Romain Bussine

Who was Romain Bussine?

Romain Bussine was a French poet, baritone, and voice teacher who lived during the 19th century.

In 1871, together with Camille Saint-Saëns and Henri Duparc, he founded the Société Nationale de Musique as a forum for promoting contemporary French chamber and orchestral music. Later an argument over the performance of foreign works led to Saint-Saëns and Bussine resigning the joint presidency of the Société Nationale in 1886.

Gabriel Fauré set one of his poems as Après un rêve, op. 7, No. 1. The poem, based on an Italian poem titled "Levati sol che la luna è levata," is a soliloquy about a rapturous dream of a passionate encounter to which the dreamer longs to return, even though the dream is a lie. Another setting by Fauré of a poem by Bussine is Sérénade Toscane; the poem is a fairly free version of a slightly sardonic Tuscan serenade.

Bussine worked for many years as a voice teacher at the Paris Conservatory. A baritone, he occasionally gave recitals and performed in concerts in Paris; although he was not a prolific performer. He notably sang the role of the High Priest in the first hearing of the second act of Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah in a private performance in 1870. Among his notable pupils were composers Guillaume Couture and Achille Fortier. He died in Paris.