ABSTRACT
When Georges Auric was director of the Opéra de Paris, he had the idea of putting on a ballet of Turangalîla with choreography by Roland Petit and sets by Max Ernst, but I am not sure that this was a good idea. Messiaen refrained from commenting. This production also cost him a lost law suit with a literary-political pseudo-personality who, twenty years earlier, had submitted plans for a choreographic representation of Turangalîla to the reading committee at the Opéra. The plans were accepted and carefully tucked away in a drawer at the Palais Garnier, but Messiaen, who wanted to forget this episode, was unwise enough to thank and congratulate the librettist-postulant in writing.
