Au conservatoire

By the late 1880s Brussels was a stronghold of the Wagner craze, and in 1887 the Théâtre de la Monnaie gave Die Walküre its first performance in French. Ensor turns on the whole cult. At the Royal Conservatoire a stout soprano bawls from a score headed Walquirie, its lines a string of French puns on the Valkyries' battle cry. The museum names her as Ida Servais, a well-known singing teacher, and the white-bearded conductor has been identified as François-Auguste Gevaert, the Conservatoire's director. Above them hangs a portrait of Wagner stopping his ears, while the audience pelts the stage with flowers, a cat, a duck and a smoked herring. In 2009 the Musée d'Orsay used the state's right of pre-emption to claim it at the sale of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé's collection.