Ballets

George Delerue's first full theatrical composition was for Danton's Death, presented in 1948 at the Avignon Theater Festival.
From that time on he was continually in demand for such compositions at the same time that he composed music both for short films and formal or "classical" music. His seductive musical style, his eclecticism, and his sheer capacity for work made him a composer much sought after.

Hence he already had behind him a rich experience in theatrical musical composition when he first began to compose for the ballet, which he undertook for the first time with great curiosity and enthusiasm.

His first ballet music, in 1953, was for Accord and Jabadao based on narratives by Jean Serry. With Boris Vian, in 1955, he collaborated on the ballet L'Aboyeur (The Barker). In the following years, other ballet creations would follow, such as Conte Cruel (A Story of Cruelty), written by Philippe Hériat and based on a story by Villiers de L'Isle Adam.

In 1963, the Danish dancer Flemming Flindt, an internationally famous star dancer at the Paris Opera, called upon Delerue to do the music for his first choreographic production based on The Lesson, by Eugène Ionesco. This ballet was premiered on Danish television and was awarded with the Prix Italia. And in 1964 it was presented for the first time at the Paris Opéra Comique, where it would be revived in the 1980's, starring Rudolph Nureyev. The Lesson is a perennial favorite, continually performed throughout the world. In 2005, it became part of the repertory of the Covent Garden Royal Ballet.

In 1968, Flemming Flindt, who had now been Director of the Royal Danish Ballet for two years, called upon Delerue again, this time for a grand project, a ballet version of Alexander Dumas' The Three Musketeers. The ballet would be an hour and a half long and would permit Delerue, the musical chameleon, (as he called himself) to write with allusions to nineteenth-century musical style. In 1985, Flindt, now director of the Dallas Ballet in Texas, would present this epic ballet once more.

In 1987, Jean-Claude Casadesus, conductor of the National Orchestra of Lille, in the north of France, would invite Delerue, one of that region's famous sons, to conduct several concerts of his own work. This gave Delerue the occasion to premiere a symphonic suite that he had adapted from The Three Musketeers, and which received an enthusiastic reception.

Despite their obvious musical qualities, the compositions of Georges Delerue for stage and concert remain today, unfortunately, less well known than his film scores.