Massimilla Doni
Image from Massimilla Doni
|
|
| Author | Honoré de Balzac |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | W. Boucher |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Series | La Comédie humaine |
| Publisher | Hippolyte Souverain |
|
Publication date
|
1837 |
| Preceded by | La Recherche de l'absolu |
| Followed by | Gambara |
Massimilla Doni is a short story by Honoré de Balzac.
Its first chapter was published in 1837 in the Études philosophiques of la Comédie humaine alongside Gambara, les Proscrits and Séraphîta. Its second chapter was published in 1839 in the review la France musicale, under the title Une représentation du 'Mosè in Egitto' by Rossini in Venice, with a preamble underlining the role Stendhal had played in making Rossini known in France.
George Sand, with whom Balzac had shared his enthusiasm for Mosè in Egitto, advised the writer to put his story on paper. Balzac also wrote to Maurice Schlesinger, who had commissioned a novel from him for the Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, to ask him for a little extra time to pursue two ideas - one on Robert le Diable by Giacomo Meyerbeer, and the other on Mosè in Egitto and The Barber of Seville by Rossini. The first of these ideas gave rise to Gambara and the second to Massimilla Doni.
Massimilla Doni is a true love song to Rossini's music, to the city of Venice, to the Italian art of living, to Italian aristocrats' elegant simplicity in going to the opera not to see and be seen but to listen and be moved by music. In each box of the la Fenice opera house, the great ladies receive people without ceremony, express their sentiments spontaneously and shed tears of emotion, with male music-lovers going to the caffè Florian after the show to recount every moment of spectacle, each musical phrase, each note, staying all night if necessary. A Frenchman happens to find himself in the box of Massimilla Doni, duchess of Caetano, and is received by her without pretension and with all friendliness, receiving a true education in lyric opera.
...
Wikipedia