ABSTRACT
A supplementary way in which Ravel expanded ballet repertoire was through orchestrations of nineteenth-century Romantic works. The most celebrated, while not a ballet, does have a distinct pictorial element: the orchestration of Musorgsky's Tableaux d'une exposition, completed in 1922. This chapter seeks to provide an overview and a means of consolidating, and sometimes resolving, issues raised en route. The reasons for Ravel's collaborations and the strengths and weaknesses of his interpersonal relations are summarized; the overall nature of relations in the resulting ballets is also established. Additional repertory is brought into the frame: plans, sketches and orchestrations, as well as the balleticizing by others of Ravel's music from other genres. The importance of performance as the means by which to realize this repertory is underlined, with emphasis on special performance events. Ravel's practice of compositional remodelling is also brought into the final argument.
