Une revue

In a series of sketches, Une Revue traces the evolution of society and its morals over a period of hundred years (1830-1930). Paris, 1830, in the boutique of Monsieur Chocard (where Balzac comes to buy shawls) the two young male assistants are both in love with his daughter, Malvina: this scene was later developed into the three-act opérette Malvina (1935). The next tableau takes us to the woods of Ville-d’Avray with the painter Corot dreaming of nymphs dancing in a clearing; then we follow the first traveller on the Paris to Saint-Germain railway line. 1846, a masked ball at the Opéra; and so on. In Act II, an evocation of the famous cabaret Le Chat-Noir in 1889, then in 1910 the last waltz and the first tango; in 1911, the Ballets Russes; in 1918, a night-time conversation about the First World War; in 1926 a fashionable beach (Biarritz) and the appearance of the last horse-drawn carriage. Une Revue ends with a prediction, very topical in its resonance, evoking man’s desire for a simpler life: let’s do away with the telephone and insteadread good books by candlelight! In the In the final Défilé a gigantic library appears, with each volume personified by its hero or heroine in sumptuous costume. The dialogues are delicate beyond the ambitions of the genre, and Hahn clearly delights in mixing fashionable tunes with his own compositions, characterised by boldness and refinement. His score ensured the continuity of the episodes and the stylistic coherence of the whole. Among the pieces that have remained famous are the Chanson de la cantinière and La dernière valse. At its premiere at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin on 30 October 1926, with Jacques Charles conducting, the work was highly acclaimed.