Le Boeuf sur le Toit
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Le Boeuf sur le Toit, op. 58 (The Ox on the Roof - subtitle: The Nothing-Doing Bar) is a surrealist ballet. It is based on a score composed by Darius Milhaud that is strongly influenced by Brazilian popular music (the title is that of an old Brazilian tango, one of close to 30 Brazilian tunes quoted in the composition). Originally the piece was to have been the score of a silent Charlie Chaplin film (Cinéma-fantaisie for violin and piano).
Its transformation into a ballet was the making of the piece, with a scenario by Jean Cocteau, stage designs by Raoul Dufy, and costumes by Guy-Pierre Fauconnet. There is no real story to speak of, but a sequence of scenes based on music inspired by Brazil, a country in which the composer spent two years during WWI. The decor is that of a bar frequented by a number of characters: a bookmaker, a dwarf, a boxer, a woman dressed in man's clothing, a policeman who is decapitated by the blades of an overhead fan before he is revived, and a number of others. The first actors were in fact clowns from the Medrano circus, the Fratellini. The choreography was deliberately very slow, in marked contrast to the lively and joyful spirit of the music.
The premiere was given in February 1920 in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and comprised, besides the ballet, Adieu New York by Georges Auric, Cocardes by Francis Poulenc and Trois petites pièces montées by Erik Satie.
The version for chamber orchestra was followed by another for piano duet, subtitled Cinema Symphony on South American Airs. Its performance lasts about a quarter of an hour.
The ballet gave its name to a well-known Parisian bar-restaurant that opened in 1922.
