How much did Maurice Ravel love cats? Quite a lot, actually.
He had a particular fondness for Siamese cats. In 1921, he moved to a modest villa outside Paris, which he shared with a feline family. It’s unclear how many cats there were, exactly. Sources vary as to whether there were two, three, or six. One was named Mouni and another Jazz. At some point, there was a litter of kittens. Suffice it to say, there were a number of them, and Ravel adored them. They were with him when he worked. He played with them even as he wrote letters to his friends, documenting their antics. He mused on their intelligence and devotion, likening it to the “Basque temperament.” He even claimed to be able to speak to them in their own language.
Among the works he composed there was his one-act opera “L’enfant et les sortilèges.” (“The Child and the Enchantments”). The opera relates the transformation of a naughty, rampaging child – who terrorizes animals and wreaks destruction upon numerous household items, until they all rise up against him – into a more mature, compassionate human being, signified by his redemptive ministrations to an injured squirrel.
Here’s the barely safe-for-work “Cat Duet”
The entire opera was later choreographed as a ballet by Jiří Kylián. It’s much worth watching. If you want to get right to the singing cats, they’re at the 31-minute mark, but they are present, if silent, from the start.
Ravel was born in the Basque town of Ciboure on this date in 1875. He had difficulty finding intimacy with humans, claiming the only love affair he ever had was with music, but the companionship of cats he deemed purrfect.
