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RAVEL Daphnis and Chloe: the chorus
Posted by paul corfield godfrey on June 3, 2022, 6:59 pm
In his review of the Denève box of Ravel, Nick Barnard comments that "the production choice of moving the off-stage choir forward in the aural picture remains a mistake." I would presume however that the producers have specifically taken notice of Ravel's instructions in the score that at the beginning the choir should be "offstage" [derrière la scene] but that seventeen bars later they should approach [en se rapprochant] until eight bars later again they should be "on" [sur la scène]. Presumably he intended that the choir should be impersonating the corps de ballet as they enter, although it is hard to see how far in practical terms this could be implemented, certainly at that speed, in a live performance; I have certainly never seen it done. Nonetheless the producers here have presumably made an attempt to comply with Ravel's bizarre request, and although the attempt may not have been successful it is in accordance with the composer's indications in the score. Ravel plays similar tricks later, instructing that the chorus should be "très lontains" during the interlude before the second scene; and just before the famous daybreak sequence the choir is marked "derrière la scene très loin" and then later "plus près" although I cannot see where they are supposed to get back onstage for their later passages at full volume. Maybe Ravel during the actual course of writing realised the sheer impracticability of what he was demanding; but in that case it is odd that he left the earlier instructions in place.