''Les mariés de la tour Eiffel'' (''The Wedding Party on the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "' ...

'') is a

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

to a libretto by

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...

, choreography by Jean Börlin, set by , costumes by

Jean Hugo Jean Hugo (19 November 1894 – 21 June 1984) was a painter, illustrator, theatre designer and author. He was born in Paris and died in his home at the Mas de Fourques, near Lunel, France. Brought up in a lively artistic environment, he began ...

, and music by five members of

Les Six "Les Six" () is a name given to a group of six composers, five of them French and one Swiss, who lived and worked in Montparnasse. The name, inspired by Mily Balakirev's '' The Five'', originates in two 1920 articles by critic Henri Collet in ' ...

Georges Auric Georges Auric (; 15 February 1899 – 23 July 1983) was a French composer, born in Lodève, Hérault, France. He was considered one of ''Les Six'', a group of artists informally associated with Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie. Before he turned 20 he ...

Arthur Honegger Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, his best known work is probably ''Antigone'', composed between 1924 and 1927 t ...

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...

, Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre. The score calls for two narrators. The ballet was first performed in Paris in 1921.

Background

The ballet had its genesis in a commission to

and

, from Rolf de Maré of the

Ballets suédois Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

. Cocteau's original title for his scenario was ''The Wedding Party Massacre''. It has been suggested that Raymond Radiguet, the young writer close to Cocteau at the time, made some contribution to the libretto.NYT, 17 April 1988, Dance View: The Irreverence of Cocteau Sparkles Once More
/ref> Running short of time, Auric asked his fellow members of

to also contribute music, and all of them did except Louis Durey, who pleaded illness. It was staged by the Ballets suédois at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

on 18 June 1921, the principal dancers being C. Ari, J. Figoni, and K. Vahlander. The orchestra was conducted by

Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht (17 September 188014 February 1965) was a French composer, conductor and writer. Life and career Inghelbrecht was born in Paris, the son of a violist. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire and made his debut as a ...

. The narrators were Jean Cocteau and Pierre Bertin.Classics online
It had a brief moment of fame and even scandal, but then fell into oblivion, although it was given in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1923. A new production opened there in 1988.

Story

The story of the ballet is somewhat nonsensical: : The new couple have a wedding breakfast on

Bastille Day Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries to the national day of France, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In French, it is formally called the (; "French National Celebration"); legally it is known as (; "t ...

(July 14) at a table on one of the platforms of the famous tower. A guest makes a pompous speech. When a humpbacked photographer bids everyone to "watch the birdie," it appears that a telegraph office suddenly springs into existence on the platform. A lion comes in and eats one of the guests for breakfast and a strange figure called "a child of the future" appears and kills everybody. Nevertheless, the ballet concludes with the end of the wedding. When asked what the ballet was about, Cocteau replied: "Sunday vacuity; human beastliness, ready-made expressions, disassociation of ideas from flesh and bone, ferocity of childhood, the miraculous poetry of everyday life." On 29 July 1923, in a letter, Francis Poulenc described the work as "toujours de la merde ... hormis l'Ouverture d' Auric" ("yet more shit ... apart from Auric's Overture").Barbara L. Kelly, Tradition and style in the works of Darius Milhaud 1912-1939
/ref>

The ballet

The sections of the ballet are: * ''Overture'' (14 July) -

* ''Marche nuptiale'' -

* ''Discours du General'' (Polka) – Francis Poulenc * ''La Baigneuse de Trouville'' – Poulenc * ''La Fugue du Massacre'' – Milhaud * ''La Valse des Depeches'' – Germaine Tailleferre * ''Marche funèbre'' –

(in which he

quotes Quote is a hypernym of quotation, as the repetition or copy of a prior statement or thought. Quotation marks are punctuation marks that indicate a quotation. Both ''quotation'' and ''quotation marks'' are sometimes abbreviated as "quote(s)". ...

the Waltz from

Gounod Charles-François Gounod (; ; 17 June 181818 October 1893), usually known as Charles Gounod, was a French composer. He wrote twelve operas, of which the most popular has always been ''Faust (opera), Faust'' (1859); his ''Roméo et Juliette'' (18 ...

's ''

Faust Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...

'') * ''Quadrille'' – Tailleferre * ''Ritournelles'' – Auric * ''Sortie de la Noce'' – Milhaud.Naxos
/ref>

Recordings

The score was unpublished until the first full recording of the work in 1966, which was supervised by

.cocteau, satie & les six
Les Mariés was performed by the Delft student music company " Krashna Musika" in Delft,

the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, on 2 May 1975, as part of the Student Music Festival "Muzikaal Totaal", conceived by Guus Ranke. It was repeated on 23 May 1975, in theatre "De Junushof" in

Wageningen Wageningen () is a municipality and a historic city in the central Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. It is famous for Wageningen University, which specialises in life sciences. The municipality had a population of in , of which many ...

The Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Both performances were in Dutch. The Wageningen edition was recorded, and can be obtained via Krashna Musika / KRAK from June 2020 on. The ballet has also been recorded more recently by the Philharmonia Orchestra under

Geoffrey Simon Geoffrey Philip Simon (born 3 July 1946) is an Australian conductor resident in London. Recordings Geoffrey Simon was born on 3 July 1946 in Adelaide. He was a student of Herbert von Karajan, Rudolf Kempe, Hans Swarowsky and Igor Markevitch, ...

. In 1987, Marius Constant arranged the music for an ensemble of fifteen instruments: wind quintet, string quintet, trumpet, trombone, harp and two percussion. This version of the music has been recorded by the Erwartung Ensemble under Bernard Desgraupes, with

Jean-Pierre Aumont Jean-Pierre Aumont (born Jean-Pierre Philippe Salomons; 5 January 1911 – 30 January 2001) was a French actor, and holder of the Légion d'Honneur and the Croix de Guerre for his World War II military service. Early life Aumont was born Jea ...

and Raymond Gerome, narrators.

References

External links

Video - Darius Milhaud - ''Les mariés de la tour Eiffel'' (20:51).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maries De La Tour Eiffel, Les Collaborations in classical music 1921 ballet premieres 1921 compositions Compositions with a narrator Ballets by Georges Auric Ballets by Darius Milhaud Ballets by Francis Poulenc Compositions by Arthur Honegger Compositions by Germaine Tailleferre Les Six Ballets by Jean Börlin