L'enfant et les sortilèges

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L'enfant et les sortilèges
Opera by Maurice Ravel
Marie-Thérèse Gauley in the title role, in 1926
LibrettistColette
LanguageFrench
Premiere
21 March 1925 (1925-03-21)

L'enfant et les sortilèges: Fantaisie lyrique en deux parties (The Child and the Spells: A Lyric Fantasy in Two Parts) is an opera in one act, with music by Maurice Ravel to a libretto by Colette. It is Ravel's second opera, his first being L'heure espagnole. Written from 1917 to 1925, L'enfant et les sortilèges was first performed in Monte Carlo in 1925 conducted by Victor de Sabata.

After being offered the opportunity to write a musical work, Colette wrote the text in eight days. Several composers had proposed to Colette that she write to music, but she was only excited by the prospect of Ravel.

Composition history[edit]

During World War I, the Opéra de Paris director Jacques Rouché asked Colette, whom he met at one of Marguerite de Saint-Marceaux's salons, to provide the text for a fairy ballet. Colette originally wrote the story under the title Divertissements pour ma fille. After Colette chose Ravel to set the text to music, a copy was sent to him in 1916 while he was still serving in the war; however, the mailed script was lost. In 1917, Ravel finally received a copy and agreed to compose the score, humorously replying to Colette, "I would like to compose this, but I have no daughter." It was eventually agreed that the composition would be more of an operetta, but retain the ballet dance elements. Colette accordingly revised the text and developed a libretto.

Ravel stopped composition of the work in the spring of 1920, suffering from physical exhaustion and poor health. In the next few years he was compelled to complete the work by Raoul Gunsbourg, director of the Monte Carlo Opera, who had insisted Ravel write a sequel to L'Heure espagnole.[1] By this time Ravel had become newly inspired by the stage presentations of American musicals and revues by composers such as George Gershwin. Ravel's work on the composition began to incorporate the musical style of these productions.

By early 1925 he had finally completed it. Colette, who had believed that the work would never be completed, expressed her extreme pleasure, believing that her modest writing had been raised beyond its initial scope. Now officially under the title of L'enfant et les sortilèges, the first performance took place on 21 March 1925 in Monte Carlo, conducted by Victor de Sabata, with ballet sequences choreographed by George Balanchine. Ravel said of the premiere production:

Our work requires an extraordinary production: the roles are numerous, and the phantasmagoria is constant. Following the principles of American operetta, dancing is continually and intimately intermingled with the action. Now the Monte Carlo Opera possesses a wonderful troupe of Russian dancers, marvelously directed by a prodigious ballet master, M. Balanchine. ... And let's not forget an essential element, the orchestra.[2]

Performance history[edit]

Marie-Thérèse Gauley sang the part of the child at both the premiere in Monte-Carlo and the first performance at the Opéra-Comique on 1 February 1926. The original cast also included Henri Fabert as Vieillard Arithmétique, Warnerey as the clock and cat,[3] while at the Opéra-Comique, conducted by Albert Wolff and with choreography by Louise Virard, the cast included Germaine Féraldy, Mathilde Calvet, Madeleine Sibille, Roger Bourdin, René Hérent and Louis Guenot.[4]

The opera was then seen in Prague (17 February 1927), Leipzig (6 May 1927) and Vienna (14 March 1929). The US premiere was given on 19 September 1930 by the San Francisco Opera.[5][6] The Canadian premiere of the work was a film version made by CBC Television in 1950 with conductor Wilfrid Pelletier.[7] It was not until 3 December 1958 that the opera was given its UK premiere, in the Town Hall in Oxford.[5]

An innovative production was filmed during the time of the Covid 19 epidemic, by Vopera20.com, founded to address the issues raised by the pandemic for the artistic community.[8] The production has received extensive praise for its artistry and creativity.[9][10][11][12] Following a period of free availability on Youtube.com (through Dec. 16, 2020), the opera video was moved to https://www.marquee.tv/ for distribution.

Roles[edit]

The score specifies that fire / the princess / nightingale must be sung by the same singer, and the little old man and frog by the same singer. It is also specified that the following groups or pairs of roles can be sung by the same singer: mother / china cup / dragonfly; the bergère / owl; the female cat / the squirrel; the male cat / grandfather clock; the armchair / tree.

Role Voice type[13] Premiere cast,[14][15] 21 March 1925
(Conductor: Victor de Sabata)
L'enfant, the child mezzo-soprano Marie-Thérèse Gauley
Part one
Maman, the mother represented by a huge skirt contralto Orsoni
Le fauteuil bass Julien Lafont
La bergère Louis XV soprano Narsay
L'horloge comtoise, a clock broken by the child baritone Edmond Warnéry
La théière, Wedgwood teapot tenor Gaston Dubois
La tasse chinoise, a broken china cup mezzo-contralto Lucy
Le feu, the fire in the fireplace coloratura soprano Mathilde
La princesse, the princess torn out of a storybook coloratura soprano Bilhon
Une pastourelle soprano Chorina
Un pâtre contralto
Le petit vieillard, the little old man (representing the torn arithmetic book) tenor[16] Henri Fabert
Le chat baritone Chorina
La chatte mezzo-soprano Albertine Dubois-Lauger
Part two
La chouette soprano
L'arbre, a tree bass Vladimir Baidaroff
La libellule, a dragonfly mezzo-soprano Viardot
Le rossignol, a nightingale coloratura soprano Foliguet
La chauve-souris, widower bat soprano Lacroix
L'écureuil, a squirrel mezzo-soprano Lecourt
La rainette, the tree frog tenor Sollières
Chorus: Le banc, le canapé, le pouf, la chaise de paille (children's chorus); Pâtres and pastoures (shepherds and shepherdesses - torn figures from the decorative wallpaper), Les chiffres (spiteful little numbers that assist the old man in tormenting the child (children's chorus)); trees, animals.

Synopsis[edit]

The two scenes in the Paris première (1926)
Place: An old-fashioned Normandy country home

Part 1

This is the story of a rude child who is reprimanded by the objects in his room, which he has been destroying. After being scolded by his mother in the beginning of the opera, the child throws a tantrum, destroying the room around him and harming the animals nearby. He is then surprised to find that the unhappy objects in his room come to life. The furniture and decorations begin to talk; even his homework takes shape as it becomes an old man and a chorus of numbers. They all sing out the pain and misery that the child inflicts on them and their wishes to punish him for his misdeeds.

Part 2

The bedroom becomes a garden filled with singing animals and plants which have been tortured by the child. The child attempts to make friends with the animals and plants, but they shun him because of the injuries he did to them earlier, before they could talk. They leave him aside, and in his loneliness, he eventually cries out "Maman". At this, the animals turn on him and attack him in an act of vengeance, but they wind up jostling among each other as the child is tossed aside. At the culmination, a squirrel is hurt, which causes the other animals to stop fighting. The child bandages the squirrel's wound and collapses exhausted. Seeing this act of kindness, the animals have a change of heart toward the child, and decide to try to help him home. They mimic the cry of "Maman", carry the child back to his house, and sing in praise of the child. The opera ends with the child singing "Maman", as he greets his mother, in the very last bar of the score.

Numbers[edit]

Instrumentation[edit]

Woodwind: 2 flutes, piccolo (alternating third flute), slide whistle (flûte à coulisse), 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 1 E-flat clarinet, 1 bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon
Brass: 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba
Percussion: timpani, xylophone, bass drum, triangle, whip, cymbals, tam-tam, rachet, cheese grater (scraped with a triangle beater), wood block, wind machine, crotales, snare drum
Keyboards: celesta, piano (or luthéal),
Strings: harp, strings

Music[edit]

The opera calls for a large orchestra, a mixed chorus of adults, a chorus of children and eight soloists, most of whom individually play a number of characters. The scale of the cast and fantastic setting make the opera difficult to stage, which helps to explain why the work is not performed often. Ravel uses various subtle leitmotifs throughout the work, and there is considerable virtuosity in the instrumental writing. Yet the orchestra plays a mostly secondary role to the sung melodies: Ravel explained that he was following the style of Gershwin and American operettas of the time. Ravel contrasted the work to his previous opera, L'heure espagnole:

More than ever, I am for melody. Yes, melody, bel canto, vocalises, vocal virtuosity – this is for me a point of departure. If, in L'heure espagnole the theatrical action itself demanded that the music be only the commentary on each word and gesture, here, on the contrary, this lyric fantasy calls for melody, nothing but melody.... The score of L'enfant et les sortilèges is a very smooth blending of all styles from all epochs, from Bach up to ... Ravel.[17]

The opera was initially well received in Monte Carlo, but in a Paris production the following year it was less successful. André Messager criticized the purposely imitative nature of the music, but Francis Poulenc and Les six were impressed. His cat duet Duo miaulé is often seen as a parody of Wagner, which was quite controversial,[citation needed] although Arthur Honegger praised this piece in particular.

Recordings[edit]

Year Cast Conductor,
Opera House and Orchestra
Label
1947 Nadine Sautereau,
Denise Scharley,
Solange Michel,
Odette Turba-Rabier,
Martha Angelici,
Claudine Verneuil,
Joseph Peyron,
André Vessières,
Yvon le Marc'Hadour
Ernest Bour,
French National Radio Orchestra and Radio France Chorus
Audio CD: Testament,
Cat: SBT1044
1954 Flore Wend,
Marie-Luise de Montmollin,
Geneviève Touraine,
Adrienne Migliette,
Suzanne Danco,
Juliette Bise,
Gisèle Bobillier,
Hugues Cuénod,
Pierre Mollet,
Lucien Lovano
Ernest Ansermet,
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Motet Choir of Geneva
Audio CD: Decca,
Cat: 433400
1960 Françoise Ogéas,
Jeannine Collard,
Jane Berbié,
Sylvaine Gilma,
Colette Herzog,
Heinz Rehfuss,
Camille Maurane,
Michel Sénéchal
Lorin Maazel,
French National Radio Orchestra
Audio CD: DG,
Cat: 423718, 449769, 474890
1981 Susan Davenny Wyner,
Jocelyne Taillon,
Arleen Auger,
Jane Berbié,
Linda Finnie,
Linda Richardson,
Philip Langridge,
Philippe Huttenlocher,
Jules Bastin
André Previn,
London Symphony Orchestra and Ambrosian Singers
Audio CD: EMI,
Cat: EMX2241
1992 Colette Alliot-Lugaz,
Claudine Carlson,
Catherine Dubosc,
Marie-Françoise Lefort,
Georges Gautier,
Didier Henry,
Lionel Sarrazin
Charles Dutoit,
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Audio CD: Decca,
Cat: 440333
1992 Martine Mahé,
Arlette Chedel,
Elisabeth Vidal,
Michèle Lagrange,
Léonardo Pezzino,
Vincent le Texier,
Marc Barrard
Alain Lombard,
Bordeaux-Aquitaine National Orchestra and Bordeaux Theatre Chorus
Audio CD: Auvidis,Cat: V4670
1997 Pamela Helen Stephen,
Anne-Marie Owens,
Elizabeth Futral,
Juanita Lascarro,
Mary Plazas,
Rinat Shaham,
Mark Tucker,
David Wilson-Johnson,
Robert Lloyd
André Previn,
London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus and New London Children's Choir
Audio CD: DG,
457589
2008 Annick Massis,
François le Roux,
Jean-Paul Fouchécourt,
José Van Dam,
Magdalena Kožená,
Mojca Erdmann,
Nathalie Stutzmann,
Sophie Koch
Simon Rattle,
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
EMI Music
2009 Julie Boulianne,
Geneviève Desprésis,
Kirsten Gunlogson,
Philippe Castagner,
Ian Greenlaw,
Kevin Short,
Agathe Martel,
Cassandre Prévost,
Julie Cox
Alastair Willis,
Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Chorus, Chicago Symphony Chorus, and Chattanooga Boys Choir
Audio CD: Naxos,
8.660215 [18]
2015 Isabel Leonard,
Paul Gay,
Yvonne Naef,
Anna Christy,
Marie Lenormand,
Elliot Madore,
Jean-Paul Fouchécourt,
Kanae Fujitani
Seiji Ozawa,
Saito Kinen Orchestra, SKF Matsumoto Choir, and SKF Children's Chorus
Audio CD: Decca,
0289 478 6760 9
2015 Hélène Hébrard,
Delphine Galou,
Julie Pasturaud,
Marc Barrard,
Ingrid Perruche,
Nicolas Courjal,
Jean-Paul Fouchécourt,
Annick Massis
Leonard Slatkin,
Orchestre National de Lyon, Chœur Britten, Jeune Chœur symphonique, and Maîtrise de l’Opéra National de Lyon
Audio CD: Naxos,
8.660336 [19]
2017 Camille Poul,
Marie Karall,
Julie Pasturaud,
Marc Barrard,
Maïlys de Villoutreys,
Paul Gay,
François Piolino,
Annick Massis
Stéphane Denève,
Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, South West German Radio Vocal Ensemble, and Cantus Juvenum Karlsruhe
Audio CD: SWR Classic,
SWR19033CD [20]
2017 Chloé Briot,
Sabine Devieilhe,
François Piolino,
Jodie Devos,
Julie Pasturaud,
Jean-François Lapointe,
Nathalie Stutzmann,
Nicolas Courjal
Mikko Franck,
Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, Chœur de Radio France, and Maîtrise De Radio France
Audio CD: Erato,
019029589692 [21]

References[edit]

Notes
  1. ^ Orenstein (2003): pp. 436-7
  2. ^ Orenstein (2003): p. 437
  3. ^ " L'Enfant et les sortilèges et L'Heure espagnole", L'Avant-Scène Opera, January 1990.
  4. ^ Wolff S. Un demi-siècle d'Opéra-Comique (1900-1950). André Bonne, Paris, 1953.
  5. ^ a b Holden, p. 734
  6. ^ Opening Night production personnel on San Francisco Opera archive
  7. ^ "Wilfrid Pelletier". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived 2010-02-13 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ "Vopera20 | Press & Contacts". Vopera20.
  9. ^ "L'Enfant et les sortilèges by Ravel opera review | The TLS".
  10. ^ "L'Enfant et les Sortilèges review – Vopera's brilliant updating of Ravel finds wit and relevance". the Guardian. Nov 17, 2020.
  11. ^ Naylor, Gary. "BWW Review: L'ENFANT ET LES SORTILÈGES, VOPERA". BroadwayWorld.com.
  12. ^ "L'Enfant et les Sortilège is one of lockdown's most ambitious arts projects yet". inews.co.uk. Nov 19, 2020.
  13. ^ Full score of L'enfant et les sortilèges. Durand et Cie, Paris, 1925.
  14. ^ "L’Enfant et les sortilèges et L’Heure espagnole", L’Avant-Scène Opera, January 1990.
  15. ^ Casaglia, Gherardo (2005). "L'enfant et les sortilèges, 21 March 1925". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).
  16. ^ In fact designated as 'trial' after the singer Antoine Trial.
  17. ^ Orenstein, p. 436
  18. ^ "RAVEL, M: Enfant et les sortileges (L') [Opera] / Sheherazade (Boulianne, Nashville Symphony, Willis) - 8.660215". www.naxos.com.
  19. ^ "RAVEL, M.: Enfant et les sortilèges (L') / Ma mère l'oye (Hébrard, Galou, Pasturaud, Fouchécourt, Lyon National Orchestra, Slatkin) - 8.660336". www.naxos.com.
  20. ^ "RAVEL, M.: Orchestral Works, Vol. 5 - Enfant et les sortilèges (L') / Ma mère l'oye (Stuttgart Radio Symphony, Denève) - SWR19033CD". www.naxos.com.
  21. ^ "Debussy, Ravel, Maîtrise De Radio France, Chœur de Radio France, Orchestre Philharmonique De Radio France, Mikko Franck – Debussy: L'Enfant Prodigue, Ravel: L'Enfant Et Les Sortilèges (2017, CD)" – via www.discogs.com.
Sources
  • Holden, Amanda (Ed.) The New Penguin Opera Guide. New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001. ISBN 0-14-029312-4
  • Orenstein, Arbie (Ed.) A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews. Mineola: Dover Publications, 2003. ISBN 0-486-43078-2

External links[edit]