A « Radio Opera » : Ariane by Georges Delerue and Michel Polac

Abstract

On February 20, 1955, listeners to Paris Radio discovered an opera in an unusual form, a “radio opera”, a 53 minute-long piece featuring characters communicating through telephone conversations. Tersely described as “a chamber opera”, the work called Ariane was composed by Georges Delerue on a libretto by Michel Polac. Conceived expressly for the radio, the opera begs several questions linked to its being a broadcast: the notion of purely “vocal characters”, the role of silence, and the link with and use of technology. Initially meant to be set to “concrete music”, the composition is clearly indebted to the Debussy heritage while incorporating a wide variety of styles. As a “radio opera”, Ariane embodies the tensions undergone by opera as a genre at the time, between reconstruction and rejection.