About the work
La Création du monde is a one-act ballet by Darius Milhaud based on a scenario by Blaise Cendrars, depicting the creation of the world according to African mythology. Sets and costumes were designed by Fernand Léger, with choreography by Jean Börlin. The Ballets suédois gave the roughly fifteen-minute work its premiere on 25 October 1923 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.
Plot
Out of chaos, three giant god-figures gradually shape the earth and its plants and animals; finally the first man and the first woman appear, and their courtship dance closes the work.
Cultural significance
Milhaud had recently heard jazz in Harlem during a trip to New York, and this ballet was the first large stage work in which he drew on that experience; its bitonal score, with saxophone and jazz rhythms, is regarded as one of the earliest instances of European concert music taking jazz seriously.