First edition printed in small numbers of this offprint from the Mercure de France published on May 15, 1920. OCLC does not locate any copies in North America and only three in Europe (Bnf, Bibliothèque Doucet, Universitätsbibliothek Basel).
Covers with frayed margins, second cover partially shaded, one small piece of paper missing from the right margin of a page due to the fragility of the paper.
Signed and inscribed copy to painter Bernard de Blois: “En sympathie de voisin de logis et d'esthétique. Canudo 1922.” [”In sympathy as a neighbor of lodgings and aesthetics. Canudo 1922.”]
Extremely rare first edition of the libretto of the ballet Skating-Rink set on a roller-skating rink, created by the Ballets Suédois with choreography by Jean Börlin and music by Arthur Honegger, as well as costumes, curtain and stage designs by Fernand Léger.
This Futurist poem-libretto is directly inspired by Charlie Chaplin's The Rink (1916), using the events in the skating rink as a metaphor for the hectic life in modern cities with its mechanical, almost ritual repetitions and its vicious circle of attraction and rejection.
Canudo's inscription dates from 1922, the year of the ballet's creation at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées by the Ballets Suédois. The troupe had been founded by the Swedish art collector Rolf de Maré after the model of Diaghilev's Ballets russes. “The action of this 'Ballet aux patins', subtitle given by Canudo to his poem-libretto, takes place in Paris in the hall of the popular ballroom Tabarin transformed into a skating rink for roller skates. Skating practised in large skating rinks such as the Skating Palais on Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, had conquered the popular balls and café-concerts as early as 1875, but it returned in force in the 1910s after the ball-bearing revolution” (Josiane Mas). The dynamism of this activity had won over the Italian Futurists and also inspired popular culture like Chaplin's The Rink, which Canudo certainly watched during a leave of absence from the French army where he had enlisted – like Apollinaire – during WW1.
The rare first edition of Canudo's poem is the real starting point of the Gesamtkunstwerk of Skating-Rink – the text that inspired its musical compositions, costumes and choreographies. Its title “for the music of...” clearly suggests a work in progress for which the artists have not yet all been chosen: Arthur Honegger, a famous member of the “Groupe des Six”, was commissioned to write the music in 1921 and did not finish the orchestration until 5 days before the ballet premiered. Canudo encouraged every contributing artist to study Chaplin's film, which is reflected in numerous aspects of the production: the figure of the “Madman” in Canudo's poem becomes a colorful, cubist Tramp under the brush of Fernand Léger, with a high hat, a jacket with uneven tails and trousers with one striped and one checked leg. His movements choreographed by Börlin were based on Chaplin's part, with comic acrobatics and countless laps of the skater – a metaphor for the bewitching rhythm of industry and the daily hustle and bustle of the modern city. To the chagrin of critics, these new concepts of dance and performing arts combined modernity and the popular life inspired by the New World: “Despite their national foci, what made Skating Rink and Parade modern were their American references: both looked to Hollywood – Skating Rink to Charlie Chaplin, Parade to The Perils of Pauline; both made references to jazz, and both referred albeit in indirect ways to American mechanical modernity. The motivation behind their evident admiration for the United States was the desire that France and other European countries might emulate American modernity and, through attaining its promised financial rewards, use them to create a better life.” (Ramsay Burt, Alien Bodies. Representations of Modernity, “Race” and Nation in Early Modern Dance, 2002).
This text created by a key figure of the Parisian avant-garde for the Ballets suédois in 1920 called for the convergence of the arts – literature, painting, dance and music – transforming the stage into a pure Cubist and Futurist manifestation.
Extremely rare, all the more with an autograph inscription by Ricciotto Canudo.
