Charles-Marie WIDOR (1844-1937). Signed autograph... - Lot 70 - Ader

Charles-Marie WIDOR (1844-1937). Signed autograph manuscript, Le Cinquantenaire de l'Opéra, [1924]; 6 pages in fol. with erasures and corrections (typograph marks). On the fiftieth anniversary of the Opéra Garnier. Article published in Lectures pour Tous of January 1, 1925. Widor first mentions the inauguration ceremony of Charles Garnier's monument on January 5, 1875, listing the personalities, starting with the Marshal of Mac Mahon, President of the Republic... "It is to the masterpiece of the director of the Conservatoire, Ambroise Thomas, that the honour of the evening was reserved. Hamlet was on the poster, but it had to be changed at the last moment because of Ophelia's sudden hoarseness - Ophelia was the famous Swedish singer with the crystal voice, Christine Nilsson, who created the role. And we had to improvise a cut show". He gives a list of the pieces given... Then he tells of his visit to the Opera the day before with Garnier and the organ builder Cavaillé-Coll, to check the acoustics... Finally he goes back over the history of this opera house built thanks to an imperial decree of 27 September 1860, and the necessary work carried out by Haussmann to clear the site. As for the style, to the reproaches of Empress Eugenie: "It is not a style, it is not Greek, nor Louis XV, nor Louis XVI", Garnier replied: "these styles have had their day. It's Napoleon III and you're complaining! "»... Garnier died in 1898, but we will celebrate "the fiftieth anniversary of his work which, despite the most tragic events, the fall of the Empire, the Siege, the Commune, was completed in fifteen years" ... Widor ends by explaining that the Library has been installed on the site of the Emperor's salon, in the left rotunda. "One shudders to think that if a fire broke out in the house, it would be impossible to save anything from the twelve hundred boxes that represent the entire history of our lyric theatre since 1712. Recently, at the Institute, I explained the need to watch over our scattered riches in the Bibliothèque Nationale, the Mazarine, Ste Geneviève, the Arsenal, the Opera, the Conservatoire, and I called for the creation of a Society of Music Bibliophiles of France to create a single catalogue of these scattered riches. We are counting on the support of the public authorities for the prompt realization of this project in the interest of our art and our country ".