Remember, without Paul Dukas, there would be no this:

https://video.disney.com/watch/sorcerer-s-apprentice-fantasia-4ea9ebc01a74ea59a5867853

How fortuitous that he would be born on October 1. What better way to start Halloween month than with the composer of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice?”

Though Dukas left a comparatively small output – he was a notorious perfectionist who destroyed much – what survives of his music is of very high quality. Of that, he lends to his Halloween street cred with two other works of a fantastical, potentially horrific nature:

an opera about Bluebeard and his sixth wife, “Ariane et Barbe-Bleue”

and a so-called dance poem, “La Péri,” about a fatal encounter with a Persian fairy.

The music is fantastic in more ways than one.

Happy birthday, Paul Dukas!