Jacques Ibert's Divertissement is a six-movement suite for chamber orchestra adapted by the composer in 1930 from incidental music he had written for a production of Eugène Labiche's stage comedy The Italian Straw Hat in 1929.
[1] In 1929 he composed incidental music for a revival of Eugène Labiche's 1851 stage comedy Un Chapeau de paille d'Italie (The Italian Straw Hat) at the Théatre d'Amsterdam.
[1] The musical scholar Roger Nichols writes that in Divertissement, Ibert comes closer than usual to their style:[5] The "Introduction" gives some of the flavour of the whole: jaunty melodic tags, brilliant orchestration, rhythms that tease and entertain.
In the "Finale", after an attempt to destroy the piano, a whistle reminds us that Labiche's crazy play ends up in a police station.
[5]The composer Michael Ippolito comments that in between the frivolity Ibert offers "a delicately crafted Nocturne that seduces us with atmosphere and sonority, showing an incredible ear for orchestral colour, especially considering the small ensemble".