Francis Poulenc in Paris - May, 1927
from Selected correspondence 1915-1963 / Francis Poulenc, page 83:
I could not find anything to say to you last night to express my enthusiasm. I feel it will be the same tonight. Yet I desperately want you to know into what state of superior emotion I was plunged last night. Your art has reached such a height that it would need the language of Sophocles himself to describe it. Heavens, how beautiful it is! Allow me to embrace you. Which is a rare honour for me.
Francis Poulenc, and Sidney Buckland (ed.), Selected correspondence 1915-1963 / Francis Poulenc (:London, 1991), p. 83. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1482321261495 accessed: 7 October, 2024
Listeners
Listening to
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Oedipus Rex
written by Igor Stravinksy |
performed by Igor Stravinksy |
Experience Information
| Date/Time | May, 1927 |
| Medium | live |
| Listening Environment | in the company of others, indoors, in public |
Notes
Letter from Francis Poulenc to Igor Stravinsky, [30 May 1927]. Stravinsky's oratorio Oedipus Rex had its première on 30 May 1927 at the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt in Paris, with Stravinsky conducting. The libretto, based on the tragedy of Sophocles, was a Latin translation of a text by Cocteau.