ALS: “Just what happened? Just what is this mystery? I have never seen anything in the world like this, anything more curious than this mix up!!!”

Do me the goodness of shedding light on this. My mind is intrigued.

All good wishes to you and with a thousand regrets for having missed your visit, by a door’s width…”

Charles Gounod

Gounod’s early love of sacred music inspired him to pursue a religious vocation, but soon after entering a Carmelite monastery in 1847, Gounod abandoned his studies, turning away from ecclesiastical music to seek fame and fortune as an opera composer. He completed his first opera, Sapho, in 1850 and, nine years later, the composer secured a place in the history of French music with his popular opera based on Goethe’s Faust. Faust’s unparalleled success was mitigated by an unpopular extramarital affair with amateur singer Georgina Weldon, begun in 1871. Gounod had married Anna Zimmerman (1829-1907) in 1851, the daughter of one of his professors at the Conservatoire, with whom he had two children. But their domestic life was disturbed by Gounod’s relationship with Weldon and, from 1871-May 1874, Gounod lived with Weldon and her husband at London’s Tavistock House (which was Dickens’ home from 1851-1860). The ensuing scandal eventually drove Gounod back to France and created a professional rift between Gounod and Weldon. Though he continued to write operas, oratorios and masses, none of Gounod’s later compositions rivaled Faust’s popularity.

Our letter recounts a mix-up suitable for a scene in an opéra comique. Folded with some light creasing and wear. Lightly dust stained, but in overall fine condition.