Talk:Don Quixote (1933 film)

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Music

The present article says Chaliapin sings three songs- the number composed by Ravel- but Ibert's songs are published as a set of four (and to different poems), with a fifth separately published song for Sancho. Not having seen more than excerpts of the film, I'm not sure what was included. A much repeated story is that Chaliapin found Ravel's songs either not to his taste, or too baritonal in tessiatura. Myth? What came of the approaches to Milhaud and the other composers? Sparafucil (talk) 06:59, 21 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've heard this story told many times, in various versions:

Ravel missed the deadline
Ravel's setting exceeded Chaliapin's range, so Ibert was commissioned at the last minute (liner notes to “The Art of Feodor Chaliapin”, Seraphim 60218)
it was the subject of a competition between the 2 men to see who could write more fitting music
and so on.

Whatever, but it has only ever been about Ravel vs. Ibert.

Now, a new story (well, new to me) is that Pabst & co clandestinely went to no less than 5 composers simultaneously (Milhaud, de Falla and Delannoy, as well as Ravel and Ibert), telling each of them that their music was wanted and would be used. None of them had any idea that 4 other composers had also been approached with the same commission, and that the producers were planning to use only the version they considered worked best, and ditch the others.

This says "The work was part of a competition of 1932 in which de Falla, Ravel, Milhaud, Marcel Delannoy, and Jacques Ibert took part ... Slightly occupied with a European tour of his Piano Concerto in G with Marguerite Long, Ravel's Don Quichotte was written slowly due to failing health that was complicated by a car accident, which occurred in the same year. Unable to deliver the work in time, Ravel's skills and composition were passed up for those of Ibert."

That suggests that all 5 composers wrote their music – but I can find no reference to de Falla, Delannoy or Milhaud actually starting work on their commissions.

But according to Grove V, Ravel heard about this clandestine plan before he had completed his Quichotte songs, then immediately stopped composing and set out on a lawsuit against Pabst (later dropped). He had written three songs in full score, and those three were eventually published. The tenor of this is that Ravel had fully intended to write the four songs he was commissioned to write, but saw no point in completing the task (or had no time to do so, or both) when he discovered his work was not going to be used in the film, so he rested on his laurels and published his three completed songs.

Then there's this: "After considering composers like Manuel de Falla, Darius Milhaud and Marcel Delannoy, Pabst asked Maurice Ravel to write songs for Chaliapin, but Ravel could not meet the deadline set."

This version might explain why de Falla, Delannoy or Milhaud did not write any music – they were never actually commissioned, just “considered”.

So, there's a lot of inconsistency and half-truths in all that, and probably some sloppy writing. It would be good to sort this out and get the story of what really happened.

As for the number of songs Chaliapin sings in the film, I've never seen it so I cannot comment. Ibert wrote four, and Chaliapin recorded all four, so 4 seems the likely answer. But that's just OR at this stage. -- JackofOz (talk) 21:45, 21 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Copyright status

I have deleted the link to the illicit hosting of this British film on Internet Archive. Co-writer Paul Morand did not die until 1967, so UK copyright subsists until the end of 2037. As a non-US film still under copyright in its country of origin on 1 January 1996, it is protected in the US for 95 years after publication, so to the end of 2038. Nick Cooper (talk) 21:40, 23 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]