![Louise Bertin](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Louise_Bertin.jpg)
Louise-Angélique Bertin (15 January 1805 – 26 April 1877) was a French composer and poet.
[Hugh Macdonald, "Bertin, Louise", in: ''Grove Music Online']
Oxford Music Online
(subscription required) (accessed 30 December 2010).
Life and music
Louise Bertin was born in Les Roches,
Essonne
Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.[Louis-François Bertin
Louis-François Bertin, also known as Bertin l'Aîné (''Bertin the Elder''; 14 December 176613 September 1841), was a French journalist. He had a younger brother, Louis-François Bertin de Vaux; two sons, Edouard François and Louis-Marie F ...]
, and also later her brother, were the editors of ''
Journal des débats
The ''Journal des débats'' ( French for: Journal of Debates) was a French newspaper, published between 1789 and 1944 that changed title several times. Created shortly after the first meeting of the Estates-General of 1789, it was, after the ou ...
'', an influential newspaper. As encouraged by her family, Bertin pursued music. She received lessons from
François-Joseph Fétis
François-Joseph Fétis (; 25 March 1784 – 26 March 1871) was a Belgian musicologist, composer, teacher, and one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century. His enormous compilation of biographical data in the ''Biographie univer ...
, who directed a private family performance of ''Guy Mannering'', Bertin's first opera, in 1825. This opera, never formally produced, took its storyline from
the book of the same name by
Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy' ...
. Two years later, Bertin's second opera, ''Le Loup-garou'', was produced at the
Opéra-Comique.
At age 21, Bertin began working on the
opera semiseria Opera semiseria ('semi-serious opera') is an Italian genre of opera, popular in the early and middle 19th century.
Related to the opera buffa, opera semiseria contains elements of comedy but also of pathos, sometimes with a pastoral setting. It can ...
''Fausto'' to her own
libretto in Italian, based on
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...
's ''
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...
'', a subject "almost certainly suggested" by her father. A performance of the opera was scheduled for 1830, but due to many unforeseen complications, ''Fausto'' did not reach the stage until 1831. It was not well received and had only three performances.
Shortly before this, Bertin became friends with
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
. Hugo had sketched out an operatic version of his book ''Notre-Dame de Paris'' (''
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (french: Notre-Dame de Paris, translation=''Our Lady of Paris'', originally titled ''Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482'') is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. It focuses on the unfortunate story ...
'') and between the two of them, the opera ''
La Esmeralda'' was born, Hugo providing the libretto. Bertin was the only composer to collaborate directly with Hugo on an opera. But as the opera's run began in 1836, there were accusations against Bertin and her family, claiming she had special privileges due to her brother Armand's connection to the government's opera administration. During the seventh performance, a riot erupted, and ''La Esmeralda''
's run was forced to end, though a version of it continued to be performed over the next three years. The composer
Hector Berlioz, who helped Bertin with the staging and production of ''La Esmeralda'', was also accused of providing the better music of this work, a charge he vehemently denied.
[ Hector Berlioz, ''Memoirs'', chapter XLVII.] In frustration, Bertin refused to write any more operas. In 1837,
Franz Liszt transcribed the orchestral score for solo piano (S.476) and made a piano transcription of the "Air chanté par Massol" (S.477).
Bertin did continue to compose in many other genres. Her later compositions include twelve
cantatas, six piano
ballade
Ballad is a form of narrative poetry, often put to music, or a type of sentimental love song in modern popular music.
Ballad or Ballade may also refer to:
Music Genres and forms
* Ballade (classical music), a musical setting of a literary ballad ...
s, five chamber
symphonies, a few
string quartets, a piano trio (which includes themes from both ''Fausto'' and ''La Esmeralda''), and many vocal selections. Of these, only the ballades and the trio were published.
Poetry
Bertin also wrote and published two volumes of poetry, ''Les Glanes'' in 1842 and ''Nouvelles Glanes'' in 1876. ''Les Glanes'' received a prize from the
Académie française. Bertin died in Paris the year after the publication of ''Nouvelles Glanes''.
Recordings
* ''
La Esmeralda'', with
Maya Boog (soprano);
Manuel Núñez Camelino (tenor) as Phoebus;
Francesco Ellero d’Artegna (bass) as Claude Frollo; and
Frédéric Antoun
Frédéric and Frédérick are the French versions of the common male given name Frederick. They may refer to:
In artistry:
* Frédéric Back, Canadian award-winning animator
* Frédéric Bartholdi, French sculptor
* Frédéric Bazille, Impress ...
(tenor) as Quasimodo;
Orchestre national de Montpellier, conducted by
Lawrence Foster
Lawrence Foster (born October 23, 1941) is an American conductor of Romanian ancestry. He is currently the artistic director and chief conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the music director of the Marseille Opera and th ...
;
Festival de Radio France et Montpellier The Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier, formerly the Festival de Radio France et de Montpellier, is a summer festival of opera and music held in Montpellier, France created in 1985. The music festival concentrates on classical music and jaz ...
; label: Accord.
* ''
Fausto'', conducted by
Christophe Rousset
Christophe Rousset (; born 12 April 1961) is a French harpsichordist and conductor, who specializes in the performance of Baroque music on period instruments. He is also a musicologist, particularly of opera and European music of the 17th and 1 ...
2022
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bertin, Louise
1805 births
1877 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century French composers
19th-century French poets
19th-century French women writers
19th-century women writers
Women opera composers
French women classical composers
French opera composers
French Romantic composers
French women poets
19th-century women composers