Lili Boulanger, La Princesse Maleine Composer, Was Born Aug. 21, 1893

Summary: Lili Boulanger, La Princesse Maleine composer, was born Aug. 21, 1893, and passed away March 15, 1918, before completing her only opera.

Lili Boulanger (right) and her older sister, Nadia Boulanger; July 18, 1913; Recueil – Actualités 1913-02-13 to 1913-12-14 Agence Meurisse MEU 34401-46329: Agence Meurisse, Public Domain, via Gallica -- The BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

Lili Boulanger, La Princess Maleine composer, was born Aug. 21, 1893, and, succumbing to intestinal tuberculosis March 15, 1918, left her only opera unfinished.

Marie-Juliette Olga Boulanger, known as Lili, was born into a musical family. Her paternal grandfather, French cellist Frédéric Boulanger (June 1777-?), taught voice at the Paris Conservatory. Her maternal grandmother, French mezzo-soprano Marie-Julienne Halligner Boulanger (Jan. 29, 1786-July 23, 1850), made her operatic debut in 1811 in Paris in Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique’s staging of Le Tableau Parlant by Liégeois, later French, composer André Ernest Modeste Grétry (bapt. Feb. 11, 1741-Sept. 24, 1813). Her father, French composer and Paris Conservatory voice teacher Ernest Henri Alexandre Boulanger (Sept. 16, 1815-April 14, 1900), taught voice at the Paris Conservatory beginning in 1871. He had won the prestigious Grand Prix de Rome in the musical composition category for his cantata, “Achille,” in 1835.

Lili’s mother was Russian-born French singer Rosalie Ivanovna Myshchetskaya (Розалия Ивановна Мыщецкая) (Dec. 8/20, 1854?-March 19, 1935). Known as Raïssa after immigrating to France in 1876, she enrolled in Ernest Boulanger’s voice class at the Paris Conservatory in October 1876 and married her teacher in 1877.

Lili and her older sister, Juliette Nadia (Sept. 16, 1887-Oct. 22, 1979), were the only two of Ernest and Raïssa’s four daughters to survive infancy. Composer, conductor and teacher Nadia Boulanger won the Second Grand Prix in 1908 for her cantata, “La Sirène.” Nadia began teaching at Conservatoire américain de Fontainebleau in 1921 and served as the conservatory’s director from 1948 until her death. Beginning in 1946, she also taught piano accompaniment at the Paris Conservatory.

Fragile health characterized Lili Boulanger’s short life. Bronchial pneumonia that she contracted in 1895 had the lifelong effect of compromising her immune system. Bouts of chronic illness interrupted her creativity.

In 1913, Lili Boulanger became the first female winner of the Grand Prix de Rome in the musical composition category. The prestigious prize was awarded jointly to Lili Boulanger and French composer pianist Claude Étienne Edmond Delvincourt (Jan. 12, 1888-April 5, 1954) for Faust et Hélène. The cantata’s text was written by French librettist and playwright Eugène Félix Adénis-Colombeau (March 23, 1854-1923). Adénis based his text on Faust II, Part Two, by German statesman and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Aug. 28, 1749-March 22, 1832).

In 1916, during her Grand Prix de Rome residency, Lili began work on her first, and only, opera. She based La Princesse Maleine on the same-named play in French by Belgian playwright Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (Aug. 29, 1862-May 6, 1949). Maeterlinck’s five act play first appeared in serial form in La Société Nouvelle. Acts I and II appeared in the July 31, 1889, volume. Acts III through V were published in the Jan. 31, 1890, volume. La Princesse Maleine was Maeterlinck’s first play.

Lili Boulanger hoped to finish La Princesse Maleine in 1918. Annegret Fauser, cultural musicologist and Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC Chapel Hill), notes that Lili almost did complete her setting, which Fauser references as Lili’s “lost work.” The unfinished opera survives only in fragments.

Lili dictated her last completed work, Pie Jesu, to her sister, Nadia, from her deathbed in 1918. She scored Pie Jesu for voice, string quartet, harp and organ (pour chant, quatuor à cordes, harpe et orgue).

Although her unfinished opera has never been performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Lili Boulanger’s “Cortège,” completed in 1914, has been performed twice at the opera house. Met Opera’s first performance of the chamber music for violin or flute and piano occurred April 13, 1924, as part of the Twenty-Third Sunday Night Concert. The second performance took place Dec. 23, 1928, in the Eighth Sunday Night Concert.

The takeaway for Lili Boulanger, composer of La Princesse Maleine, who was born Aug. 21, 1893, is that, although the Metropolitan Opera may never perform French composer’s only opera, unfinished and now considered as a lost work, Lili Boulanger’s “Cortège” claims two performances at the opera house.

The Metropolitan Opera has performed Lili Boulanger's "Cortège," twice, first in 1924 and again in 1928: Loeb Music Library @harvardmusiclib, via Twitter Aug. 21, 2018

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Lili Boulanger (right) and her older sister, Nadia Boulanger; July 18, 1913; Recueil – Actualités 1913-02-13 to 1913-12-14 Agence Meurisse MEU 34401-46329: Agence Meurisse, Public Domain, via Gallica -- The BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France) @ https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9022360s.r=lili%20et%20nadia%20boulanger?rk=21459;2

The Metropolitan Opera has performed Lili Boulanger's "Cortège," twice, first in 1924 and again in 1928: Loeb Music Library @harvardmusiclib, via Twitter Aug. 21, 2018, @ https://twitter.com/harvardmusiclib/status/1031917108089835526

For further information:

Ariel. “Lili Boulanger.” Les Hommes du Jour: Annales Politiques, Sociales, Littéraires et Artistiques, 6e année -- N° 286 (12 juillet 1913): 2-3.
Available via Gallica -- The BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France) @ https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6552522q/f1.image.r

“Boulanger: Cortège.” MetOpera Database > [Met Concert/Gala] CID: 87190 Twenty-Third Sunday Night Concert. Metropolitan Opera House: 04/13/1924.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=87190

“Cortège (Boulanger).” MetOpera Database > [Met Concert/Gala] CID: 100740 Eighth Sunday Night Concert. Metropolitan Opera House: 12/23/1928.
Available @ http://archives.metoperafamily.org/archives/scripts/cgiip.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?xCID=100740

Dopp, Bonnie Jo. “Numerology and Cryptography in the Music of Lili Boulanger: The Hidden Program in Clarières dans le Ciel.” The Musical Quarterly, vol. 78, issue 3 (Oct. 1, 1994): 557-583.
Available via Oxford University Press (OUP) Academic @ https://academic.oup.com/mq/article-abstract/78/3/557/1233557?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Fauser, Annegret. “Lili Boulanger’s La Princesse Maleine: A Composer and Her Heroine as Literary Icons (1997).” Journal of the Royal Musical Association, vol. 122, issue 1 (1997): 68-108.
Available via Taylor & Francis Online @ https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1093/jrma/122.1.68?journalCode=rrma20

Geoffroy, Julien Louis. “Opéra-Comique Impérial. Début de Madame Boulanger dans le Tableau Parlant.” Feuilleton du Journal de l’Empire, mardi, 30 avril 1811: 4.
Available via Gallica -- The BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France) @ https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k419792j/f4.image.r

Goss, Thomas. “The Life and Music of Lili Boulanger.” Radio New Zealand > Composer of the Week. Aug. 19, 2012.
Available @ https://www.radionz.co.nz/concert/programmes/composeroftheweek/audio/2528461/lili-boulanger-1893-1918

Langston, Brett. “Raïssa Boulanger.” Tchaikovsky Research > People > Singers. Last modified Dec. 26, 2017.
Available @ http://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/Ra%C3%AFssa_Boulanger#Marriage

Loeb Music Library ‏@harvardmusiclib. “Happy 125th birthday to Lili Boulanger! Here's a look at her sister Nadia's arrangement of her 1914 composition Cortège https://blogs.harvard.edu/loebmusic/2018/08/13/happy-125th-birthday-lili-boulanger/ … #WomenInMusic.” Twitter. Aug. 21, 2018.
Available @ https://twitter.com/harvardmusiclib/status/1031917108089835526

Maeterlinck, Maurice. “La Princesse Maleine: Drame en Cinq Actes. Acte I.” La Société Nouvelle: Revue Internationale. Sociologie, Arts, Sciences, Lettres, 5e année -- Tome II, no. LV (31 Juillet 1889): 558-578. Paris, France: Albert Savine; Bruxelles, Belgium: Bureau, 1890.
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.31951002801705y?urlappend=%3Bseq=570

Maeterlinck, Maurice. “La Princesse Maleine: Drame en Cinq Actes. Suite. -- Voir le n° LX de la Société Nouvelle Acte III.” La Société Nouvelle: Revue Internationale. Sociologie, Arts, Sciences, Lettres, 6e année -- Tome I, no. LXI (31 Janiver 1890): 70-94. Paris, France: Albert Savine; Bruxelles, Belgium: Bureau, 1890.
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.31951002801706w?urlappend=%3Bseq=78

Maeterlinck, Maurice. “La Princesse Maleine: Drame en Cinq Actes. (Suite et fin. -- Voir le n° LXI de la Société Nouvelle). Acte V.” La Société Nouvelle: Revue Internationale. Sociologie, Arts, Sciences, Lettres, 6e année -- Tome I, no. LXI (31 Janvier 1890): 208-223. Paris, France: Albert Savine; Bruxelles, Belgium: Bureau, 1890.
Available via HathiTrust @ https://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.31951002801706w?urlappend=%3Bseq=216

Marriner, Derdriu. “Georges Bizet, Les Pêcheurs de Perles Composer, Died June 3, 1875.” Earth and Space News. Monday, June 3, 2019.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/georges-bizet-les-pecheurs-de-perles.html

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/01/pelleas-et-melisande-is-jan-19-2019-met.html

Potter, Caroline. Nadia and Lili Boulanger. New York NY: Routledge, 2016.

Rosenstiel, Léonie. The Life and Works of Lili Boulanger. Rutherford NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1978.

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Simeone, Nigel. Paris: A Musical Gazetteer. New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 1999.

Spycket, Jérôme. À la Recherche de Lili Boulanger: Essai Biographique. Paris, France: Fayard, 2004.

Thomas, Edward. Maurice Maeterlinck. New York NY: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1911.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/mauricemaeterlin00thom/