About the work
Maurice Ravel's one-act opera „L'enfant et les sortilèges" was premiered in Monte Carlo in 1925 under Victor de Sabata. Colette wrote the libretto, which Ravel called a „lyric fantasy" — a surreal journey through the tantrum-universe of a child, in which furniture, animals and fairy-tale figures come alive.
Plot
A child of about seven, refusing to do homework, is shut in his room by his mother as punishment. In a fit of rage he smashes crockery, torments the cat, tears the wallpaper, jabs the squirrel's cage and stirs the fire. Suddenly all the tormented things come to life: armchair and bergère dance, the broken cup chants in mock-Chinese, the fire threatens, the garden demands an account. Animals and plants accuse the child. Only when he selflessly bandages a wounded squirrel does the tide turn: the animals carry the healed hero back and cry the word that dispels all anger — „Maman".
Cultural significance
„L'enfant et les sortilèges" is one of the most original works of French modernism and Ravel's most-performed opera. The score moves between foxtrot (the teapot and Chinese cup), ragtime, waltz and impressionist sonic magic, and is considered an orchestrational masterpiece. Stagings by Robert Carsen and Laurent Pelly, among others, have firmly established the work in the repertoire; it works equally well for family audiences and adult viewers.