Abstract: Two Opera buffa from the early twentieth century in France are examined here: Maurice Ravel’s L’Heure espagnole and Francis Poulenc’s Le mamelles de Teresia. Two short compositions of which both the purely musical aspects and the librettos by Franc-Nohain and G. Apollinaire are analyzed. These two works are part of the risqué line of the French comic opera; their scores prolong the comedy of words and situations in a musical development rich in verve. The two French composers, despite their undoubted stylistic differences, stage and compose in music the taste of laughter and fun. The two female protagonists, Conception and Terese, who are the engine of the action, represent two very different female types, one still tied to a traditional morality in search of extramarital adventures to hide from her husband, the other a true feminist ante litteram reaching out to the affirmation of one’s freedom. Ravel and Poulenc: two composers who successfully deal with the comic aspects of the twentieth century Opera buffa.

Ha insegnato pianoforte e teoria musicale presso l’Istituto per l’Educazione Musicale Vivaldi del quale è stata direttrice da 1987 al 2018. Giornalista pubblicista e critico musicale, ha scritto per la rivista di didattica musicale “beQuadro”, ha collaborato con il Centro di Ricerca e Sperimentazione per la Didattica Musicale di Fiesole (Firenze) ed è stata membro del direttivo e della commissione didattica dell’AIdSM (Associazione Italiana Scuole di Musica) e socio del Festival di Musica Contemporanea.