About this episode
The episode discusses the premiere of Maurice Ravel's ballet 'Daphnis et Chloé' and the challenges faced during its production.
Synopsis On today’s date in 1912, Maurice Ravel’s ballet Daphnis et Chloé received its first performance at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, staged by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and choreographed by Michel Fokine. Three years earlier, Diaghilev had approached Ravel about composing a ballet, and Ravel started working with Fokine on a scenario based on an old Greek pastoral romance about two lovers separated by pirates and reunited by the intervention of the god Pan. Ravel was a meticulous and slow worker, and his score for Daphnis et Chloé ended up taking three years to complete. By the time of its 1912 premiere, internal squabbles in the Diaghilev company and conceptual differences between composer and choreographer had dampened everyone's enthusiasm for the project. Even Diaghilev seemed to lose interest. In his memoirs, Pierre Monteux, the conductor of the first performance, recalled, “At first Diaghilev had been very enthusiastic with Ravel’s magnificent score, but for some reason, which I have always thought was due to the weakness of the choreography, his fervor for Ravel and his music diminished to such a low pitch that it became difficult to work as we should have…
Topics covered
- ballet
- music history
- Ravel
- Daphnis et Chloé
- performance
- choreography
Keywords
- Ravel
- Daphnis et Chloé
- Ballets Russes
- Serge Diaghilev
- Michel Fokine
- Pierre Monteux
- Paris
- 1912
- music history
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Ballets Russes
Books & works: Daphnis et Chloé
Places: Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris
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