ABSTRACT
Dance occupied a privileged place in Maurice Ravel's musical output, and his revisiting of its iconic form as the waltz, which superseded his earlier infatuation with the minuet, is of particular significance. Ravel's long-lived love for the waltz enables pre- and postwar comparison and relates to questions of neoromanticism and neoclassicism. The story of Adelaide presents a classic romance with a cliched love triangle. Adelaide is a flirtatious, fickle courtesan, who hosts an early nineteenth-century Parisian, rather than Viennese, salon. Beyond Ravel's double contribution as composer and scenario-writer, collaboration for Adelaide involved a mixture of Russian and French personnel. In contrast with Daphnis in the summer of 1912, but in common with Ma Mere l'Oye early in the year, this enterprise of spring 1912 was not a fiery meeting of superstars and is consequently much less well documented.
