MUSICAL MANUSCRIT autograph "Darius Milhaud", 'adame
Miroir, ballet (1948); 1 title sheet and 15 folio pages (34.5 x 27.5 cm). (34,5 x 27,5 cm).
Ballet music for Roland Petit on a libretto by Jean Genet.
Milhaud wrote this music for the Nouveaux Ballets de Roland
PETIT, on a libretto by Jean GENET, whose only ballet it was. The choreography was entrusted to Janine Charrat, with a set by Paul
Delvaux and costumes by Léonor Fini. The premiere took place at the Théâtre Marigny on 30 May 1948. Roland Petit danced the Matelot, with his reflection Serge Perrault (the Image) and the
Domino (or Death) danced alternately by Volodia Skouratoff and Léo Auer. It was "staged with great care and taste by Roland Petit's New Ballets.
A beautiful set by Delvaux depicted a labyrinth made of ice; a sailor got lost in it, constantly escorted by his double, and he suddenly found himself in the presence of
Death" (Darius Milhaud, Ma vie heureuse).
The critics hailed this "very carnal, very troubled, very endearing" work as "the most powerful ballet that has been presented to us since the Liberation".
This is the composer's opus 283; the score was immediately published by Heugel.
This manuscript of the 'piano reduction' is written in black ink on Belwin's Parchment
Band paper, 20 lines long; it is signed and dated at the end 'Paris 8 April 1948', with the duration: 'Total 18 minutes'; a detailed timetable appears on the back of the title page. The score has five numbers.
I. Entrée et Danses du Matelot devant les Miroirs (p. 1);
II. Le Matelot et son Image (Pas de deux),
Modéré (p. 6);
III. Entrance of the Woman (Death) and
Dance with the Sailor (Pas de trois),
Modéré (p. 8) ;
IV. Dance of Death and the Sailor (p.
10);
V. Death and the Image of the Sailor (Final),
Vif (p. 13).
Bibliography: Edmund White, Jean Genet (Gallimard, 1993), pp. 337-338; Jean Genet,
Théâtre, Bibl. de la Pléiade (Gallimard, 2002), pp. 245-253.
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