One of my favorite conferences, for several reasons. The first is paradoxically linked to the discovery of Martial Caillebotte, composer, and the recording of some of his works by the Chœur Vittoria Régional d'Ile de France where I sang from 2013 to 2016. Great Easter Solemn Mass, Ecce quam bonum, Dies irae, A day (symphonic poem). I then wanted to know Gustave, the painter and patron, then René, who died at twenty-six, and Alfred, the half-brother of Notre-Dame de Lorette priest... It was a revelation!
I plunged with growing surprise into the lives of those men who might have enjoyed their immense fortunes in idleness. Instead, they became photographers, painters, gardeners, stamp collectors, boat builders and sailors...and the list goes on.
Everything they touched became a sort of miracle of precision and meticulousness. My lecture recounts their life, their loves, their trials, their successes, their disappointments, but above all their extraordinary fraternal love, which even the more than distant attitude of Marie Minoret, Martial's wife, towards Gustave, did not tarnish.
In March 2020, I devoted a documentary to this subject, visible on my Youtube channel and which totals more than 36,000 views.