George Sand & Marie d'Agoult: a theatrical and musical performance for two actress-musicians

«I wanted to love you at once, but I do not love you yet. You do not know me enough and, not knowing if you could love me, I do not want to love you too much yet.» — George Sand to Marie d'Agoult

They met in 1835 in a Parisian salon: one, a successful novelist dressed in men's clothes with a cigar in her lips; the other, a countess who had taken up writing under the name Daniel Stern, in love with a Hungarian virtuoso. From George Sand and Marie d'Agoult was born an immediate, exalted friendship that would fuel over ten years of correspondence.

La Compagnie en Lien brings these letters to the stage — with live music by Chopin and Liszt, the lovers of both women —, performed by two actresses who are also a cellist and a pianist. A creation to be discovered at the Théâtre de Nesle in the autumn of 2026, as France celebrates the 150th anniversary of the writer's death.

Two free women, an incandescent friendship

They braved the prejudices of their class and wanted to remain mistresses of their destiny in a society that denied them autonomy. For over ten years, Sand and d'Agoult wrote to each other: art, love, creation, motherhood, writing, freedom — all the struggles of a life. From these letters, the show draws a cross-portrait, intimate and embodied, of two intellectuals who thought and lived their emancipation ahead of their time. Their conversation, nearly two centuries old, resonates with striking acuteness at a time when the debate over George Sand's entry into the Panthéon — supported by a committee chaired by Juliette Binoche — is animating the public sphere.

Chopin and Liszt, the secret language

This theater is also a concert. The two performers do not just speak: they play. The music of Chopin, Sand's companion, and Liszt, d'Agoult's companion, is not an accompaniment — it is the emotional soundtrack of the correspondence, what is said without words and vibrates between the lines. On piano and cello, Chopin's Nocturne op. 9 no. 2 and Sonata op. 65, and Liszt's Years of Pilgrimage and Nuages gris are intertwined. In the vaulted setting of the Théâtre de Nesle, the audience hears romanticism as it was experienced: written, spoken, and played simultaneously.

«Music is not an accompaniment: it is the emotional soundtrack of their correspondence. Chopin and Liszt are not mere historical figures: their music is the secret language of these two women.» — Ophélie Humbertclaude, adaptation and artistic direction

The Parisian event of the George Sand Year

In 2026, France rediscovers George Sand: the France Mémoire mission (Institut de France) has included her 150th anniversary in the calendar of national commemorations, and more than a hundred events are dedicated to her, from Nohant to Bourges.

Presented in Paris from October 3 to November 15 — in the heart of this commemorative year —, George Sand & Marie d'Agoult is one of the capital's key events.

With some 70 seats, the Théâtre de Nesle offers the perfect setting for this epistolary creation: each spectator is invited into the salon of these two women, a privileged witness to their confidences.