The rights holders of the Russian decorator Alexandre Benois, who worked with Ravel, continue to assure that he is the co-author of the extremely famous Bolero.
The beneficiaries of the Russian decorator Alexandre Benois and Maurice Ravel appealed at the end of November the court decision establishing that the French composer is the sole author of the extremely famous Boleroindicated this Tuesday, January 21, the lawyer for the Benois estate, confirming information from Le Figaro.
The two estates appealed one after the other “within the allotted time”, told AFP Me Edouard Mille who added “to reserve his criticisms” of the judgment for the appeal hearing.
In this bitter battle which has lasted since the Bolero fell into the public domain in 2016, the rights holders of the Russian decorator, who worked with Ravel, continue to assure that Alexandre Benois is the co-author.
Protected for 78 years and four months
The latter having died in 1960, this would result in the protection of the work by the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers (Sacem), which manages and collects copyright in France, until May 1, 2039.
The key is a financial issue: if the rights generated no longer represent “millions of euros annually” as before, the amounts still reached on average 135,507 euros per year between 2011 and 2016, according to an estimate by the company’s lawyer. Sacem Josée-Anne Bénazeraf.
In France, copyright on a musical composition lasts the entire life of its author and then the following 70 years before falling into the public domain.
-The Bolero was protected for 78 years and four months, until 2016, because the law provides for extensions aimed at compensating for the loss of income of French artists during the two world wars.
“Stratagem of the Ravel heirs”
On June 28, the Nanterre court dismissed the rights of Alexandre Benois, finding that “the documents provided did not demonstrate his capacity as author of the argument (short summary, editor’s note) of the ballet”. The thesis of another aggrieved co-author, the choreographer Bronislava Nijinska, was also dismissed by this judgment.
“The court said, in essence, that Sacem was right to resist the stratagem of the Ravel heirs aimed at artificially extending the duration of protection of the Boléro beyond reason,” Me Bénazéraf rejoiced at the time.
Ravel’s heiress, Evelyne Pen de Castel, was ordered to pay a symbolic euro to Sacem “in compensation for her damage resulting from the abuse of the author’s moral rights”.
Composed in 1928 and premiered in November of the same year at the Opéra Garnier in Paris, the Bolero is originally ballet music commissioned by the Russian dancer Ida Rubinstein, friend and patron of Ravel. Hailed by critics, she quickly enjoyed triumph.
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