Poulenc, Francis. (1899-1963) Les Biches. Ballet Avec Chant en Un Acte.

Poulenc, Francis. (1899-1963)

Les Biches. Ballet Avec Chant en Un Acte.

Paris: Au Ménestrel, Heugel. [1924]. First edition. Réduction pour Piano et Chant par L'Auteur. Texte anglais et allemand de J. Benoist-Méchin. Original beige pictorial wrappers with cover illustration by Marie Laurencin [who designed the original costumes]. Title; Cast list for the first performances at the Théâtre de Monte-Carlo and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, 1924 - direction by Diaghilev and choreography by Nijinska; Remarques; Table; 1-96. [PN] H. 28, 730. In very fine condition.

The ballet by Poulenc was premiered by the Ballet Russes in 1924 after Serge Diaghilev commissioned the young composer to write a piece based on Glazunov's "Les Sylphides." Instead, Poulenc produced a work based on the paintings of Watteau depicting Louis XIV and various women in his "Parc aux Biches," the title word generally translated as "hind." Poulenc described his work as "a contemporary drawing room party suffused with an atmosphere of wantonness, which you sense if you are corrupted, but of which an innocent-minded girl would not be conscious." In "The Rest is Noise" (2007), Alex Ross notes that "Poulenc would write more substantial scores - he had the richest, most surprising career of any of Les Six - but Les Biches retains its nasty champagne kick after all these years." (1972)

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