""A conscientious
musician should drink Champagne before composing a comic opera.
He will find the mocking and light-hearted cheerfulness required
for this type of work". Hoffmann
Champagne is a wine, which sings and dances. Although, over the centuries,
the wines of France have reached the perfection of masterpieces,
only Champagne, the fruit of lands blessed by the Gods, can
be compared to music. It is an opera all by itself: it has the
sparkling and light-hearted elation. The overture is joyful,
the explosion of the cork is surprising, it provides the tone
and frees the jubilant energy; then the leaping ballet of bubbles
makes its appearance at the top of the glass. A myriad of minuscule
explosions liberates the aromas, while holding the wine-lover's
face at a distance. However, the torment does not last long,
after a few seconds the tempo changes, the rhythm slows down,
the ballerinas calm down and we move from allegretto to adagio.
Finally, the wine can no longer defend itself and gives up,
the lips come close and the pleasure of the palate eclipses
all others. The wine then disappears and only its spirit remains.
Champagnelikes glory
and glory takes pleasure in its company.
Richard Wagner came to Épernay to the Trianon house
to meet his friend the painter Kietz, who was the official
portrait painter of the Chandon family. A masterpiece was born: the opera Tristan and Isolda. Wagner found, so it is
said, the inspiration necessary by playing on the music salon's Cavaillé-Coll
organ, which is maintained in memory at the Château
de Saran.
