Le Dieu bleu

After the success at the Paris Opéra of La Fête chez Thérèse (1910), Hahn was commissioned by Diaghilev to compose the music for a ballet; the impresario wanted French musicians to compose for the Ballets Russes. Jean Cocteau, assisted by Federico de Madrazo, provided the libretto for this Hindu legend. In a fantasised India, The Young Girl interrupts the ceremony by which The Young Man, whom she loves, is about to become a priest of the temple. As punishment for this blasphemy, she is to be put to death by monsters, but the Goddess rises from the lotus, and the Blue God appears and calms the monsters with his flute, thus saving her. Cocteau and Hahn were not keen on the idea of working together; Diaghilev, however, was delighted to bring together a figure of the French avant-garde and the most popular musician of the Paris salons. Hahn worked closely with Fokine, whose choreography presented the result of his studies of Siamese and Indian dances. The composer did his utmost to avoid a stereotyped exotic vocabulary; he used chromaticism and modal writing, shunned the picturesque, and experimented with polyphonic writing. Judged too French for such an exotic subject – although that had been Diaghilev’s desire – the score of Le Dieu bleu was very different from that of the famous company’s other creations. Mata Hari was considered for the role of the Goddess, but considered it beneath her to have to audition for the role. Rehearsals began in Monte-Carlo before moving to Paris under Hahn’s watchful eye. Premiered on 13 May 1912 – two weeks before Nijinsky’s choreography of L’Après-midi d'un faune (Debussy) and three weeks before Fokine’s Daphnis et Chloé (Ravel) – Le Dieu bleu was not a success and it was dropped from the repertoire.