The Divorce and Its Consequences

As far as Parisian society was concerned, Debussy had left his wife to live with a wealthy woman. That “prudish public indignation,” as Laloy described it, led to many of his friends deserting him and to a loneliness that was much more acute than what he had endured during the mini-scandal of 1894. In addition, as he was living in an upscale neighborhood of Paris, all appearances were against him. He would be the object of people's gossip and increasingly malicious criticism.

The divorce negotiations with Lilly were “something of a nightmare” that lasted until August 1905. On 3 January, Le Figaro had published the false news of a second suicide attempt by Lilly. Debussy had written to Durand that he was “working relentlessly,” but that he was “annoyingly harassed by the press campaign that Mme Debussy has really wanted to organize against me. It seems that I can't get divorced like the rest of the world…” and, on 27 February, he confessed to Fromont: “I'm sorry you haven't heard more from me; my grief and problems are overwhelming.” At the end of March, Lilly still did not seem resigned to the divorce, and she even proposed that they live together again on a trial basis. On the 22nd, Claude rejected the idea of any further meeting and made a concrete offer to her: a monthly allowance of 300 francs and a sum of 10,000 francs, admitting his fault in the matter. Shortly thereafter, negotiations were initiated in earnest with lawyers as intermediaries. (During this time, Debussy sold the orchestral score of Pelléas to Jacques Durand for 25,000 francs. Maeterlinck had likewise agreed to sign over his rights, which also applied to “all the changes that might subsequently be introduced by those producing the work.”)7 On 20 May, the composer again lamented:

“I'm inundated with meetings and discussions, and so far, nothing is working out.” Emma, who was several months pregnant, had succeeded in obtaining her own no-fault divorce on 4 May, for while her liaison with Debussy had, for Sigismond Bardac, an “offensive character,” the latter himself was also guilty of some “publicly flaunted relationships with several actresses.”