Edmond Michotte
When Richard Wagner (1813-1883) stayed in Paris in 1860, he met the then 78 year old Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868). At this legendary meeting of these two great, but stylistically very different composers, a third person was present: Edmond Michotte. He did not only organise this visit, he also made notes of the conversation and published an accurate and detailed report of this ‘Souvenirs personnels’ in 1906. This small but unique contribution did not remain unnoticed and nowadays the name Michotte is still invariably connected to Rossini.
Edmond Michotte is of Belgian origin. He is born in a wealthy family in Tienen in 1831. He was a pianist, played the glass harp and composed vocal music, mainly for one voice with piano accompaniment. His favorite poets were Alphonse de Lamartine and Desbordes Valmores., but sometimes he himself wrote his texts, such as the humorous phantasy ‘En automobile’.
On the 31st of December 1877 Michotte has been appointed as a member of the Visiting Committee of the Royal Conservatory Brussels. In 1892 he was promoted to vice-chairman. Michotte was on very good terms with the Conservatory director François-Auguste Gevaert. The fact that Michotte dedicated his publication ‘La visite de R. Wagner à Rossini’ proves their good relationship.
Presumably inspired by the well-known ‘Soirées musicales’ of Rossini in Paris, Michotte organises in his house in the Rue royale in Brussels several private concerts. If we may believe ‘L’Etoile belge’, these concerts were attended by the ‘élite de la société bruxelloise’, the reception was ‘avec une grâce et une urbanité tout à fait charmantes’ and also the musical level of the program as well as the execution, were pleasantly surprising.
Besides music, Michotte had another passion: Japanese art. He was known as a collector and promotor of Japanese prints. In 1889 he was assigned by the Belgian government to purchase prints for the Japanese museum. Michotte himself also owned a collection of Japanese prints. He donated this collection of about 300 to 400 items to the Royal Museum for Art and History of Belgium in 1905.
In 1912 Michotte moved to a smaller house in the Rue royale. The assignation of the Rossini collection should probably not be seen separately from his removal. Besides his mansion in Brussels, he also regularly stayed on his property in Louvain, currently known as the Park Michotte. Letters from that period inform us about his and his wife’s deteriorating health. On the 31st of August 1914 his house in Louvain has been hit by a grenade - it is war -, which caused a fire. Michotte was evacuated to the Higher Institute for Philosophy. Two days later, on the 2nd of September 1914, he passed away.
Despite his merit and his important donation, Michotte does not receive an appropriate hommage in the Yearbook of the Conservatory. This is probably because he passed away during the war, a period in which no issues of the yearbook were published. Only in 1926 the publication of the yearbook was restarted. This was not only ten years after the donation and apparently the Conservatory of Brussels had already forgotten Michotte and his ‘Musée Rossini’. Unfortunately.