Fromental Halévy (1799-1862)

TRANSCRIPTION

Nice, 5 rue de la france, jeudi 20 janvier

Mon cher président et ami,

Je vous remercie de la bonne grâce avec laquelle vous vous êtes empressé de répondre à ma lettre et de m’apprendre le bon accueil que l’Académie a bien voulu lui accorder. Veuillez assurer de nouveau nos chers et honorables confrères de tous mes sentiments d’affection et de profond dévouement.

J’ai été heureux d’apprendre qu’en juin après avoir reçu votre lettre par une lettre de mon frère que notre ami Alain était entièrement remis. Faites-lui bien s’il vous plaît mes meilleures amitiés. J’ai su aussi par mon frère que vous aviez bien voulu en échange de son livre, lui donner un très beau dessin dont il est plein de joie et de reconnaissance. Je regrette bien d’apprendre que notre pauvre Cavitio soit toujours dans le même état.

Veuillez aussi présenter tous mes remerciements à notre confrère Gatteaux qui veut bien faire mes fonctions. Je ne lui écris pas aujourd’hui, je compte le faire ces jours-ci pour le remercier d’abord et causer un peu avec lui de notre dictionnaire et de m’informer comme il convient à un pauvre exilé de nos petites affaires, de l’impression et c’est pure curiosité, il me le pardonnera.

Veuillez donc aussi me faire savoir quand vous aurez un moment, ce que l’Académie a fait pour les correspondants. Qui a t’elle nommé aux places de Chelan et de Lacour? Je n’ai rien vu dans les journaux qui soit relatif à ces nominations.

Au revoir mon cher ami. Je suis heureux d’apprendre que vous avez présidé avec tant d’entrain au dernier banquet de l’Académie et qu’il se soit passé avec tant de joyeuse cordialité. Que vous êtes heureux de vous asseoir à cette table fraternelle de mondaines agapes! Et qu’il me tarde d’y répondre à sa place. Que la flotte et champagne je demande la permission de faire couler!

Allons, mon bon président, il faut cesser ce trop long bavardage. Mille bons souvenirs à tous, mille vieilles amitiés pour vous.

F. Halévy

Merci encore de votre bonne lettre et de tous les sentiments d’amitié que vous voulez bien me témoigner.

TRANSLATION

Nice, 5 rue de la France, Thursday, January 20 [1862]¹

 Dear President and Friend:²

 I thank you for the good grace with which you made haste to answer my letter and inform me of the graceful receipt the Academy³ has given it. Please reassure our good and honorable peers of all my affection and profound commitment.

 I was happy to learn that in June after receiving your letter through a letter from my brother⁴ that our friend Alain⁵ had completely recovered. Please give him my best regards. I also learnt through my brother that in exchange for his book⁶, you gave him a nice picture, for which he is full of happiness and recognition. I am sorry to hear that our poor Cavitio⁷ is still in the same state.

 Also present my thanks to our fellow member Gatteaux⁸ who is currently doing my functions⁹. I will not write him today, but I intend to do so these days to first thank him and then discuss of our dictionary¹⁰ and to inform myself, as it is suitable for a poor outcast, of our business, printing and he will forgive me.

 Pray, also tell me, when you get a chance of it, what the Academy did for the correspondents. Whom has it named in the place of Chelan¹¹ and Lacour¹²? I did not see anything in the papers regarding the nominations.

 Farewell my dear friend. I am happy to hear that you presided with such enthusiasm the last Academy banquet and that everything was done with such a grace and cordiality. How lucky you are to sit at such a brotherly table of society feast. May wine and champagne flow with your permission! Now, my dear President, this too long chat has to come to an end. Thousands of good souvenirs to all, thousands of old friendship to you.

 F. Halévy

 Thanks again for your good letter and all the friendship marks you bestow upon me.

NOTES:

1. The year of this letter was 1862. He had just moved to Nice from Paris for his health.

2. President and friend (?)

3.The Academy of Fine Arts replaced, in 1795, the Academy of Painting and Sculpture founded by Louis XIV in 1648, and the Academy of Architecture founded in 1675. It was reorganized 23 January, 1803, and again 21 March, 1816. It is now composed of forty members: fourteen painters, eight sculptors, eight architects, four engravers, and six musical composers. There are, besides, ten honorary members, forty corresponding members, and ten honorary corresponding members. From among the members are chosen the Directors of the "Ecole des Beaux Arts", and of the Villa Medici, the Art Academy of France at Rome, founded by Colbert in 1666, for young painters, sculptors, architects, and musicians who, having been chosen by competition, are sent to Italy for four years to complete their studies at the expense of the Government.

4. Leon Halevy (1802—1883), Fromental's brother, was a clever and versatile writer, who tried almost every branch of literature—prose and verse, vaudeville, drama, history—without, however, achieving decisive success in any.

5.Alain (?)

6. Book (?)

7. Cavitio (?)

8. Jacques-Edouard Gatteaux (1788-1881) was a member of the Académie des Beaux Arts. When he died his seat was filled by Jules Clement Chaplain (1839-1909) a  winner of the Prix de Rome in 1863. Chaplain returned to Paris in 1869 where he found official success almost immediately, winning notice in the Salons of 1870 and 1872. In rapid succession, Chaplain was named in 1877 the official medalist of the French government and in 1878 a chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

9. Functions

10. Dictionary (?)

11. Chelan (?)

12. Lacour (?)

ABOUT THE COMPOSER

    Jacques Fromental Halévy was born in Paris on May 27, 1799 to Jewish parents; a German father and a French mother. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1810 and became a pupil and, eventually, a protegé of Cherubini. He won the coveted Prix de Rome in 1819. His first opera to be performed, though unsuccessful, was L'artisan, at the Opéra Comique in 1827. For many years Halevy was chef de chant at the Théatre Italien at the Opéra. While working at the Théatre Italien, he met Maria Malibran, for whom he wrote the first of his two Italian works, Clari, which premiered in 1828. It was a moderate success as was La dilettante d'Avignon which premiered a year later. Halévy finally achieved solid recognition in 1833 with Ludovic. Those successes notwithstanding, he attained his first major, international triumph with La juive in 1835. La juive instantly became a cornerstone of French opera repertory.
    In the same year as La juive, Halévy produced L'éclair, a very different opera for La juive. Despite its difference, it was a tremendous success in Paris. The double success of his operas made Halevy a celebrity in Parisian circles. The rate at which Halevy wrote operas was not lost on the public and certainly not on his contemporaries. Guido et Ginevra (1838) and Le guitarrero (1841) were mediocre, while reception of La reine de Chypre in 1841 was enormousl
    After Halévy's Charles VI in 1846, came some lighter works: Les Mousquetaires de la reine (1846) and Le val d'Andorre (1848). His second Italian opera (the first was Clari) was La tempesta (1850) derived from William Shakespeare's play The Tempesta. Halévy's last important works were Le Juif errant (1852), La magicienne (1858), and Jaguerita l'Indienne.
    Halévy, having written nearly 40 opera, was one of the most successful French opera composers of the mid-nineteenth century. He was rivaled during his lifetime only by Giacomo Meyerbeer, Daniel Auber , Ambroise Thomas, and Charles Gounod. Halévy retired to Nice for health reasons and died there on March 17, 1862.

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