with “La Rivale”, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt dives into the world of La Callas

Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt is a lover of words, of life, a storyteller and even a story-maker. His pen and his achievements quickly established themselves in the literary, cinematographic and theatrical landscape, winning numerous prizes and Molière awards. His books like The other’s part (2001), Mister Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran (2001), Oscar and the Pink Lady (2002) or even Noah’s child (2004), this immense declaration of love to your mother, Diary of a Lost Love (2019), were able to touch, convince, support.

After a saga on humanity in eight volumes, or 5000 pages, “The Crossing of Times” in 2021, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt published, Thursday September 28, 2023, The Rival, published by Albin Michel. It is a personal tribute that he wanted to pay to Maria Callas and to the spirit of La Scala, this theater inhabited by the memory of the singer and by an audience that is both experienced and erudite.

franceinfo: The Rival is a tribute, constructed as a testimony, told through the sad story of a mysterious old lady, Carlotta Berlumi, who defines herself as a former great rival of the Greek singer. We realize how difficult it was to fight against Callas. On December 2, Maria Callas would have been 100 years old and yet, she still seems to be very present.

Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt : Yes, it’s definitely a legend, if not a myth. She was the one who represented the opera heroines better than anyone, but she was herself an opera character, that is to say with a tragic dimension. He is someone who comes from far away, from poverty. She conquers the public with her voice. But time catches up with her more quickly than others, at an age when a singer is normally at the peak of her glory, she has vocal problems. She disappears and she will die alone, in extreme sadness in Paris. So she looks like the heroines she played. I wanted to tell Callas in detail. I wanted to start with a character confronted with this phenomenon of the century, “Callas”, since she sings at the same time as Callas. Describing Callas through someone who hates her and doesn’t understand what it’s about at all. She says : “But what is this ? This woman who drags herself on the floor because her lover has left, who dies and who makes the whole room cry.“She ultimately doesn’t understand to what extent opera is an art that rises high when it is totally embraced by the people who do it.

What we understand above all is the place of the singers and what they experience. We realize to what extent the roles she plays on stage can only damage them in the long term.

But indeed, if you have an artistic soul, your roles are all-consuming. Callas performed sacrifices. Almost all of his characters died on stage. She rehearsed her death all her life.

In your works, you approach Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi, a lot of composers. And there you tackle the Callas. And when we read you, we realize that there is a real musicality, like a musical score. Are you a musician or a conductor?

“I am a writer who writes with the nostalgia of not having been a musician.”

Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

at franceinfo

I was saved by a singing woman. I was 15, I was experiencing adolescent depression and I had planned my suicide, my departure. I was in these conditions. And then I was taken to the opera and a woman came in and she started singing and for four minutes, the beauty, my escape from my doldrums, I said to myself: if there are things like this on earth, I stay.

You reacted earlier when I talked about the fact that you were a storyteller or even a storymaker. Does that term suit you?

History maker in the good sense of the word, of course! I feel like a storyteller. Either way, I tell stories.

So writing allowed you to find yourself, perhaps to overcome your initial “shyness”?

Me, knowing myself… I’m not a big fan of inner exploration. Socrates said:Know thyself“I always say: “Misunderstand yourself”. I don’t want to touch this balance or imbalance that makes me happy and fertile.

The common point in all that, whether it’s writing, directing, cinema, going on stage, I have the feeling that it’s the sensitivity that resides in you. Is it difficult to manage this sensitivity on a daily basis?

It’s been a long time. This is also why when I was 17-18 years old, I decided that I would do very intellectual studies, if possible philosophy, to try to give myself a structure, a backbone, which would help me would keep me from collapsing under the emotions that were coming at me.

“I was afraid for a long time of dying from emotion. I think that philosophy and then words, being able to finally articulate emotions and do something with them, that saved me.”

Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt

at franceinfo

With Callas, we have the feeling that it’s the same process, but with his voice. Singing saved her many times and ultimately, it ended up destroying her. How would you describe Maria Callas?

I believe she was totally dedicated to her art. When you hear his interviews, it’s extraordinary. She says : “We are on Earth to transmit life, by transmitting art, beauty“. I think she really had the feeling of having succeeded in her mission. However, having succeeded in her duty does not necessarily make one happy.

I was wondering what your favorite instrument was? The voice, the writing, the scene, you mix everything.

The voice. Definitely.