The woman who loved Fauré and Debussy
Daily Comfort ZoneThis 1990 film about Emma Bardac, lover of two composers, has just gone online.
It features the Labeque sisters and is rather unconventional.
It’s a co-production between Sony Classical GmbH, the NHK, and German broadcaster ZDF who allow the use of then-innovative HDTV hardware.
Unwatchable sentimental kitsch, not to be taken seriously. Promotion movie for the sisters.
Emma Bardac was an unusual woman, not only because of her taste for composers and musical talent (she was a gifted hobby singer), but also for her courage to try her luck with Debussy, while both were married and Debussy had a reputation of ‘being dangerous for women’. Debussy, who was a born bohemien and an utterly unconventional character, suddenly found himself with a partner who came from a rich milieu (she was married to a banker) and who was used to all the trappings of the haute bourgeoisie. He felt forced to create a home that offered some luxury, where he lived as a family man with their young daughter Chouchou and Emma’s daughter from the banker, Dolly. But that meant to also have a housekeeper, a nanny, a cook, expensive dogs (which had to be walked), and all the responsibilities that are inescapable in a big house in a posh Parisian quarter. He began to wear bowler hats, something unimaginable to his old friends who had broken-off contact with him after his first wife attempted suicide on hearing he was about to leave her. Getting famous and notorious made him even more introvert than he was by nature. But the expensive living style created his undoing, forcing him to accept commissions he did not like, and accepting invitations to conduct his own music, sending him abroad which he hated, and exposing his lack of conducting skills to top orchestras. He got depressed, considered breaking with Emma, but refrained. He suffered from the continuous guarrelling over domestic problems and money shortages, got ill and died much too young at 55 in 1918. It is reasonable to assume that Emma was partly responsible for the negative turn Debussy’s life had taken with their relationship.
Debissy died of cancer. It is pure speculation that his life could be shortened this way.
Read François Lesure’s extensive biography and you can add-up all the circumstantial evidence.
Debussy’s sometimes fraught relationship with Emma may indeed have caused him consternation. But you mention daughter Chouchou only in passing. Far from being a burden–from everything I’ve ever read–his daughter remained to the very end the bright sun in his life. ‘So sad that Chouchou survived her beloved father but only about a year; she tragically died of diphtheria at the tender age of (I believe) thirteen.
Yes, his daughter was the light of his life. But she could not solve his problems.
Of course. But a child’s love can bring clarity and provide a reason to fight on. That he survived for nearly nine with cancer–during a time when effective treatments simply didn’t exist–attests to that much. Why would this man, self absorbed and prone to deep depression, not simply give up? To me at least, the answer seems quite clear. It had to be the strength of his love.
Shirley, she had high standards. The 3rd line C clefers just didn’t measure up.
After a slow, contemplative start, the story develops nicely. Interesting perspective, very artsy.
The lady on the picture with Debussy illustrating the article is NOT Emma Bardac. It is Rosalie Texier (Lily), his first wife.