Overview
The singer Emma Bardac (1862-1934) has often been presented as a woman who ensnared Claude Debussy (1862-1918) because she wanted to be associated with his fame and to live a life of luxury. Indeed, in many biographies and composer-related studies of Debussy, the only mentions that she receives are brief and derogatory. Here Emma Bardac and her relationship with the composer take centre stage. The book traces Emma's Jewish ancestry and her background, the significant role of her wealthy uncle Osiris, her marriage at seventeen to the wealthy Jewish banker Sigismond Bardac, her affair with Gabriel Faure and her liaison with and subsequent marriage to Debussy. As Gillian Opstad shows, the pressure and stifling effects of domestic life on Debussy's attitude to his composing were considerable. The financial consequences of their partnership were disastrous, and their circle of close friends was small. Emma suffered physically and mentally from the tensions of the marriage, particularly money worries, and the possibility that Debussy was attracted to her older daughter. She considered divorce but supported him through his deepest depression and during the First World War until he succumbed to cancer in 1918. After Debussy's death, Emma felt driven both on his behalf and for financial reasons to further performances of the composer's works and provoked the annoyance of other musicians by having early compositions resurrected, completed and performed. In this engagingly written biography, Gillian Opstad brings to light little-known facts about Emma's background and family, advances new insights into her relationship with Debussy, and provides a glimpse of an early twentieth-century Parisian milieu that experienced wide-spread antisemitism.
Full Product Details
Author: Gillian Opstad
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Imprint: The Boydell Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.60cm
, Height: 1.50cm
, Length: 23.40cm
Weight: 0.001kg
ISBN: 9781783276585
ISBN 10: 1783276584
Pages: 408
Publication Date: 01 March 2022
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
Gillian Opstad's tireless research has here produced a genuine addition to Debussy studies, based on the substantial correspondence between the couple . . . plus copious contemporary documentation. Four stars. -- Malcolm Hayes * BBC Music Magazine * Her examination of Debussy's friendship with Gabriele d'Annunzio and the history of Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien is more thorough than in any biography of either man that I know. . . . Above all, this is a moving and exacting study of a woman who ultimately stood by [Debussy] for the last 16 years of his life, and as such adds immeasurably to our understanding of them both. -- Tim Ashley * Gramophone *
Gillian Opstad's tireless research has here produced a genuine addition to Debussy studies, based on the substantial correspondence between the couple . . . plus copious contemporary documentation. Four stars. -- Malcolm Hayes * BBC Music Magazine * Her examination of Debussy's friendship with Gabriele d'Annunzio and the history of Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien is more thorough than in any biography of either man that I know. . . . Above all, this is a moving and exacting study of a woman who ultimately stood by [Debussy] for the last 16 years of his life, and as such adds immeasurably to our understanding of them both. -- Tim Ashley * Gramophone * Opstad presents an in-depth account of the relationship between the French composer and his second wife, Emma Bardac. . . . Opstad humanizes Bardac (a professional singer) as a woman committed to her musician husband despite the difficulties that pervaded their ten-year marriage. . . . Meticulous, comprehensive, and well researched, this volume paints a vivid picture of a woman who had previously been a mere footnote in the history of her famous husband. Highly recommended. -- J. J. Leary-Warsaw * CHOICE *
Gillian Opstad's tireless research has here produced a genuine addition to Debussy studies, based on the substantial correspondence between the couple . . . plus copious contemporary documentation. Four stars. -- Malcolm Hayes * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE * Her examination of Debussy's friendship with Gabriele d'Annunzio and the history of Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien is more thorough than in any biography of either man that I know. . . . Above all, this is a moving and exacting study of a woman who ultimately stood by [Debussy] for the last 16 years of his life, and as such adds immeasurably to our understanding of them both. -- Tim Ashley * GRAMOPHONE * Opstad presents an in-depth account of the relationship between the French composer and his second wife, Emma Bardac. . . . Opstad humanizes Bardac (a professional singer) as a woman committed to her musician husband despite the difficulties that pervaded their ten-year marriage. . . . Meticulous, comprehensive, and well researched, this volume paints a vivid picture of a woman who had previously been a mere footnote in the history of her famous husband. Highly recommended. -- J. J. Leary-Warsaw * CHOICE * Opstad's book is a welcome addition to the literature on Debussy and his family life. Not only does it illuminate many significant details about Emma's background and early experiences, but it also traces the subsequent lives of her surviving children Raoul and Dolly and their families. -- Marie Rolfe * H-FRANCE REVIEW *
Author Information
GIILLIAN OPSTAD read Modern Languages at Somerville College, Oxford after which she taught for a number of years in Buckinghamshire and Bristol. She specialises in French music and is the author of Debussy's Mélisande, published by the Boydell Press in 2009.
