Friday, February 02, 2007

a small diversion during a day of work

This morning my favorite radio station played "Le
Boeuf sur le Toit
" by Darius Milhaud and I spent a few moments finding out what it was, this ox of the roof. Found quickly, there was a bar-restaurant of that name in the Paris of the 1920's. The web provides far more useful information about the music than about the place. But a page called The Boeuf chronicles is good enough to make up the deficiency, including, as it does, a page on the place along with others concerned, as the author says, with "how the ox got on the roof." The page includes some excellent images.

Le Boeuf sur le Toit is not just a piece of music and a restaurant but also a surrealist ballet by Jean Cocteau with scenery and stage design by Raoul Dufy.

I don't remember how, but this minor voyage of discovery led me to this photo of Lotte Lenya.

my source for this photo: http://biografien-news.blog.de/2005/11/

The original photo was apparently taken by Lotte Jacobi about 1930. It has been copied quite a bit without attribution. My source for this info: http://www.germanexpressionism.com/photography/index.html

1 comment:

Daniella Thompson said...

Jeff,

Please get in touch with me privately. I can't find an e-mail address for you.

Thanks.