#fausto

Hey tumblr Hector Berlioz and Victor Hugo fans, do you know about Louise Bertin, a composer and poet whose work was admired by Berlioz and who was close friends with Hugo? She came from an influential family, who owned an influential newspaper. She was disabled by polio, which freed her up to have an artistic career instead of being expected to marry. Hugo asked her to compose the music for the opera La Esmeralda based on Hunchback of Notre Dame -- which sadly flopped due to the Bertin family's political enemies hissing the perfomance and spreading rumors that the music was actually by Berlioz. I've started listening to her earlier opera Fausto, which is full of bangers. Here's the overture!