Monday, October 25, 2010

Emma Calve


Emma Calve as Carmen.


Emma Calve as Carmen.


Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The Original List of Emma`s Party Guests

Another reference to J.O.- Johann Orth/Johann Salvator - being a very large man. Castillon also mentions this. Ludmilla "Milly" Stubel was the wife of Johann Orth.
Emma Bardac




Marcel Proust


Pierre Louys


Claude Debussy

Dear Jill
Thank you for all the nice things you said about the bird painting. It made my day. I read your piece on Sauniere and Limoux. Enthralling as always. I am still working on Castillon. Will be going up to London this coming weekend to consult with a friend on certain passages. At present working on that house-party at La Diva's (Emma Calve) and what they got up to and think I have identified most of the guests mentioned with some certainty. CD = Debussy, EB = Emma Bardac his mistress and later wife (1908); P = the Polish pianist Paderewski maybe; Leconte = the symbolist, decadent poet and writer of pornographic novels is I think Pierre Louys who inspired Debussy's L'Apres Midi d'une Faun; Marcel = Proust based on the fact that his A la Recherche de Temps Perdues is certainly an oustanding novel of the 20th century;JO = ? this one is a puzzle I must admit but could it be Johann Orth the 'lost' Archduke turned sailor? His morganatic wife was a singer in Vienna I think named Ludmilla ? known as Millie although Castillon says Molly. But wasn't Johann Orth officially dead by this time? The Ser is surely Sar Peladan. Anyway the work goes on. Trust you are well and no nasty side-effects from flue jab. Will keep in touch,
kindest regards,
Colin H.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Emma`s Party Guests at the Castle


Composer Gabriel Faure, the "G.F" at Emma`s soiree.


Johann Salvator seated center, also known as "The Phantom Hapsburg" supposedly lost at sea but living undercover with the help of Berenger Sauniere at Rennes-le-Chateau - Johann Salvator aka "Johann Orth" or "J.O." at Emma`s party.




Jules Bois, or "JB" referred to by Emma as her manager and called "the eminence grise" by Castillon:

"18 May - After the departure of her guests and also JB her manager and eminence grise and ? - who had urgent business in Paris (Another and younger mistress Leconte whispered to me gleefully as he too left for the railway station in Millau.) La Diva declared herself to be in need of a little holiday and put it to me that as I was obviously in no hurry to return to Paris."




Sar Peladan referred to as "The Sar".




Paderewski the Polish exile pianist.


From Arcadia Forum - Alexius wrote:
The following may throw some light on the Johann Orth affair. I obtained this from Twyford and make no comment on it. Don't shoot the messenger.

The following are entries for May 1900. Castillon has been spending some time as a guest of La Diva [Emma Calve?] at her "little castle" i.e. the Chateau de Cabrieres in the Aveyron.


The party of guests comprised Castillon of course, JB described as La Diva's manager; CD a composer and his mistress EB the wife of a prosperous Parisian banker and previously mistress of GF another composer, she is an accomplished "amateur" singer; P a Polish exile, a pianist; Leconte, "a symbolist poet, effete and languid, writer of erotically charged verse usually about the devotees of Sappho on the Island of Lesbos and other like classical themes. CD is at present setting some of these to music." [the words in inverted commas are Castillon's own]; Marcel "a novelist of fragile health who is writing the novel of the 20th century having tired of and been revolted by what he calls the sweaty, heaving, realism of Zola and his clique of the late 19th."; JO "an odd fish, big, burly man with the appearance of a common labourer or deckhand rather who claims to be an English citizen, despite a pronounced guttural teutonic sort of accent, ship-owner and mercantile trader operating out of Gibraltar. Has a yacht moored at Port-Vendres."; JO's wife Molly "she is definitely teutonic, Viennese actually, plump, attractive embonpoint, blonde, singer in light opera and operetta."; the Ser "apparently the high-priest of the Symbolists and a founder of the Rose+Croix. So very interesting company and as far as the ladies are concerned quite a nest of nightingales." This house-party lasts from the 14th to the 17th May. Castillon grumbles about being alone following the desertion of Semiramis but nevertheless confesses to enjoying himself immensely.

Twyford identified (to his own satisfaction) most of the personages behind the initials and Castillon given pseudonyms as follows:-

CD = Claude Debussy who was a member of Rose+Croix
EB = His lover, Emma Bardac, later his wife.
P = Paderewski
Leconte = Pierre Louys
Marcel = Proust
JO = Johann Orth
Ser (sic) should be Sar = Josephin Peladin