L’Heure espagnole & L’Enfant et les Sortilèges de Maurice Ravel

Our Ravel double-bill in March 2025 celebrates the centenary of L’Enfant et les Sortilèges’ world premiere in Monte Carlo to the day. The first of his two operas, L’Heure espagnole, was premiered at the Opéra-Comique in 1911, where Ravel was first criticized for being too frivolous. Today, we might see the main character, Concepción, as a female version of Tony Curtis in the 1965 comedy Boeing-Boeing: the simultaneous arrival of various lovers for their rendezvous keeps her busy hiding them from one another – and mainly from the elderly clockmaker Torquemada, her husband.

In spite of their contrasting nature, the style and content of Ravel’s operas take us back to the Paris of Diaghilev, Coco Chanel, Colette, Picasso and Josephine Baker. People from all backgrounds, cultures and professions flocked to the French capital, turning it into a centre of avant-garde creativity. And in the winter they were off to Monte Carlo, where in 1925, Ravel’s fairytale L’Enfant et les Sortilèges received its world premiere.

Ravel’s colourful orchestration contains a mass of unusual instruments, it is exuberant and full of funny references – L’Enfant quoting fashionable dances from the 1920ies, such as the ragtime or foxtrot, at every step, whereas Spanish tunes and rhythms pervade L’Heure espagnole, a characteristic of so many of Ravel’s other celebrated works.

L'Heure espagnoleMusical (opera) in one act and 21 scenes
Music by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Poem by Franc-Nohain (Maurice Étienne Legrand) based on his comedy of the same name (1904)
Premiere: Paris, Opéra-Comique, 19 may 1911

L'Enfant et les SortilègesLyric fantasy in two parts
Music by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Libretto by Colette
Premiere: Monte-Carlo, Théâtre de l'Opéra, 21 March 1925

Coproduction with Opéra de Tours, Opéra Grand Avignon and Opéra royal de Wallonie

L'Heure espagnole
Concepción | Gaëlle Arquez
Gonzalve | Cyrille Dubois
Torquemada | Vincent Ordonneau
Ramiro | Florian Sempey
Don Inigo Gomez | Matthieu Lécroart

L'Enfant et les sortilèges
The child |Gaëlle Arquez
The Mother | Axelle Saint-Cirel
The Bergère, the Owl | Julie Nemer
The China Cup, the Dragonfly, a Shepherd | Floriane Hasler
The Fire, the Princess, the Nightingale | Florie Valiquette
the clock, the cat | Florian Sempey
The Bat, a Shepherdess | Jennifer Courcier
The Female Cat, the Squirrel | Cécile Madelin
The armchair, The tree | Matthieu Lécroart
The Teapot, the Little Old Man (Arithmetic Book), the Tree Frog | Cyrille Dubois

Conductor | Kazuki Yamada
Director | Jean-Louis Grinda
Sets and Costumes | Rudy Sabounghi
Lighting design | Laurent Castaingt
Choreography | Eugénie Andrin
Choirmaster | Stefano Visconti

Choir of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo
Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo
Children's Choir of the Académie de musique Rainier III