Les biches

Poulenc’s Les biches is unusual among ballets in having no clear plotline. It was “simply dances and songs,” Poulenc said, loosely tracking the risqué interactions of three athletic men and 16 coquettish women, and flirting with ideas of gender fluidity. Commissioned by the legendary Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev, Les biches was first performed in 1924 by the Ballets Russes in Monte Carlo. Lasting 35 minutes in total, the ballet’s music effervesces with the raciness of 1920s Parisian life, with brass instruments cavorting playfully, and piquant woodwind detail. Highlights include the athletic “Rondeau” movement, the lusty “Chanson dansée” with its chorus of male voices, and the sparkling “Final,” which mischievously quotes a Mozart symphony. The critic Olin Downes complained the ballet had “no situation, no idea of any kind whatever.” Poulenc’s response was typically witty, and revealing. “Les biches has no real plot for the good reason that if it had it might have caused a scandal.”