work-wise: I have only one more scene to finish my first act. When I think that I began on 15 August, I cannot get over it. Am I becoming Hindemith? . . . How is Paris? Is it going all out to become dodecanised [P is referring to serial music] The Carmelites, poor things, can only sing in tune. They must be forgiven”
1954 July to Bernac “Did I tell you how overcome I was by Lourdes the other day? I had never seen a pilgrimage before. It was at once atrocious and sublime”
1954 December, Antibes “My thanks for the truffles ... if you knew from what black
hole I am only just emerging. For months I have been tormented by troubles, betrayed in my work (I still do not have the Bernanos authorisation for Les Carmélites). I was in such a state of nerves that I had to go into a clinic. I am better now”
1955 December 24, Paris to rose Dercourt-Plaut, Polish–american soprano “I finished copying out the last scene of Les Carmélites at five o’clock, at precisely the time my friend from Toulon was dying! Is that not strange!!! ....[Lucien Roubert his ex-boyfriend] I am crazy about my little radio, which works wonderfully. I take it with me on all my trips and, thanks to you, any depressing thoughts are banished from my hotel rooms”
1956 March, Liverpool “Very beautiful Webern . . . I shall continue to write my doh mi soh doh and disapprove of Stravinsky - who has taken to wearing hats too young for his age” 1956 June, Aldeburgh “Weather good for England but one is freezing cold all the same” 1957 May 1, Paris to rose D-P “Les Carmélites will be opening in Paris on June 21 . . . My morale is high, as in Cannes in March I met a love of a career Sergeant (29 years old and as kind as he is handsome)” [Louis was with Poulenc for his last six years]
1960
to Benjamin Britten “I am heartbroken at missing the première of Midsummer but fate has willed that I be deprived of this joy to be in Brussels on that very evening for the Belgian premiere of La Voix Humaine. I embrace both you and Peter and wish you luck the French way - merde, merde, merde”
1961 June 23 to rose D-P “If the socks exist in white, I would like to have two or three pairs. I have bought some shoes in white suede! A old Maestro’s folly!” Poulenc had a predilection for American shirts, underwear and socks
1963 January 30 Poulenc dies in his Parisian apartment. He asked that only
Bach should be played at his funeral. Shortly after Poulenc’s death Suzanna, his housekeeper at Le Grand Coteau, Noizay, drowned herself in a pond at the edge of the vineyards. Her husband André who tended the grounds continued to live in a small outhouse until his death in the mid 1980s