The singer Emma Bardac (1862-1934) has often been presented as a woman who ensnared Claude
Debussy (1862-1918) because she wanted to be associated with his fame and to live a life of
luxury. Indeed in many biographies and composer-related studies of Debussy the only mentions
that she receives are brief and derogatory. Here Emma Bardac and her relationship with the
composer take centre stage. The book traces Emma's Jewish ancestry and her background the
significant role of her wealthy uncle Osiris her marriage at seventeen to the wealthy Jewish
banker Sigismond Bardac her affair with Gabriel Fauré and her liaison with and subsequent
marriage to Debussy. As Gillian Opstad shows the pressure and stifling effects of domestic
life on Debussy's attitude to his composing were considerable. The financial consequences of
their partnership were disastrous and their circle of close friends was small. Emma suffered
physically and mentally from the tensions of the marriage particularly money worries and the
possibility that Debussy was attracted to her older daughter. She considered divorce but
supported him through his deepest depression and during the First World War until he succumbed
to cancer in 1918. After Debussy's death Emma felt driven both on his behalf and for financial
reasons to further performances of the composer's works and provoked the annoyance of other
musicians by having early compositions resurrected completed and performed. In this engagingly
written biography Gillian Opstad brings to light little-known facts about Emma's background
and family advances new insights into her relationship with Debussy and provides a glimpse of
an early twentieth-century Parisian milieu that experienced wide-spread antisemitism.
