Editing Maurice Ravel (section)

===Operas===
[[File:L'heure-espagnole-1911.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=pencil sketches of characters in comic opera, head and shoulders only|Sketches of the cast for the 1911 premiere of ''[[L'heure espagnole]]'' by {{ill|Paul-Charles Delaroche|fr}}]]
Ravel completed two operas, and worked on three others. The unrealised three were ''Olympia'', ''La cloche engloutie'' and ''Jeanne d'Arc''. ''Olympia'' was to be based on [[E. T. A. Hoffmann|Hoffmann]]'s ''The Sandman''; he made sketches for it in 1898–99, but did not progress far. ''La cloche engloutie'' after [[Gerhart Hauptmann|Hauptmann]]'s ''[[The Sunken Bell]]'' occupied him intermittently from 1906 to 1912, Ravel destroyed the sketches for both these works, except for a ''"Symphonie horlogère"'' which he incorporated into the opening of ''L'heure espagnole''.<ref>Zank, pp. 105 and 367</ref> The third unrealised project was an operatic version of [[Joseph Delteil]]'s 1925 novel about [[Joan of Arc]]. It was to be a large-scale, full-length work for the Paris Opéra, but Ravel's final illness prevented him from writing it.<ref>Nichols (1987), pp. 171–172</ref>

Ravel's first completed opera was ''L'heure espagnole'' (premiered in 1911), described as a "comédie musicale".<ref name=grove-heure/> It is among the works set in or illustrating Spain that Ravel wrote throughout his career. Nichols comments that the essential Spanish colouring gave Ravel a reason for virtuoso use of the modern orchestra, which the composer considered "perfectly designed for underlining and exaggerating comic effects".<ref>Nichols (2011), p. 129</ref> [[Edward Burlingame Hill]] found Ravel's vocal writing particularly skilful in the work, "giving the singers something besides recitative without hampering the action", and "commenting orchestrally upon the dramatic situations and the sentiments of the actors without diverting attention from the stage".<ref>Hill, p. 144</ref> Some find the characters artificial and the piece lacking in humanity.<ref name=grove-heure>Nichols, Roger. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O002204 "Heure espagnole, L'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316071721/https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000002204;jsessionid=112DA8BB98B87C022CB0A459D6633BF0 |date=16 March 2021 }}, ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press, retrieved 14 March 2015 {{subscription}}</ref> The critic David Murray writes that the score "glows with the famous Ravel ''tendresse''."<ref>Murray, p. 316</ref>

The second opera, also in one act, is ''[[L'enfant et les sortilèges]]'' (1926), a "fantaisie lyrique" to a libretto by Colette. She and Ravel had planned the story as a ballet, but at the composer's suggestion Colette turned it into an opera libretto. It is more uncompromisingly modern in its musical style than ''L'heure espagnole'', and the jazz elements and [[bitonality]] of much of the work upset many Parisian opera-goers. Ravel was once again accused of artificiality and lack of human emotion, but Nichols finds "profoundly serious feeling at the heart of this vivid and entertaining work".<ref>Nichols, Roger. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/O003509 "Enfant et les sortilèges, L'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210316071720/https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000003509;jsessionid=59A9AA4CF097ACC4239F1ADE1D30D6E9 |date=16 March 2021 }}, ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'', Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press, retrieved 14 March 2015 {{subscription}}</ref> The score presents an impression of simplicity, disguising intricate links between themes, with, in Murray's phrase, "extraordinary and bewitching sounds from the orchestra pit throughout".<ref>Murray, p. 317</ref>

Although one-act operas are generally staged less often than full-length ones,<ref>White, p. 306</ref> Ravel's are produced regularly in France and abroad.<ref>[https://www.operabase.com/productions/en?date_from=2010-01-01&date_to=2023-06-19&aggregation_query=&is_producer_approved=true&approved_by=admin%2Ccompany%2Cfestival&work_creator_id=2152463 "Maurice Ravel"], [[Operabase]], performances since 2010.</ref>