|
''Mercure'' (''Mercury'', or ''The Adventures of Mercury'') is a 1924 ballet with music by Erik Satie. The original décor and costumes were designed by Pablo Picasso and the choreography was by Léonide Massine, who also danced the title role. Subtitled "Plastic Poses in Three Tableaux", it was an important link between Picasso's Neoclassical and Surrealist phases and has been described as a "painter's ballet."〔Michael C. FitzGerald, "Making Modernism: Picasso and the Creation of the Market for Twentieth-century Art", University of California Press, 1996, pp. 133-151.〕〔Rollo H. Myers, "Erik Satie", Dover Publications, Inc., NY, 1968, p.105. Originally published in 1948 by Denis Dobson Ltd., London.〕 ''Mercure'' was commissioned by the Soirées de Paris stage company and first performed at the Théâtre de la Cigale in Paris on June 15, 1924. The conductor was Roger Désormière. ==Background== The Soirées de Paris was a short-lived attempt by Count Étienne de Beaumont (1883-1956) - socialite, balletomane, and patron of the arts - to rival Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes as an arbiter of Modernism in French theatre.〔John Richardson, "A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932", Alfred A. Knopf, 2010, pp. 256-262.〕〔Ornella Volta, "Satie Seen Through His Letters", Marion Boyars Publishers, New York, 1989, p. 168.〕 He was famed for the extravagant annual costume balls he hosted at his Paris mansion and had enjoyed some success financing theatrical ventures, notably the Darius Milhaud-Jean Cocteau ballet ''Le boeuf sur le toit'' (1920).〔Lynn Garafola, "Diaghilev's Ballets Russes", Da Capo Press, 2009, p. 101.〕 In late 1923 he rented the La Cigale music hall in Montmartre, hired former Diaghilev associate Massine as his choreographer, and commissioned an eclectic group of dance and dramatic pieces utilizing the talents of authors Cocteau and Tristan Tzara, composers Milhaud and Henri Sauguet, artists Georges Braque, André Derain, and Marie Laurencin, and pioneer lighting designer Loie Fuller.〔Billy Klüver and Julie Martin, "Kiki's Paris: Artists and Lovers 1900-1930", Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York, 1989, pp. 132-133, 231.〕 Beaumont's biggest coup was reuniting Massine with Picasso and Satie for their first stage collaboration since the scandalous, revolutionary Diaghilev ballet ''Parade'' (1917), and their work was anticipated as a highlight of the Soirées' inaugural season. It was decided early on that ''Mercure'' would have no plot. The libretto has been variously attributed to Massine or Picasso, but the formal concept was Beaumont's. In a letter to Picasso dated February 21, 1924, Beaumont stated he wanted the ballet to be a series of tableaux vivants on a mythological theme, in a lighthearted manner suitable for a music hall; beyond those stipulations he said, "I don't want to drag literature into it, nor do I want the composer or the choreographer to do so...do whatever you want."〔Richardson, "A Life of Picasso", pp. 257-258.〕 Satie's input appears to have been decisive in selecting the ancient Roman god Mercury as the subject - and not entirely for artistic reasons. Conspicuously absent from the project was the fourth key member of the ''Parade'' team, Jean Cocteau. While Satie owed much of his postwar fame to Cocteau's promotional efforts on his behalf, he had never really gotten along with the man he described as "a charming maniac."〔Erik Satie, letter to Serge Diaghilev dated June 19, 1923. Quoted in Volta, "Satie Seen Through His Letters", p. 128.〕 The author's increasingly exaggerated claims for his role in ''Parades success was a particular source of annoyance for both Satie and Picasso.〔"Cocteau continues his 'boring' tricks of 1917. He's 'boring' Picasso and me until I'm shattered...It's a mania with him: ''Parade'' is his work alone...". Erik Satie, letter to Valentine Hugo dated December 13, 1920. Quoted in Volta, "Satie Seen Through His Letters", p. 127.〕〔During a 1920 revival of ''Parade'', André Gide met Cocteau backstage and later noted in his journal, "(is ) well aware that Picasso created the scenery and costumes and Satie the music, but he is wondering whether Picasso and Satie have been created by himself." Quoted in Volta, "Satie Seen Through His Letters", pp. 127-128.〕 Just before creative talks for the Beaumont ballet got underway, Satie accused Cocteau of corrupting the morals of his onetime protégés Georges Auric and Francis Poulenc, and severed ties with all three of them.〔In January 1924, during the Ballets Russes season in Monte Carlo, Cocteau had taken Auric and Poulenc to opium-smoking parties hosted by critic Louis Laloy. The rigidly moral Satie found this unforgivable, especially since his longtime foe Laloy was involved. See Steven Moore Whiting, "Satie the Bohemian: From Cabaret to Concert Hall", Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 520.〕 He made the break public in an article for ''Paris-Journal'' (February 15, 1924), in which he castigated Cocteau and referred to recent ballets by Auric and Poulenc as "lots of syrupy things...buckets of musical lemonade."〔Carl B. Schmidt, "Entrancing Muse: A Documented Biography of Francis Poulenc", Pendragon Press, 2001 pp.135-136〕 Auric used his position as music critic for ''Les Nouvelles Littéraires'' to retaliate and for several months he and Satie took potshots at each other in the French press. Their feud would come to a climax at the ''Mercure'' opening. It was known among the Paris cognoscenti that Cocteau personally identified with Mercury and all that the figure stood for.〔Volta, "Satie Seen Through His Letters", p. 168.〕 He invariably attended costume balls (including Beaumont's) dressed as the deity, with silver tights, winged helmet and sandals, brandishing Mercury's wand as he darted among the other guests.〔Leslie Norton, "Leonide Massine and the 20th Century Ballet", McFarland, 2004, p. 83.〕 What's more, he had cast himself as Mercutio in his upcoming adaptation of ''Romeo and Juliet'' for the Soirées. Since the ballet was supposed to be a mythological spoof, Satie and Picasso saw in Mercury an opportunity for some veiled mockery at Cocteau's expense.〔Volta, "Satie Seen Through His Letters", p. 168.〕 In the final scenario he is presented as a meddlesome schemer who spends much of the time lurking in the wings before bounding onto the scene to cause trouble. The in-jokes did not stop there: according to Belgian music critic Paul Collaer, the risqué supporting characters of the Three Graces - to be performed by men in drag with enormous fake breasts - were intended to represent Auric, Poulenc, and an arch-enemy of Satie's, the critic Louis Laloy.〔Collaer was a friend of Satie's and one of the very few music critics whose opinions Satie respected. See Whiting, "Satie the Bohemian", p. 523.〕 The creators kept their work secret and Satie jokingly told the inquisitive he had no clue what the ballet was about.〔Volta, "Satie Seen Through His Letters", p. 169.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mercure (ballet)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|