Messe du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus in 1876 and ten other masses between then and 1893. His greatest popular successes in his later career were religious works, the two large oratorios La Rédemption (1882) and Mors et vita (1885), both composed for and premiered at
22940-407: The relative neglect into which it has since fallen. With Barbier and Carré, Gounod turned from French comedy to German legend for Faust . The three had worked on the piece in 1856, but it had to be shelved to avoid clashing with a rival (non-operatic) Faust at another theatre. Returning to it in 1858 Gounod completed the score, rehearsals began towards the end of the year and the opera opened at
23125-420: The rest of his life. In the view of the musicologist Timothy Flynn, the Prix, with its time in Italy, Austria and Germany, was "arguably the most significant event in [Gounod's] career". He was fortunate that the director of the institute was the painter Dominique Ingres , who had known François Gounod well and took his old friend's son under his wing. Among the artistic notables the composer met in Rome were
23310-520: The romantic lollipops and saccharine piosities which have been ruining our taste for so long. Palestrina and Bach are the musical Fathers of the Church: our business is to prove ourselves loyal sons of theirs. Despite his generally affable and compliant nature Gounod remained adamant; he gradually won his parishioners over, and served for most of the five-year term he had agreed to. During this period Gounod's religious feelings became increasingly strong. He
23495-477: The sincerity and directness of its emotional appeal" (Cooper). The authors labelled Faust "a lyric drama", and some commentators find the lyrical scenes stronger than the dramatic and supernatural ones. Among the best known numbers from the piece are Marguerite's "Jewel" song, the Soldiers' Chorus, Faust's aria "Salut! Demeure chaste et pure" and Méphistophélès' "Le Veau d'or" and Sérénade. Another popular song
23680-565: The singer Pauline Viardot and the pianist Fanny Hensel , sister of Felix Mendelssohn . Viardot became of great help to Gounod in his later career, and through Hensel he got to know the music not only of her brother but also of J. S. Bach , whose music, long neglected, Mendelssohn was enthusiastically reviving. Gounod was also introduced to "various masterpieces of German music which I had never heard before". While in Italy, Gounod read Goethe 's Faust , and began sketching music for an operatic setting, which came to fruition over
23865-650: The son of Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria , Luitpold, died of polio and Couperus went to see his body in the Theatrine Church . During this time he admired the German: I admire them because they are tragic and fight a tragic struggle, like a tragic hero fights. In September he returned to Florence and in February 1915 to the Netherlands, where he visited the premiere of Frederik van Eeden's De heks van Haarlem (The witch of Haarlem) and met Van Eeden. He made
24050-432: The spoken dialogue of opéra comique . Berlioz wrote of it, "Most of the choruses I found imposing and simple in accent; the whole third act seemed to me very beautiful ... But the quartet in the first act, the duet and trio in the second, where the passions of the principal characters break out with such force, absolutely revolted me". A more recent reviewer remarks on Gounod's "genuine talent for music-drama ... exercised in
24235-483: The staples of the operatic repertoire. Over the next eight years Gounod composed five more operas, all with Barbier or Carré or both. Philémon et Baucis (1860) and La Colombe (The Dove, 1860) were opéras comiques based on stories by Jean de La Fontaine . The first was an attempt to take advantage of a vogue for mildly satirical comedies in mythological dress started by Jacques Offenbach with Orphée aux enfers (1858). The opera had originally been intended for
24420-439: The sun) aloud. While Couperus made his performances, L.J. Veen published the first parts of Van en over alles en iedereen (By and about everything and everyone) and publisher Holkema & Warendorf De ongelukkige (The unfortunate) (1915). Couperus himself wrote that year De dood van den Dappere (The death of the brave one), which dealt with the end of El Zagal and started to write De Comedianten (The comedians), inspired by
24605-465: The text for Gounod and the piece opened at the Opéra on 18 October 1854. The critics derided the libretto but praised the music and production; the work was doing well at the box-office until it fell victim to musical politics. The director of the Opéra, Nestor Roqueplan , was supplanted by his enemy, François-Louis Crosnier , who described La Nonne sanglante as "filth" and shut the production down after its eleventh performance. In January 1856 Gounod
24790-477: The theatre at Baden-Baden , but Offenbach and his authors expanded it for its eventual first performance, in Paris at the Théâtre Lyrique. La Colombe , also written for Baden-Baden, was premiered there and later expanded for its first Paris production (1886). After these two moderate successes, Gounod had an outright failure, La Reine de Saba (1862), a grand opera with an exotic setting. The piece
24975-514: The thematic ancestor of much medieval, Renaissance, Romantic, and modern lyric poetry, but these works were composed in elegiac couplets and so were not lyric poetry in the ancient sense. During China 's Warring States period , the Songs of Chu collected by Qu Yuan and Song Yu defined a new form of poetry that came from the exotic Yangtze Valley , far from the Wei and Yellow River homeland of
25160-467: The then-restored St Mark's Campanile (tower), and wrote about it in his sketch Feest van San Marco ("The party of San Marco"). Meanwhile, publisher L.J. Veen gave a positive answer to Couperus' question if he would be willing to publish the bundled sketches. As a result, in 1912 and 1913 Uit blanke steden onder blauwe lucht ("From white cities under blue sky") appeared in two parts. Couperus travelled from Venice to Igis and to Munich , where he visited
25345-479: The time of Cardinal Richelieu . The latter was staged first at the Opéra-Comique in April 1877, and had a mediocre run of 56 performances. Polyeucte , a religious subject close to the composer's heart, did worse when it was given at the Opéra the following year. In the words of Gounod's biographer James Harding , "After Polyeucte had been martyred on twenty-nine occasions the box-office ruled that enough
25530-471: The traditional four-character verses collected in the Book of Songs . The varying forms of the new Chu Ci provided more rhythm and greater latitude of expression. Originating in 10th century Persian , a ghazal is a poetic form consisting of couplets that share a rhyme and a refrain . Formally, it consists of a short lyric composed in a single meter with a single rhyme throughout. The subject
25715-442: The translation of Couperus' Footsteps of Fate . and wrote to Couperus to compliment him with his book. Elisabeth Couperus-Baud translated Wilde's novel into Dutch: Het portret van Dorian Gray . Dutch critics wrote divergent reviews about Extaze : writer and journalist Henri Borel said that, the book was something like a young boy messing with an egg , while Lodewijk van Deyssel found it great. Frederik van Eeden wrote that he had
25900-448: The travails of his career back in Paris". Gounod's next opera was Mireille (1864), a five-act tragedy in a Provençal peasant setting. Gounod travelled to Provence to absorb the local atmosphere of the various settings of the work and to meet the author of the original story, Frédéric Mistral . Some critics have seen the piece as a forerunner of verismo opera, although one that emphasises elegance over sensationalism. The opera
26085-422: The troubadour poets when the two met in 1912. The relevance and acceptability of the lyric in the modern age was, though, called into question by modernist poets such as Ezra Pound , T. S. Eliot , H.D. , and William Carlos Williams , who rejected the English lyric form of the 19th century, feeling that it relied too heavily on melodious language, rather than complexity of thought. After World War II,
26270-454: The winter of 1903–1904, he read Jean Lombard 's work about Roman emperor Elagabalus ; in 1903 Georges Duviquet published his Héliogabale , which was just what Couperus needed for his idea to write a novel about a crazy emperor ( De berg van licht , "The Mountain of Light"). Meanwhile, to pay his bills, he wrote Van oude menschen, de dingen, die voorbij gaan ("Of old people, the things that pass"). In 1905 he published De berg van licht , which
26455-530: The work had always been more highly regarded in France than elsewhere. He said that it had never been popular in England except as a vehicle for Adelina Patti and then Nellie Melba , and that in New York it had only featured regularly at the Metropolitan Opera when it was under the control of Maurice Grau in the late 19th-century. Some reviewers thought it inappropriate that Juliet was allotted
26640-498: The works he had read about Rome: Ariadne by Ouida, Rienzi by Bulwer , Transformation by Hawthorne , Voyage en Italie by Taine and Cosmopolotis by Bourget. In February 1894 Couperus travelled to Naples and Athens , and then returned to Florence, where he visited Ouida. Couperus and his wife returned to the Netherlands, where Elisabeth Couperus-Baud made a translation of George Moore's Vain Fortune ; they went to live in
26825-805: The works of Tintoretto , Titian and Veronese . The next city they visited was Rome, where Couperus would receive a number of bad reviews of his book Wereldvrede . In Rome he met Dutch sculptor Pier Pander and Dutch painter Pieter de Josselin de Jong . In March 1896 Couperus and his wife returned to the Netherlands. In 1896 Hoge troeven ("High Trumps") was published with a book cover designed by Hendrik Petrus Berlage , and in April 1896 Couperus started writing Metamorfoze ("Metamorphosis"). In September Couperus visited Johan Hendrik Ram in Zeist , where Ram stayed with his father. Couperus spoke with Ram about Metamorfoze . That same year Couperus spend some time in Paris. In 1897 Couperus finished writing Metamorfoze , which
27010-425: The writing of his novella Extaze ("Ecstasy"). In July 1890 he completed Eene illuzie ("An Illusion") and on 12 August 1890 received the prestigious D.A. Thiemeprijs (D.A. Thieme prize, named after the noted publisher). In October that same year, he travelled to Paris, where he received a letter from his publisher-to-be, L.J. Veen, asking permission to publish Noodlot , which offer Couperus rejected because this book
27195-423: The Église des Missions étrangères. I had done it for four and a half years and I had learnt a lot from it, but as far as my future career was concerned it had left me vegetating without any prospects. There's only one place where a composer can make a name for himself: the theatre. The outset of Gounod's theatrical career was greatly helped by his reacquaintance with Pauline Viardot in Paris in 1849. Viardot, then at
27380-535: Was a capable scholar, excelling in Latin and Greek. His mother, the daughter of a magistrate, hoped Gounod would pursue a secure career as a lawyer, but his interests were in the arts: he was a talented painter and outstandingly musical. Early influences on him, in addition to his mother's musical instruction, were operas, seen at the Théâtre-Italien : Rossini's Otello and Mozart's Don Giovanni . Of
27565-490: Was a great-grandson of Abraham Couperus (1752–1813), Governor of Malacca , and Willem Jacob Cranssen (1762–1821), Governor of Ambon with a female-line, Eurasian lineage that goes back even earlier to the mid-eighteenth century. Four of the ten siblings had died before Louis was born. Couperus was baptized on 19 July 1863 in the Eglise wallonne in The Hague. When Louis reached the age of five, his youngest sister, Trudy,
27750-445: Was a moderate success, and although it did not emulate Faust in becoming an international hit, it remained popular in France into the 20th century. The most famous number, the waltz-song "O légère hirondelle", a favourite display piece for many coloratura sopranos, was written to order for the prima-donna of the Théâtre Lyrique a year after the premiere. Another popular number is Ourrias's swaggering "Si les filles d'Arles" described by
27935-610: Was a success from the outset, with box-office receipts boosted by the large number of visitors to Paris for the Exposition Universelle . Within a year of the premiere it was staged in major opera houses in continental Europe, Britain and the US. Other than Faust it remains the only Gounod opera to be frequently staged internationally. After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Gounod moved with his family from their home in Saint-Cloud , outside Paris, first to
28120-403: Was an acquaintance of Couperus, played one of the leading characters. On 1 February 1893 Couperus and his wife left for Florence , but they had to return because of the death of Couperus' mother. He wrote about how she rested on her deathbed in his novel Metamorfoze ("Metamorphosis"). During this time Elisabeth Couperus-Baud was translating George Moore 's novel Vain Fortune , while Majesteit
28305-555: Was appointed a knight of the Legion of Honour . In June of that year he and his wife had the first of their two children, a son Jean (1856–1935). (Their daughter Jeanne (1863–1945) was born seven years later. ) In 1858 Gounod composed his next opera, Le Médecin malgré lui . With a good libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré , faithful to the Molière comedy on which it is based, it gained excellent reviews, but its good reception
28490-584: Was appointed member of the very prestigious Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde (Society of Dutch Literature), two years after he published Orchideeën. Een bundel poëzie en proza ("Orchids. A Bundle of Poetry and Prose"), which had received mixed reviews. Journalist Willem Gerard van Nouhuys wrote that Orchideeën lacked quality, Jacob Nicolaas van Hall was positive, and Willem Kloos called it "literary crap". Couperus passed his exam on 6 December 1886 and received his certificate, which allowed him to teach at secondary schools. However, he did not aspire to
28675-702: Was appointed official artist to the Duc de Berry , a member of the royal family, and the Gounods' home in Charles's early years was at the Palace of Versailles , where they were allotted an apartment. After François's death in 1823, Victoire supported the family by returning to her old occupation as a piano teacher. The young Gounod attended a succession of schools in Paris, ending with the Lycée Saint-Louis . He
28860-491: Was appointed superintendent of instruction in singing to the communal schools in the city of Paris, and from 1852 to 1860 he was director of a prominent choral society, the Orphéon de la Ville de Paris. He also frequently stood in for his elderly and often ill father-in-law, giving music lessons to private pupils. One of them, Georges Bizet , found Gounod's teaching inspiring, praised "his warm and paternal interest" and remained
29045-491: Was asked to become a member of the editorial board of a new magazine called " Groot Nederland" , together with W.G. van Nouhuys and Cyriel Buysse . In October 1902 Couperus' father died at the age of 86. His house at Surinamestraat 20, The Hague was eventually sold to Conrad Theodor van Deventer . Couperus and his wife kept living in Nice, but Couperus went in January 1903 to Rome, where he met Pier Pander again and also received
29230-624: Was born on 10 June 1863 at Mauritskade 11 in The Hague , Netherlands, into a long-established, Indo family of the colonial landed gentry of the Dutch East Indies . He was the eleventh and youngest child of John Ricus Couperus (1816–1902), a prominent colonial administrator, lawyer and landheer or lord of the private domain ( particuliere land ) of Tjikopo in Java , and Catharina Geertruida Reynst (1829–1893). Through his father, he
29415-807: Was brought to hospital (in Velp ), because the infection in his nose had not healed, but came back home a day later. He now suffered from erysipelas as well as sepsis in the nose. He fell into a coma on 14 July, remained in that state for two days with high fever and died on 16 July 1923. He was cremated at Westerveld , where Gustaaf Paul Hecking Coolenbrander (a nephew), among others, spoke to remember Couperus. Translations by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos [1865-1921] unless noted otherwise. Louis Couperus wrote hundreds of short stories, sketches, travel impressions, and letters, which were first published as feuilletons. Those feuilletons were later bundled and published as books. Lyric poetry Modern lyric poetry
29600-400: Was completed at some time before 1855 and the second by 1856. Like many other composers of the mid-19th-century Gounod found Beethoven's shadow daunting when contemplating the composition of a symphony, and there was even a feeling among the French musical public that composers could write operas or symphonies but not both. The influence of Beethoven is apparent in Gounod's two symphonies, and
29785-616: Was diagnosed with Typhoid fever and was sent to the International Hospital in Kobe. After seven weeks he was fit enough to travel to Yokohama . He and his wife stayed for two weeks at the Fujiya Hotel , where Couperus read Kenjirō Tokutomi 's novel Nami-Ko . He and his wife then travelled to Tokyo, where they stayed with the Dutch consul and visited Nikkō . They returned to the Netherlands on 10 October 1922. Back in
29970-452: Was enough. He was never resuscitated." The last of Gounod's operas, Le Tribut de Zamora (1881), ran for 34 nights, and in 1884 he made a revision of Sapho , which lasted for 30 performances at the Opéra. He reworked the role of Glycère, the deceitful villainess of the piece, with the image of Weldon in his mind: "I dreamt of the model … who was terrifying in satanic ugliness" Throughout these disappointments Faust continued to attract
30155-441: Was formed to collect the funds required for Couperus to make a journey to Egypt . Members of that committee were for example Pieter Cornelis Boutens , Alexander Teixeira de Mattos and K.J.L. Alberdingk Thijm. Couperus however could not make this journey to Egypt because of World War I . On 29 September 1913, Johan Hendrik Ram killed himself, shooting a bullet into his head. Couperus returned to Florence later that year and attended
30340-443: Was furious when she discovered that Gounod had left, and she made many difficulties for him later, including holding on to manuscripts he had left at her house and publishing a tendentious and self-justifying account of their association. She later brought a lawsuit against him which effectively prevented him from coming back to Britain after May 1885. The musical scene in France had altered considerably during Gounod's absence. After
30525-455: Was gratified when Mendelssohn said of one passage that it was worthy to be signed by Luigi Cherubini . Gounod commented, "Words like this from such a master are a true honour and one wears them with more pride than many a ribbon". Gounod arrived home in Paris in May 1843. He took up a post, which his mother had helped to secure, as chapel master of the church of the Missions étrangères . For
30710-481: Was his favourite nephew, who helped him with his literary work. At the HBS Couperus met his later friend Frans Netscher; during this period of his life, he read the novels written by Émile Zola and Ouida (the latter he would meet in Florence, years later). When Couperus' school results did not improve, his father send him to a school where he was trained to be a teacher in the Dutch language. In 1883 he attended
30895-635: Was lavishly mounted, and the premiere was attended by the Emperor Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie , but the reviews were damning and the run finished after fifteen performances. The composer, depressed by the failure, sought comfort in a long trip to Rome with his family. The city enchanted him as much as ever: in Huebner's words "renewed exposure to Rome's close entwining of Christianity and classical culture energized him for
31080-436: Was not a great success at first; there were strong objections from some quarters that Gounod had given full tragic status to a mere farmer's daughter. After some revision it became popular in France, and remained in the regular opéra comique repertoire into the 20th century. In 1866 Gounod was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts and was promoted within the Legion of Honour. During the 1860s his non-operatic works included
31265-439: Was not a happy one for Couperus: his favourite nephew Frans Vlielander Hein died together with his wife when his ship was hit by a mine and L.J. Veen, his publisher and his brother-in-law Benjamin Marinus Vlielander Hein died that year as well. In 1920 Iskander (a novel about Alexander the Great ) was published in Groot Nederland ; critics were not positive because of the many gay scenes. In October 1920 Couperus travelled for
31450-414: Was overshadowed for Gounod by the death of his mother the day after the premiere. At the time an initial run of 100 performances was considered a success; Le Médecin malgré lui achieved that and was revived in Paris and elsewhere during the rest of the 19th century and into the 20th. In 1893 the British Musical Times praised its "irresistible gaiety". Huebner comments that the opera does not deserve
31635-420: Was published in The Gids . In 1894 Couperus joined the editorial board of De Gids ; other members were Geertrudus Cornelis Willem Byvanck (a writer), Jacob Nicolaas van Hall (writer and politician), Anton Gerard van Hamel (professor in the French language), Ambrosius Hubrecht and Pieter Cort van der Linden . In September 1893 Couperus and his wife left for Italy for the second time. In Florence they stayed in
31820-472: Was published in 1892 in The Gids , and Couperus asked publisher L.J. Veen to publish it as a novel, but refused the offer Veen made him. In 1891 an English translation of Noodlot , Footsteps of Fate (translation made by Clara Bell ) and in 1892 an English translation of Eline Vere were released. Meanwhile, L.J. Veen made Couperus a better offer, which he accepted, and Couperus received from Oscar Wilde his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray ; Wilde had read
32005-442: Was published in parts in De Gids (a Dutch literary magazine) in 1883 and 1884. In 1885 Couperus' debut in book form, Een lent van vaerzen (" A ribbon of poems ") was published (by publisher J.L. Beijers with a book cover designed by painter Ludwig Willem Reymert Wenckebach). In these days a person Couperus greatly admired for his sense of beauty and intelligence was writer Carel Vosmaer , whom he frequently met while walking in
32190-408: Was published within a year. Couperus finished his next novel, Noodlot ("Fate") in May 1890; this novel was then published in De Gids . It is possible that the leading character of Noodlot , Frank, was inspired by the character of Couperus' friend, Johan Hendrik Ram, a strong and healthy military person. Couperus now started reading Paul Bourget 's novel Un coeur de femme , which inspired him during
32375-460: Was rather controversial as it dealt with the subject of homosexuality. In 1906 Couperus and his wife left for Bagni di Lucca (Italy), where they stayed at Hotel Continental and were introduced to Eleonora Duse . In May 1907 Aan den weg der vreugde , a novella Couperus wrote while staying at Bagni di Lucca, was published in Groot Nederland ; he received another letter from L.J. Veen, saying that Couperus' books did not sell well, and so Couperus wrote
32560-423: Was received very coldly". In April 1851 Gounod married Anna Zimmerman, daughter of his former piano professor at the Conservatoire. The marriage led to a breach with Viardot; the Zimmermans refused to have anything to do with her, for reasons that are not clear. Gounod's biographer Steven Huebner refers to rumours about a liaison between the singer and composer, but adds that "the real story remains murky". Gounod
32745-444: Was regarded in many quarters more highly than his most popular operas. Saint-Saëns wrote, "When, in the far-distant future, the operas of Gounod shall have been received into the dusty sanctuary of the libraries, the Mass of St Cecilia, the Redemption , and Mors et Vita , will still endure". In the 20th century views changed considerably. In 1916, Gustave Chouquet and Adolphe Jullien wrote of "a monotony and heaviness which must weary
32930-472: Was reunited with a childhood friend, now a priest, Charles Gay, and for a time he himself felt drawn to holy orders. In 1847 he began to study theology and philosophy at the seminary of St Sulpice , but before long his secular side asserted itself. Doubting his capacity for celibacy, he decided not to seek ordination and continued with his career as a musician. He later recalled: The 1848 Revolution had just broken out when I left my job as musical director at
33115-427: Was seen by critics as a flat novel, intended for women. Apart from that Lodewijk van Deyssel wrote a review in which he asked Couperus to get lost ("De heer Couperus kan van mij ophoepelen"), and Couperus himself ended his editorship at De Gids (April 1895). In October 1895 Couperus and his wife travelled to Italy again, where they visited Venice ; they stayed at a hotel near the Piazza San Marco , and Couperus studied
33300-571: Was supposed to be published by Elsevier . When his uncle Guillaume Louis Baud died, Couperus went back to The Hague to attend the funeral. Here Couperus decided to marry his cousin Elisabeth Couperus-Baud. The marriage took place on 9 September 1891 in The Hague. On 21 September 1891, Couperus and his wife settled in a small villa at the Roeltjesweg (now Couperusweg) in Hilversum ; after Couperus finished his new book Extaze in October 1891 he wrote Uitzichten ("Views") and started with his new romantic and spiritual novella Epiloog ("Epilogue"). Extaze
33485-427: Was the dominant form of 17th century English poetry from John Donne to Andrew Marvell . The poems of this period were short. Rarely narrative, they tended towards intense expression. Other notable poets of the era include Ben Jonson , Robert Herrick , George Herbert , Aphra Behn , Thomas Carew , John Suckling , Richard Lovelace , John Milton , Richard Crashaw , and Henry Vaughan . A German lyric poet of
33670-502: Was to be published in De Gids . Meanwhile, Elisabeth Couperus-Baud translated Olive Schreiner 's Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland . That same year Couperus and his wife left for Dresden but also spend some time in Heidelberg . In August 1897 Couperus started with his new book Psyche and was appointed officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau . In January 1898, De Gids started publishing chapters of Psyche . In February 1898 Couperus travelled to Berlin, where he visited Else Otten ,
33855-439: Was twelve years old and his youngest brother, Frans, eleven. In The Hague he followed lessons at the boarding school of Mr. Wyers, where he first met his later friend Henri van Booven . On 6 November 1872 the Couperus family left home, travelled by train to Den Helder and embarked on the steamboat Prins Hendrik , which would bring them back to the Dutch East Indies. They arrived on 31 December 1872 in Batavia , where they spent
34040-415: Was well disposed to younger composers, even when he did not enjoy their works. Of the later generation he was most impressed by Camille Saint-Saëns , seventeen years his junior, whom he is said to have dubbed "the French Beethoven". Resuming operatic composition, Gounod finished Polyeucte , on which he had been working in London, and during 1876 composed Cinq-Mars , a four-act historical drama set in
34225-405: Was working as a resident at Tegal . Here Couperus started to write his new novel, Langs lijnen der geleidelijkheid ( Inevitable ). When Gerard Valette and his wife had to move to Pasuruan because of Valette's work, Couperus and his wife spend some time in Gabroe ( Blitar ), where Couperus observed a spirit; this experience he would later use in his novel The Hidden Force (1900). Many of
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