2024-02-15 19:20:34
The rights holders of Alexandre Benois, who designed the sets for the premiere of the work in 1928, are asking that their ancestor be recognized as co-author, with the prospect of receiving an income.
The costume designer, the percussionist, the lighting designer of a show, was he a creation, can he claim authorship of a score and claim his share of the copyright? Nearly a hundred years after the premiere of Bolero of Ravel at the Paris Opera, the question was addressed at the Nanterre judicial court. For the rights holders of Alexandre Benois, who designed the sets and costumes for Maurice Ravel’s ballet, refusing to recognize their ancestor as co-author of this global success is not a right that the Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of music (Sacem) can claim. THE Bolerothey argue, citing several historical elements, is a “collaborative work” with the Russian painter and decorator. «Fiction» historical, «imagination» overflowing, “avoidance of the initial debate” on the authorship of the ballet, replies Sacem.
A ballet score
The heirs of Alexandre Benois had sued Sacem in 2018 after it refused, twice, to register him as co-author of the work. The issue: if Sacem accedes to this request, the Bolero, which fell into the public domain in 2016, would according to her be protected until May 1, 2039, Alexandre Benois having died in 1960. With a few checks in store for the heirs. If the rights generated represented “for a time millions and millions of euros” each year, according to information provided to AFP by Josée-Anne Bénazéraf, Sacem’s lawyer, the amounts reached on average 135,507 euros per year between 2011 and 2016.
The rights holders of Alexandre Benois argue that the Bolero is originally the music of a ballet created at the Paris Opera in 1928. “The music of the Bolero was created especially for the ballet», asserts Édouard Mille, lawyer for the Benois estate. With Gilles Vercken, lawyer for the Ravel estate, they take turns at the bar to present the evidence which, according to them, demonstrates that the Bolero is the work not of the composer alone, but of several artists.
In support of their thesis, the presence of the name of Benois on the argument of two ballets performed on the evening of the premiere of Ravel’s work in 1928, the statements of Louis Laloy, general secretary of the Paris Opera , who writes in Le Figaro that Alexandre Benois was there‘«auteur» of the three shows, or the letter from a legal director of Sacem in the 1980s mentioning the collaboration with the ballet choreographer, Bronislava Nijinska…
“Battle against chimeras”
Beyond the historical elements, the main issue of the hearing revealed itself to be the role of Sacem in the recognition of a possible co-author of the Bolero. “For Sacem there is copyright and copyright Bolero. “Exceptional work, exceptional regime”criticized Édouard Mille who affirmed that the company had only twice in the past refused requests similar to that of the heirs of Alexandre Benois.
“It’s not fair that Sacem is forced, 96 years after the fact, to do colossal work to fight against chimeras”while she does not have “The burden of proof”, retorted Josée-Anne Bénazéraf. THE Bolero was protected for 78 years and four months: in France, the rights to a work fall 70 years after the death of the author – in 1937 in the case of Ravel. The law provided for extensions to compensate for the loss of income of French artists during the two World Wars, which extended the protection until May 1, 2016, 88 years after the creation and 79 years after the death of Ravel. “Isn’t that enough? What would we have said if Sacem closed its eyes to add another 23 years?asks the Sacem lawyer, who regretted that “the list of alleged faults grows progressively» of the procedure.
As a reminder, the Ravel estate has long been a textbook case debated in court: the master having died without children, the rights generated were ultimately paid to the daughter, born from a first marriage, of the brother’s second wife of the masseuse that Édouard Ravel, brother of the composer who died in 1960, had hired in 1954…
Concerning the case which is currently involving the Nanterre judicial court, should Sacem have acted simply “registration room” as requested by the applicants today. Or was she justified in refusing that Alexandre Benois be recognized as co-author? Decision expected on June 24.
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