Love and drama amongst… kitchen utensils?
Imagine that you’re a composer working in the 1920’s and you’re asked to write a curtain-raiser for a ballet troupe. Would the idea of having dancers portray various kitchen implements embroiled in messy romantic situations worthy of Shakespeare or grand opera occur to you? Well, that’s the scenario Jarmila Kroschlova, director of Prague’s Ballet Company, approached Bohuslav Martinu with in 1927 and he rose to the challenge. Martinu’s score for the ballet La Revue de Cuisine incorporated the tango and Charleston, fashionable dances of the day, and he was no stranger to jazz, having used the foxtrot in his writing as far back as 1919 and 1920. After he moved to Paris in 1923, however, he was mourning his father and feeling the need to re-invent himself. He’d won a three-month scholarship from Prague’s Ministry of Education, but would end up living in Paris for 18 years. Jazz was all around him and increasingly informed his work between 1923 and 1930. The score for Martinu’s 1929 opera The Three Wishes includes banjos, saxophones, and the flexatone, a percussion instrument you may have heard in vintage cartoons.
Originally titled The Temptation of the Saintly Pot, the ten-movement ballet score’s scenario introduces the newly married Pot and Lid, but this is no blissful honeymoon tale. The Twirling Stick, who apparently fancies himself a Rudolph Valentino type, makes shameless passes at Pot, who eventually falls for his flattery. Meanwhile, the vampy Dishcloth pursues Lid, but is challenged to a duel by Broom. Pot grows bored by the superficial Twirling Stick and misses Lid, who cannot be found. In a “Pes ex Machina” twist worthy of Monty Python, an enormous foot appears from the wings and kicks Lid back onstage. Pot and Lid have a joyous reunion and Twirling Stick and Dishcloth run off together.
In addition to being a hit (especially once re-titled!) this ballet was a personal favorite of Martinu’s and he may well have been thumbing his nose at critics who had dismissed his earlier dance scores as instrumentally and tonally overburdened. The four-movement suite from the ballet premiered in Paris in 1930 and continues to be performed to this day, but it doesn’t appear that all ten movements are danced much these days. If a local ballet company happened to mount this jazzy one-act in its entirety, wouldn’t that be… delicious?
Speaking of Paris, Jim and I will be off on our own Jazz Age-inspired adventures in the City of Light soon. Here are some pictures of us attending past “Gatsby” events. 23-skiddoo!
