Ravel L'Enfant et les Sortilèges
Synopsis and Character Description of French Lyric Fantasy
Nov 22, 2008
L'enfant et les Sortilèges (The Child and the Spells) is a French lyric fantasy, a one-act opera composed by Maurice Ravel (March 7, 1875 – December 28, 1937.)
Libretto was written by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. It was premiered in Monte Carlo, Theatre de Monte Carlo, on March 21, 1925. Setting is an old-fashioned Normandy home in the present. A notable aria is "Toi, le coeur de la rose" (child).
L'enfant et les Sortilèges (The Child and the Spells) is a lyric fantasy in two parts, an opera in one act by Maurice Ravel, libretto by Colette. This is the second opera by Ravel, with L'heure Espagnole, the first. Colette must have been so encouraged by this project that she wrote the text in eight days. The opera was well-received in Monte Carlo, where it was first performed.
Major Character Role
- L'Enfant, a naughty child who lazily takes his time doing his assignment, is reprimanded by his maman (mother). (mezzo soprano)
Minor Character Roles
- Maman, the boy's mother (contralto)
- Black cat, whose tail the child pulled in his room (baritone)
(In Scene 1, all the inanimate things in his room including furnitures, chairs, wall paintings come to life, becoming the characters in this lyric fantasy.)
- Princess, from his favourite childhood book that he tore (soprano),
- Arithmetic, he has neglected to do (tenor)
- Bench, Chairs, Couch and Stool, long-suffering furniture items destroyed (all treble)
- Clock, he broke (baritone)
- Fire in the grate, he offended (soprano)
- Teapot, a black wedgwood that services him, he broke (tenor)
- Chinese Cup, with the teapot that also services him, he destroyed (contralto)
- Shepherds and Shepherdess, from a wall painting containing characters he slashed (sopranos)
(Scene 2 transforms into a garden scenario where the trees break and animals talk and cry.)
- Dragonfly, cries for a friend the child hurt in his room (contralto)
- Tree, he wounds with his pocket knife (bass)
- Screech owl and nightingale, bird sympathizers to their wounded friends (both soprano)
- White cat, grieves for his black cat friend (mezzo soprano)
- Bat, grieves for a loss of something destroyed (soprano)
- Squirrel, wounded but he takes care (mezzo soprano)
- Chorus of other animals and trees (alto, tenor, soprano and bass) and a treefrog (tenor)
Plot Summary
Act I
Scene 1. A Room in the Country Opening on a Garden
The story is about a rude child who is reprimanded by the objects in his room which he has been destroying. Ignoring his mother's admonitions, the child throws into tantrum breaking things in his room. He is most surprised to find the objects in his room suddenly come to life. The furniture comes to life. They begin to talk and get revenge by terrorizing the child. The fire chases him and the shepherds painted on the wall paper scold him. Even the princess from his favorite childhood book, which the child ripped to pieces, is swallowed by the earth. Even his homework takes shape as arithmetic rises up out of one of the torn books and torments him.
Scene 2. The Garden
The bedroom is transformed into a garden filled with plants and singing animals, who were all cruelly tortured by the child. He tries to make friends with the plants and animals, but they avoid him because of the damage he has done to them when they were inanimate objects. So anxious are they to hurt the child that they fight among themselves for the "privilege" to take vengeance. In his helplessness and loneliness, he cries out for his mother. *A utopian ballet ensues* The turning point is when the child tends a wounded squirrel though he himself is hurt. Impressed and touched, the animals softened and carry him home.
Sources:
Concise Guide to Opera, Edited by Amanda Holden, Penguin Reference. London: Penguin, 2005
The Da Capo Opera Manual, Nicholas Ivor Martin, New York, Da Capo Press, 1997
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