Rita Strohl

Rita Strohl (née La Villette, 1865-1941) was a composer who defies classification. Her father was a military man and amateur cellist, her mother a painter, Elodie Jacquier. The precociously gifted Strohl studied piano at the Conservatoire de Paris, where (as scholar Florence Launay writes) she showed extraordinary independence of mind by ignoring the parts of the curriculum which did not interest her, and composing her own solfège lessons and exam pieces. She took composition lessons privately with Adrien Barthe for six years and developed the grand-scale artistic vision she sustained lifelong.

She married the naval officer Emile Strohl in 1888, and had several children. Alongside much chamber music, Strohl composed around fifty songs between 1887 and 1901, including the highly successful collection Bilitis (1900). She – and many others – believed the verses to be by an Ancient Greek lesbian poet Bilitis, but in fact they were a successful hoax by the Belgian-born poet Pierre Louÿs. In this starkly passionate language, Strohl felt she ‘found her own era’. The cycle – written at almost the same time as Debussy’s Bilitis settings – is a valuable contribution to the repertoire. The singer Jane Bathori did much to publicise Strohl’s songs in recitals.

Emile Strohl died suddenly of septicaemia in 1900. Strohl, in shock, sought healing in composition. She became reclusive, and it is not clear what means she had to live on, nor who cared for the Strohl children. However, she then experienced a spiritual epiphany, possibly in connection with meeting René Billa, known as Richard Burgsthal (1884–1944) in 1903. He was a restorer of stained glass, a musician and a Wagner admirer. They married in 1908, a decision which surely attracted comment given the age difference. Together they designed The Grange, a ‘little Bayreuth’ in Bièvres dans l'Essonne, for the performance of the massive, visionary, staged-choral cyclical works she was composing. The libretti, which she wrote herself, were mystical meditations on Christian, Celtic and Hindu mythology. However, Strohl then entered a long period of creative silence, and the building project was interrupted by the war. Afterwards, their vision was abandoned for lack of funds.

Strohl divorced Burgsthal and moved to Provence, where she remained until her death. One of her daughters meticulously copied out her scores, ensuring their preservation. Most of Strohl’s works remain unpublished though the record label La Boîte à Pépites has issued excellent recordings of her songs, alongside chamber and orchestral works.

© Natasha Loges, 2025