Ravel Edition

(...) Studying Ravel’s writing in the first score of his second opera is like spending five years by his side. In 1966, Arbie Orenstein took great care in documenting the lengthy genesis of the composer’s “Lyric Fantasy”: from the initial discussions with the author of the libretto in Parisian salons to its painful birth just a few weeks – or days even – before it was premiered at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. In 1985, Paule Druihle provided the perfect conclusion to the historiography of the opera through an impressive article, dedicated to the work and  its reception, addressing something that was seldom spoken about at the time: the frosty disagreement,between Ravel and Serge de Diaghilev, director of the Ballet Russes – the official company in residence in the Principality of Monaco at that time – mediated by Raoul Gunsbourg, Director of the Salle Garnier, and his army of lawyers.

By cross-referencing the last page of the only complete manuscript now in existence of the vocal score with several dates gathered from the composer’s written correspondence, we were able to decipher the exact chronology of the composition. In-keeping with his habit of dating and signing all his manuscripts, Ravel wrote beneath the last three bars “Maurice Ravel Various locations 1920-1925”. This hand-written manuscript, sourced from the Robert Owen Lehman Collection at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York.(...)

The rest of this text by François Dru can be read in the Piano Vocal score.

François Dru - July 2024  (Reproducing this text in full or in part is strictly prohibited without prior authorisation from Ravel Edition).

(...) Maurice Ravel composed two short operas, each around 45 minutes long. 

L’Heure espagnole, a one-act «musical comedy,» based on a libretto by Franc-Nohain, was premiered in 1911 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris.

Ravel’s orchestration of the introduction is particularly remarkable: there are even three clock pendulums on stage!

The libretto contains much humor and irony, accompanied by Spanish rhythms and harmonies that are frequently heard in Ravel’s music.

L’Enfant et les sortilèges, performed for the first time in 1925 at the Monte-Carlo Opéra, is a two-part «lyrical fantasy» based on a libretto by Colette.

In an interview with Jules Méry, published in Le Petit Monégasque on March 21,1925, Ravel described the opera as follows:

«L’Enfant et les sortilèges... it’s a fairytale, make-believe, a child’s dream, where the imaginary becomes reality because of the «marvelous things» already there in the little boy’s mind. Our play, which is all fantasy, has some irony in it. There’s a mixture of styles, ranging from opera to operetta, and even music hall. Colette sent me her libretto when I was still at the front, at Maison-Rouge, near Verdun, but I didn’t receive it because I’d changed section. Then, like many others, I contracted a serious illness and was discharged in 1917. The libretto finally reached me some time later. I started working on it in the spring of 1920. And then... I stopped. Was it the problematic staging, or was it my poor health that caused this interruption? For whatever reason, I stopped working on it, but never stopped thinking about it.(...).

The rest of this text by Arbie Orenstein can be read in the Piano Vocal score.

Arbie Orenstein - June 2024  (Reproducing this text in full or in part is strictly prohibited without prior authorisation from Ravel Edition).