La Fête chez Thérèse
Ballet-pantomime in 2 acts, with choreography by Louise Stichel, first performed on 13 February 1910 at the Paris Opéra.
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For the beginning of the Paris Opéra’s 1909-1910 season, the new directors Broussan and Messager commissioned Reynaldo Hahn to compose a ballet aimed at enriching the institution’s impoverished choreographic repertoire. The title of the ballet is that of a poem by Victor Hugo (from Les Contemplations). Catulle Mendès chose, ironically, to situate the action in July 1841, a few days after the first performance at the Paris Opéra of Giselle with Carlotta Grisi in the title role. In La Fête chez Thérèse La Grisi gives a ballet lesson to the young seamstress Mimi Pinson, Mimi’s lover is a student by the name of Théodore, whose affections wander… he is captivated by Duchess Thérèse. This mise en abyme permits nostalgic evocations of the Romantic ballet and the quotation of two famous pieces, the waltz from Giselle and Frédéric Bérat’s popular song “Mimi Pinson est une blonde”, naturally associated with the eponymous character in the ballet. Going beyond the procedure, usual for ballets, of conveying musically the protagonists’ words and thoughts, Hahn uses identifying themes with a specific tessitura for each character. Thus, throughout the ballet, the music weaves psychological relationships between the characters. This undoubtedly modern approach – Messager referred to the work as “a new type of ballet” – contributed to its success, and for a time it did indeed give fresh impetus to the Paris Opéra’s balletic repertoire. At the première on 13 February 1910 the company’s recently appointed ballet mistress, Louise Stichel, was highly acclaimed for the skill and originality of her choreography, and Carlotta Zambelli (Mimi) and Aïda Boni (Thérèse) received much enthusiastic applause. A temporary alternative to the Ballets Russes appeared to be taking shape.
