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Dancing the Kolomyika at the Opéra-Comique: Léo Delibes's Galician Opera Kassya
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2015
Extract
In the spring 1893, the following statement appeared in a theater review in one of the Parisian dailies: “Mais, dans ce diable de pays de Galicie, on n'est jamais tranquille et il faut toujours craindre pour le lendemain [But, in this hell of a land Galicia, it's never quiet, and one must always fear for tomorrow].” These words were written in response to the first, and perhaps the only, opera produced in Western Europe about the Austrian province of Galicia. The work's plot centered on a love triangle between a count, a gypsy girl, and a peasant, and was set against the historical backdrop of the Galician peasant uprising of 1846. The opera in question, Kassya, was the swan song of French composer Léo Delibes, written after a trip he took to Hungary and Austrian Galicia. The critic who penned the above words, Georges Street, certainly knew something about intrigue and conspiracy within the Austrian Empire. He was the grandson of Metternich's master spy, Georg Klindworth, and the son of Agnes Street-Klindworth, who gathered intelligence for her father about refugees of the 1848 upheavals living in Weimar. Delibes's opera and Street's biography interconnect only circumstantially—the former composed the music to Kassya; the latter attended a performance and wrote a review—yet this coincidence suggests an interesting avenue for investigation regarding French contacts with East Central Europe.
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References
1 Georges Street, Review of Kassya, Le Matin, 25 Mar. 1893.
2 The only other contemporary opera of which I am aware was written by the Czech composer Mořic Anger (1844–1905). Entitled Záletníci, this comic opera was based on Leopold Sacher-Masoch's Die Wächter der Moral. It was staged for the first time on 21 January 1880 at the German theater in Pest, after having been rejected by the Viennese censor. Subsequently, Anger's work was performed in Prague in 1882. The same criticism befell Záletníci as Delibes's work, that the libretto was too long, the music unoriginal, and the staging flawed.
3 In the guise of a piano student, Agnes ingratiated herself into Franz Liszt's circle and became the composer's lover. It was long rumored that Georges Street was Liszt's natural son, and Street did nothing to prevent such gossip from spreading. Georges was born in Hamburg on 21 January 1854 and christened Ernst August Georg. He moved with his mother and grandfather to Paris in 1868. There, he developed his musical talents as a violinist and composer of operettas. His best-known work was the score composed with André Messager for the ballet Scaramouche. Street also contributed music reviews to the newspapers L'Éclair and Le Matin. He died in Vienna, in 1908, aged 54. For more about the Street-Klindworth family, see: “Liszt and Agnes Street-Klindworth: A Spy in the Court of Weimar?,” Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae [Studies in Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences] 28.1/4 (1986): 47–63.Google Scholar
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5 For example, see: Chodzko, Léonard, Les Massacres de Galicie et Krakovie confisquée par l'Autriche en 1846 [The Massacres of Galicia and Kraków Annexed by Austria in 1846] (E. Dentu, 1861)Google Scholar; La Vérité sur les événements de Galicie [The Truth about the Events in Galicia] (Paris, 1847)Google Scholar; Delamarre, Casimir, Un peuple européen de quinze millions oublié devant l'histoire [A European People of Fifteen Million Forgotten by History] (Paris, 1869)Google Scholar; de Laveleye, Émile, “La Question polonaise et la question ruthène en Galicie [The Polish and Ruthenian Question in Galicia],” Revue des deux mondes [Review of the Two Worlds] 83 (1869): 831–67Google Scholar; and Reclus, Elisée, Nouvelle géographie universelle: La Terre et les hommes [The Universal Geography: The Earth and Its Inhabitants], vol. 5, L'Europe scandinave et russe [The Scandinavian Countries and European Russia] (Paris, 1880).Google Scholar
6 The Ukrainians of Galicia in the nineteenth century referred to themselves as Rusyny, which in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was rendered as Ruthenen (English: Ruthenian). Therefore, I use the term “Ruthenian” rather than “Ukrainian,” except when making reference to a conscious Ukrainian orientation in Galicia or when referring to the people of the same national and linguistic group living in Eastern and Central Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire.
7 The delegation of thirty-seven (three invitees, Alfred Daubrée, Gustave Ollendorff, and Alphonse Pagès were unable to participate) included: diplomat and developer of the Suez Canal, Ferdinand de Lesseps; writers François Coppée, Abraham Dreyfus, and Louis Ratisbonne; musicians Léo Delibes and Jules Massenet; painters Georges Clairin, Nicolas-Félix Escalier, Tony Robert-Fleury, Henri-Charles Guérard, and Félicien Rops; physicians Samuel-Jean Pozzi and Albert Robin; Colonel Philippe Lichtenstein and General István Türr; Armand Gouzien, inspector of Fine Arts; Charles Ebeling, secretary of the International Literary Association; lawyers Maurice Bernard and Albert Lebrasseur; engineer Duplan with his brother, Jean-François, head of the French Council of Public Education; the industrialist Arbey; chemist Eugène Weissmann; editors and publishers Emile Lévy and Eugène Yung (Revue politique et littéraire [Political and Literary Review]); and journalists Adolphe Badin (secretary, Nouvelle revue), Gaston Bérardi (editor, Indépendance belge), Émile Blavet (Figaro), Georges Blavet (Matin), Jules Lermina (Mot d'ordre), Alfred de Lostalot (Gazette des Beaux-Arts), Joseph Montet (Paix), Noirefontaine (Soleil), Mario Proth (Rappel), Étienne Tréfeu (Gaulois), Parizelle (Événement), and Louis Ulbach (Gil Blas).
8 The text of the invitation was printed in Le Ménestrel, 19 July 1885.
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12 Ibid.
13 Parisis, Le Figaro, 12 Aug. 1885.
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15 Ulbach, 42.
16 Abraham Dreyfus, “Chez nos amis les Hongrois [Visiting our Hungarian Friends].” La Revue politique et littéraire [Political and Literary Review], 22 année, 3ème série, no. 9 (29 Aug. 1885): 283–85, at 284.
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29 For references to Delibes's travels through Galicia, see: Czas (13 Aug. 1885); Echo muzyczne, teatralne i artystyczne [Echo of Music, Theater and Art] no. 152 (16 (28) Aug. 1886): 350; no. 352 (16 (28) June 1890): 314; and no. 497 (8 Apr. (27 Mar.) 1893): 163; Dziennik polski [Polish Daily] no. 201 (3 Sept. 1885), and no. 202 (4 Sept. 1885); Kurjer Lwowski [Lwow Herald] (3 Sept. 1885); Gazeta Lwowska [Lwow Gazette] (4 Sept. 1885); Gazeta narodowa [National Gazette] (4 Sept. 1885); Nowa reforma [The New Reform] (6 Sept. 1885); Tygodnik ilustrowany [Illustrated Weekly] 6, no. 141 (12 Sept. 1885): 175; and 6, no. 144 (3 Oct. 1885): 223.
30 Quoted in Pekacz, Jolanta T., Music in the Culture of Polish Galicia, 1772–1914 (Rochester, 2002)Google Scholar, 111.
31 The Ziembicki residence was located at the intersection of ul. Jagiellońska (today, Hnatiuk Street) and ul. 3 maja (today Sichovi Striltsi Street).
32 Cited in Curtiss, Mina, “Bizet, Offenbach, and Rossini,” The Musical Quarterly 40. 3 (July 1954): 350–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 353.
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34 Described in Jasiński, Roman, Na przełomie epok: muzyka w Warszawie, 1910–1927 [At the Turn of an Era: Music in Warsaw, 1910–1927] (Warsaw, 1979), 396.Google Scholar
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37 Echo muzyczne, teatralne i artystyczne [Echo of Music, Theater and Art], no. 289 (1 (13) Apr. 1889): 172.
38 Le Ménestrel no. 41 (13 Sept. 1885): 327; and Echo muzyczne, teatralne i artystyczne [Echo of Music, Theater and Art], no. 152 (16 (28) Aug. 1886): 350.
39 For further biographies of Léo Delibes, and a survey of his music, see: Jullien, Adolphe, “Léo Delibes (1836–1891),” Musiciens d'aujourd'hui, 2ème sér . [Today's Musicians] (Paris, 1894): 261–89Google Scholar; de Curzon, Henri, Léo Delibes: sa vie et ses oeuvres (1836–1892) [Léo Delibes: His Life and Music, 1836–1892] (Paris, 1926)Google Scholar; Coquis, André, Léo Delibes: sa vie et son oeuvre (1836–1891) [Léo Delibes: His Life and Music (1836–1891)] (Paris, 1957)Google Scholar; Margie Viola Boston, “An Essay on the Life and Works of Leo Delibes,” (PhD diss., University of Iowa, 1981); and Studwell, William E., Adolphe Adam and Léo Delibes: A Guide to Research (New York, 1987).Google Scholar
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41 Consider, for example, Molière's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, for which Jean-Baptiste Lully composed the music.
42 Trans. by des Essarts, Alfred as Mélodies de Moniuszko in Échos de Pologne (Paris, 1862 or 1863).Google Scholar
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45 Moniuszko, in fact, was the source of Delibes's music for the dances in the first act of his Coppélia. The “Thème slave varié” is taken entirely from a song by Moniuszko, a krakowiak entitled “Poleć, pieśni, z miasta.” Delibes mistakenly thought it was a popular folk song and transcribed it rote from his choreographer Arthur Saint-Léon. His mistake was only brought to his attention when the publisher of Moniuszko songs recognized the melody while attending a performance of Coppélia. Delibes later provided appropriate attribution to the piano reduction of his score. See: François-Joseph Fétis and Pougin, Arthur, “Moniuszko,” Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique [Universal Biography of Musicians and General Bibliography of Music], vol.2 (Paris, 1881)Google Scholar, 232.
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48 Henri de Curzon, “Léo Delibes: À propos du centenaire de sa naissance (21 février 1836) [Léo Delibes: On the Centenary of his Birth],” Le Ménestrel (21 Feb. 1936): 57.
49 Henri Moreno, Review of Kassya, Le Ménestrel (26 Mar. 1893).
50 Henri Heugel, “Léo Delibes,” Le Ménestrel (18 Jan. 1891).
51 From letters described briefly in the entry on Ernest Guiraud in the auction catalog Archives et souvenirs de la famille Heugel éditeurs de musique [Archives and Souvenirs from the Heugel Family, Publishers of Music] (Paris, 2011)Google Scholar, 26. To whom or what institution these and other letters were sold is presently unknown.
52 The French translation of Galizische Geschichten was published as Le legs de Caïn: contes galiciens [Legacy of Cain: Galician Tales] (Paris, 1874)Google Scholar. The story “Frinko Balaban,” however, first appeared two years earlier in Revue des deux mondes (1 Oct.–15 Nov. 1872).
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58 Louis Gallet, La Nouvelle revue (Mar.–Apr. 1893): 650.
59 From letters described in the entry on Philippe Gille in the auction catalog Archives et souvenirs de la famille Heugel éditeurs de musique [Archives and Souvenirs from the Heugel Family, Publishers of Music], 23.
60 Frimousse [Raoul Toche], Le Gaulois (25 Mar. 1893).
61 Raymond Bouyer, L'Artiste, année 65, nouvelle pér. t.5 (1893): 310.
62 Kurjer Lwowski [Lwow Herald] (6 Apr. 1893); and Echo muzyczne, teatralne i artystyczne [Echo of Music, Theater and Art], no. 39 (14 (26) Sep. 1896): 462.
63 Fourcaud. Le Gaulois (25 Mar. 1893).
64 Interview with Petr Jurgenson, Peterburgskaia gazeta [Petersburg Gazette] (27 Oct. 1893). Tchaikovsky was fond of Delibes and was very familiar with his music, particularly of the ballets Sylvia and Coppélia. The latter influenced his The Nutcracker (1890–1891). The two composers met in Paris in March 1888 while Tchaikovsky was on a concert tour through Western Europe, at which time there may have been an opportunity for Delibes to converse about his work on Kassya.
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74 An article in Le Temps (30 May 1888) reacting to official Austrian and Hungarian opposition to a group of Hungarian industrialists and businessmen who tried to organize a pavilion for the World's Fair to be held in Paris in 1889, on the one-hundred-year anniversary of the French Revolution.
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77 Le Ménestrel (8 Feb. 1913).