Berlioz’s Birthplace – La Côte Saint-André
The cemetery – Vienne
Adèle was Berlioz’s favourite sister, who always supported him and accepted him for who he was. She was more than just a younger sister, she was, as he said, "a close friend". She was the only member of the family who did not have any problem with her brother’s desire to marry an actress, Harriet Smithson. After their marriage, she would correspond with Harriet as well as her brother. When Berlioz’s only child Louis was born in August 1834, it was to Adèle that he broke the news, who subsequently became Louis’s godmother:
"First of all be reassured, our boy has been baptised. His name is not Hercules, Jean-Baptiste, Caesar, Alexander, or Magloire, but simply Louis [...]
He is charming, very strong, has superb blue eyes, a hint of a dimple on the chin, fiery blond hair rather like mine when I was a child, a little piece of pointed cartilage on the ears as I do, and a slightly short lower half of the face. Those are all the points of resemblance to his father; unfortunately, he does not look at all like his mother. Henriette is more than crazy about him."
(Correspondance générale, no. 409; 23 September 1834)
Berlioz always liked more and had a closer relationship with Adèle’s daughters, Nanci and Joséphine, than he did with his other sister Nanci’s daughter Mathilde. He also got on much better with Adèle’s husband Marc Suat than with Nancy’s, Camille Pal.
Adèle’s death of a heart-related illness at the age of 45 in 1860 came as a terrible blow to Berlioz, as he wrote to his friend Auguste Morel:
"I had good news today, but the news I received three days ago was terrible. Your work has just scored a brilliant success and ... my sister has died.
We loved each other like two twins. She was a close friend. Last week I had made the journey to Vienne to see her once more, and I left with the assurance given by a celebrated doctor in Lyon that her convalescence was about to begin.
I cannot convey to you the heartbreak this loss causes me. [...] Louis is in Vienne with his cousins and his uncle. He has had to endure on his own the burden of all this terrible pain."
(Correspondance générale, no. 2487; 9 March 1860)
Adèle Suat lived with her husband and two daughters in Vienne, near La Côte Saint-André, and is buried with her husband in the cemetery there.
We are most grateful to our friend Pepijn van Doesburg who
kindly sent us the photos that he had taken of the tomb of Adèle and her
husband.
The text on the headstone reads:
ici
reposent une sœur un BEAU frere de H. Berlioz [HERE LIE A SISTER A BROTHER-IN-LAW OF H BERLIOZ]
© 2004-2008 Michel Austin and Monir Tayeb for the text and Pepijn van Doesburg for the photos on this page. All rights of reproduction reserved.
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