for solo piano

Petits Rats de l’Opéra was written in collaboration with my sister, a dancer, for an upcoming ballet competition. Abbie had the idea to choreograph a short dance based on Edgar Degas’ 1881 sculpture Little Girl Aged Fourteen, a statue modeled after a ballet student of the Paris Opera House. The ‘Little Opera Rats’ were often young women from impoverished working-class backgrounds, dancing to help support their families. Due to their social status, these girls rarely progressed very far in the ballet world, and were often preyed upon by older men with an opera house subscription, who were permitted to attend all rehearsals. Degas’ statue was met with scathing critique- its ugliness was shocking to the Parisian upper class, but the work is now viewed as a revealing portrait of the shortcomings of the Parisian society in the late 19th Century.

This piano miniature is a quick snippet of pure Romanticism, drawing upon multiple musical archetypes of Degas’ time. In true French fashion, the simple piano melody is decorated by extravagant ornaments, creating an impression of an over-the-top, incessant music box that shortly evolves into a whirlwind of Tchaikovsky-esque ballet music combined with Lisztian virtuosity.

B. T. Nylander, piano

Bowling Green State University

October 3, 2019