L’Angelo e il Conte

The book retraces the story of Léon Delafosse (1874-1951), who was famous during the Belle Époque years when he was a mondain pianist-composer and a star of Parisian salons. Today he is known only because he was the protégé of Count Robert de Montesquiou and because Proust made him the model for the violinist Morel in Recherche. Introduced by a wide-ranging survey of Montesquiou’s figure and poetic work, the study reconstructs Delafosse’s early career as a child prodigy and the years when, at twenty, he became the Count’s protégé, giving life to a liaison whose history is examined in light of unpublished documents. The events that followed his separation from Montesquiou in 1897 are then illustrated: his relationship with a mature lady (sister of Proust’s Kiki Bartholoni) who became his new protector, his relations in high society, his activity in the full twentieth century, his repertoire and compositions, and finally his long decline.

(Translated by Bing)