User:Omnivore/Histoires Naturelles

Histoires Naturelles is a set of 5 related songs on animal subjects by the French composer Maurice Ravel, written in 1906 and first performed on 12 June the following year [1907] in the Salle Érard in Paris by the soprano Jane Bathori, with the composer himself accompanying at the piano. The texts are drawn from a work of the same name by Jules Renard.

The songs are

I. Le paon [dedicated to Jane Bathori]

II. Le grillon [dedicated to Madeleine Picard]

III. Le cygne [dedicated to Mme Albert Edards = Misia Godebski = Misia Sert]

IV. Le martin-pêcheur [dedicated to Émile Engel, the tenor who married Jane Bathori in 1908]

V. La pintade [dedicated to the composer Roger-Ducasse]

Ravel's Histoires Naturelles have been recorded many times, by both male and female singers, some of great distinction including Susan Grahmam, Régine Crespin, Jan De Gaetani, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Gabriel Bacquier, Simon Keenlyside, Gerald Finley. There is even a version by the original soprano, Jane Bathori.

Initially, audiences found Ravel's settings shocking, on account of his wry humour and his very free treatment of the texts, both rhythmically and melodically. Subsequently, the 5 songs have come to be recognised as one of his most inventive and original vocal works.