Les mamelles de Tirésias [SEP] based on
Les mamelles de Tirésias
Les Mamelles de Tirésias ("The Breasts of Tiresias") is an "opéra bouffe" by Francis Poulenc, in a prologue and two acts based on the eponymous play by Guillaume Apollinaire. The opera was written in 1945 and first performed in 1947. Apollinaire's play, written in 1903, was revised with a sombre prologue by the time it premiered during World War I in France. For the opera, Poulenc incorporated both the farcical and the serious aspects of the original play, which according
"In truth there are few works by Ravel which do not to some extent echo one or another work of Chabrier and of which the harmonic procedures are not derived from him". Ravel paid explicit homage to Chabrier in his "A la manière de Chabrier", based on Chabrier's piano piece "Mélancolie".
Poulenc said that he had "L'étoile" in mind while he wrote "Les mamelles de Tirésias". Huebner comments that the influence of Chabrier on Poulenc and the other members of Les Six was particularly