Cocteau and Glass

Synopsis

Jean Cocteau was a French novelist, playwright, stage and film director, poet, essayist, painter, set designer, and actor. And if that wasn’t enough, at the end of the First World War, Cocteau also became the unofficial spokesperson for “Les Six,” or “The Six,” a group of young composers that included Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger, Louis Durey, Germaine Tailleferre, and Georges Auric.

In 1945, Cocteau directed his own cinematic adaptation of the classic fairytale “Beauty and the Beast,” and in 1950, a modern-dress retelling of the ancient Greek myth of “Orpheus.”

Decades after Cocteau’s death in 1963, the American composer Philip Glass prepared new musical accompaniments to both these classic films.

In an interview Glass said, "For me, Cocteau has always been an artist whose work was central to the 'modern' art movement of the 20th century. More than any artist of his time, he again and again addressed questions of art, immortality and the creative process.”

This music is from Glass’s version of Cocteau’s “Beauty and the Beast,” which debuted in Gibellina, Italy on today’s date in 1994. The original soundtrack for Cocteau’s film was replaced by synchronized live performances by the singers and instrumentalists of the Philip Glass ensemble, who accompanied a screening of Cocteau’s uncut 95-minute film during a series of live performances.

TIME magazine called this new version of “Beauty and the Beast” (quote), "An exhilarating and original ride... Remarkable not only in conception but also in execution, brimming with freshets of melody and surging with Wagnerian power in conjuring up a magic kingdom."

Music Played in Today's Program

Philip Glass (b. 1937) Beauty and the Beast Philip Glass Ensemble; Michael Riesman, cond. Nonesuch 79347

On This Day

Births

• 1732 - German composer Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (9th son of J.S.), in Leipzig;

• 1862 - American pianist and composer Henry Holden Huss, in Newark, N.J.;

• 1892 - Swedish composer Hilding Rosenberg, in Bosjökloster (Ringsjon, Skane);

• 1932 - Argentinian-born American composer Lalo Schifrin, in Buenos Aires; He wrote the famous "Mission Impossible" TV theme;

Deaths

• 1908 - Russian composer Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, age 64, in Lyubensk, near St. Petersburg (Julian date: June 8);

• 2000 - American composer Allan Hovhaness, age 89, in Seattle;

Premieres

• 1868 - Wagner: opera "Die Meistersinger von Nürenberg" (The Mastersingers of Nuremberg), in Munich at the Hofoper;

• 1890 - R. Strauss: tone-poem "Death and Transfiguration" and "Burleske" for Piano and Orchestra, in Eisenach, at a convention of the General German Music Association, with the composer conducting and Eugen d'Albert as the piano soloist in the "Burleske";

• 1898 - Fauré: incidental music, "Pelléas et Mélisande," in London;

• 1980 - Peter Maxwell Davies: "Farwell to Stromness" for piano, at the St. Magnus Festival in Orkney, performed by the composer;

• 1980 - Persichetti: "Mirror Etudes," in Lawton, Oklah., by pianist Virginia Sircy;

• 1985 - Rautavaara: "Thomas," in Joensuu, Finland.

• 1994 - Philip Glass: opera "La Belle et la Bête" (Beauty and the Beast) based on the film by Jean Cocteau), by the Philip Glass Ensemble, in Gibellina, Italy;