Introduction

This chapter aims to offer a dedicated study of Maurice Ravel's ballets and, following Ravel's example, it seeks to situate the music within its broader cultural context. Ravel's aesthetic perspective upon the arts was a holistic one. In Ravel's case, one frequently hears Bolero or the Second Suite from Daphnis et Chloe in the concert hall, but relatively rarely is that music placed in the context of attendant scenario, dance and design. Similarly, scholarly emphasis has favoured Ravel's output as a whole, or particular ballet companies taken as a whole. In order to establish Ravel's relations within a complex collaborative network, the chapter outlines the historical and cultural context, introducing the main characters and companies with whom Ravel worked during his balletically active years, 1909-29, as well as the composer's aesthetic writings on ballet and opera. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.