ABSTRACT
In a radio programme dedicated to the author of Le Diable au corps Poulenc says that Cocteau once read him the libretto, at that time already promised to Satie, and confessed that he had enjoyed it 'so much that he wanted it desperately'. It was therefore quite natural that, after Satie's death, no evidence being found that the latter had ever begun work on this libretto, Cocteau should pass it on to Poulenc. In 1958, after his successful encounter with Jean Cocteau's text La Voix humaine, Poulenc confessed to Francine Bloch, who was interviewing him about his plans, that once again his dream was 'to compose a new work for the stage', but he added: 'the difficulty is in finding a libretto'. During the last years of the composer's life, the soprano Denise Duval, Poulenc's favourite female exponent, played an active role in his search for a libretto.
