Thread by @doodlyroses

I met a composer who urged me to check out the music of Mel Bonis and when I tell you the Wikipedia article about her personal life had me going WHAT...it's wild

She was super talented and taught herself piano so well despite her family's discouragement that a professor bullied them into letting her attend the Paris Conservatory where she was a classmate of Debussy

There she and a poet-singer named Amédée fell in love (she set some of his poems to music!) but her parents disapproved and pulled her out of the conservatory

When she was 25 her parents arranged a marriage for her to a 47yo businessman with 2 dead wives and 5 kids 🥴

Mel immediately had 3 children and Wikipedia says "it was not an ideal marriage, as [her husband] did not like music" :|

This is where we enter TV drama territory! In her 30s Mel reencounters her former lover Amédée who at this point is a respected married musician, who encourages her to compose again and sets her up with publishers, jumpstarting her composing career

Do they have an affair? OF COURSE THEY HAVE AN AFFAIR. They affair so hard they have a daughter, Madeleine, who Mel gives to a former servant to raise

She composes a crapton of music and gets all sorts of accolades and recognition! Saint-Saëns says "I never imagined a woman could write such music!" (ok dude) Her music-hating husband dies! We love to see it

Then this is where it gets WILD wild. The servant raising Madeleine passes away, and since her husband is dead Mel assumes care of Madeleine, who at this point is 17 years old

Mel's youngest son returns home from WWI, and, not realizing the fine young lady now living with his mom is his biological half-sister, HAS A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP WITH HER

At some point Mel realizes TWO OF HER CHILDREN ARE DATING EACH OTHER and she has to sit them down and tell the the truth and like...can you IMAGINE how that felt for everyone involved jfc

I just...how is this story not already adapted into some trashy-sexy period drama??? It has it all: forbidden love, unhappy marriage, adultery, incest, PLUS it comes with its own soundtrack courtesy of Mel Bonis' oeuvre of 300+ works!!!

(Ugh I went to go add this thread to my "music history stories" compilation and found out that I can't because Twitter apparently killed the Moments feature hahaha this website is so bad now) twitter.com/i/events/14818…

Also for everyone who is, like me, sprinting to find her music to listen to, it appears that people use both “Mel Bonis” and “Mélanie Bonis” and there’s no standardization afaik

Ohhh apparently she went by “Mel” so her professional name wouldn’t have a feminine connotation, I’m getting so much more from the vastly superior biography on this site mel-bonis.com/EN/Biographie/

Holy crap Mel Bonis is so fascinating as a person, she essentially lived a double life being a proper bourgeoise lady with strong moral convictions managing 3 households, 8 kids, and 12 staff, while secretly churning out sensuous music and caring for her secret child from afar

(Currently listening to her Femmes de légende, a three-part work for orchestra depicting Cleopatra, Ophelia, and Salome, and holy **** I’m in love) music.apple.com/us/album/femme…