Ravel is the sole author of the "Boléro"
A court in Nanterre has ruled that Maurica Ravel is the sole author of "Boléro". The heirs of choreographer Alexandre Benois had claimed co-authorship by Benois.
The Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de Musique (Sacem) welcomes the judgment of the Tribunal judiciaire de Nanterre of June 28, 2024 in the proceedings brought against it by the heirs of Alexandre Benois and the legal successors of Maurice Ravel, seeking to have Alexandre Benois declared co-author, alongside Maurice Ravel, of the Boléro is recognized.
As the documents submitted by the plaintiffs did not prove that the criteria required for the recognition of such co-authorship were met, Sacem had in fact refused to recognize the Boléro can be regarded as a joint work between Maurice Ravel and Alexandre Benois.
Such recognition would have meant that the term of copyright protection for this work would have been extended until 2039 or even 2051 if, as later claimed by the Ravel estate, the choreographer Bronislava Nijinska was also a co-author of the Boléros would have been recognized.
The Nanterre court followed Sacem's reasoning and therefore dismissed the claims of the Ravel and Benois estates in their entirety, both with regard to Sacem's refusal to recognize Alexandre Benois' alleged co-authorship and with regard to the numerous errors that the estates were accusing him of.
