Cahier – Gaspard de la Nuit

The show

Gaspard de la Nuit’s genesis can be traced back to a proposal made by Bruno Deschamps, head of the Sète Municipal Theatre, during the activities organised to commemorate the death of Paul Valéry.

Valéry and Ravel: two men of the same period of time, linked by time. Somewhere in the marvellous tiny theatre of Sète is to be found a piano, Valéry’s piano on which Mauric Ravel once played.

Gaspard de la Nuit is a work for a single piano. A certain level of skills is needed to perform the work, which is why it is often chosen for competitions. Loosely based on three poems from fantaisies de Gaspard de la Nuit by Louis Bertrand, Ravel wrote a three-part musical work: Ondine, Gibet and Scarbo.

Gaspard de la Nuit, a trio of male dancers, choreography as a both poetical and formal process, romanticism as an exercise in style.

Michèle Anne De Mey – March 1995