The Parisian Musical Avant-Garde During the Great War

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The Parisian Musical Avant-Garde during the Great War brings music in the city to life during and immediately after the conflict. It tells the extraordinary story of singer, Jane Bathori, who became temporary director of an avant-garde theatre in Paris, the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier. Drawing on a wide inter-artistic network, Bathori collaborated with writers, set designers, choreographers, performers and composers to create highly original programmes by commissioning new works, reviving early music, staging chamber opera, mixing high art music with folk, popular and patriotic songs, and incorporating literary events. Bathori is remembered for her advocacy of composers such as Ravel, Satie, Poulenc and Milhaud, but was systematically written out of theatre history. Drawing on a rich range of archival materials, I show that her war-time artistic action sparked inter-artistic collaborations and shaped interwar musical taste, alongside figures such as Serge Diaghilev and Jean Cocteau.