Theatre & performing arts
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Communicating the Passion
The Socio-Religious Function of an Emotional Narrative (1250–1530)
This volume investigates the vivid and emotionally intense commemoration of the Passion of Christ as a key element in late medieval religious culture. Its goal is to shed light on how the Passion was communicated and on its socio-religious function in late medieval Europe. By adopting a multidisciplinary approach the volume analyses the different media involved in this cultural process (sermons devotional texts lively performances statues images) the multiple forms and languages in which the Passion was presented to the faithful and how they were expected to respond to it. Key questions concern the strategies used to present the Passion; the interaction between texts images and sounds in different media; the dissemination of theological ideas in the public space; the fashioning of an affective response in the audience; and the presence or absence of anti-Jewish commonplaces.
By exploring the interplay among a wide range of sources this volume highlights the pervasive role of the Passion in late medieval society and in the life of the people of the time.
Les aléas du répertoire scénique de Voltaire sous la Révolution. Jouer, bannir ou guillotiner ?
[Voltaire’s Plays During the Revolution: To Stage to Ban or to Guillotine?]
The paper has two main objectives. The first is to discuss the popularity of Voltaire’s repertoire during the French Revolution. Some of his plays were rejected by consecutive Revolutionary governments because they reminded the audience too much of the Ancient Regime whose values had nothing to do with the new republican circumstances. Consequently different plays were popular under the constitutional monarchy during the rule of Gironde or the Jacobin government. Understanding these fluctuations in popularity of Voltaire’s plays constitutes the second objective of this paper. Such fluctuations should not be surprising since the theatrical scene at that time served as one of the major centres of Revolutionary propaganda: some of the plays created before 1789 needed to be banned or rewritten. Voltaire’s dramatic works did not escape the Revolutionary guillotine even though he was considered at the time to be one of the founding fathers of the Revolution itself. In the second part of the paper four case studies of Voltaire’s plays are presented: Mérope Mahomet Brutus and The Death of Caesar.
Traduire le théâtre au doigt et à l’œil. La matérialité de l’écriture dans les traductions de Corneille, Molière et Racine en Europe des Lumières
[Translating Theatre with the Finger in the Eye: The Materiality of Written Word in the Translations of Corneille Molière and Racine in the Enlightenment Europe]
The paper examines the role played by the materiality of books and manuscripts in the international dissemination of French theatre. The first part describes the editorial form adapted to dramatic translations in different countries. The second part addresses the question of theatricality and performativity showing every contact with the printed drama as a powerful sensory experience. The final section analyses the theatricalization of the manuscripts during social interactions. Even off-stage the world of performance still lays claim to Enlightenment theatrical writings.
Nicola Sabbattini, témoin d’une (r)évolution scénographique européenne. La Pratique pour fabriquer les scènes et machines de théâtre (1637/1638)
[Nicola Sabbattini Witness of an European Scenographic (R)evolution: Practica di fabricar scene e machine ne’teatri (1637/1638)]
The paper aims to situate Sabbattini’s treatise Pratica (1637/1638) within the history of European techniques in particular in the field of theatrical machinery. This publication unique in the editorial world reveals secrets that have hitherto been little known and only to a few people. Sabbattini far from being totally obsolete explains numerous theatrical mechanisms and techniques that date back to antiquity while talking about modern devices and designs. Nevertheless his treatise gradually became obsolete from the 1640s and in particular after the scenographic and technical revolution inspired by the Italian machinist Giacomo Torelli.
L’esthétique du spectacle dans les écrits de Diderot, Murray et Humboldt
[Aesthetics of the Spectacle in the Writings of Diderot Murray and Humboldt]
If aesthetics did not exist as such in Denis Diderot’s times questions and reflections on art run through a large number of works by French philosophers of the 18th century who were writing about aesthetics without using the actual term. Amongst others Diderot and Emmanuel Murray can fall into this category. As for Wilhelm von Humboldt he was the first to consciously consider the aesthetics of the spectacle in his essay written in 1799 and entitled Observations on the Art of French Tragic Actors by a German.
Diderot, Est-il bon ? Est-il méchant ? ou la tentation nouvelle de parler de soi au théâtre
[Diderot’s Est-Il Bon Est-Il Méchant ? or a New Temptation to Talk about Oneself in the Theatre]
The paper aims to evaluate the autobiographical section contained in one of the late plays by Diderot Est-il bon ? Est-il méchant ? (1775-1781) at a time when this kind of writing was not yet popular and seemed especially in the theatre out of place and even obscene. The paper queries Diderot’s ability to deal in this play – reserved for the théâtre de société and through the transparent character of Hardouin the writer – with subjects that were important to him such as the difficulty for a public figure to write in loneliness; for an atheist to maintain virtuous conduct; for a man to hope for a paternity that is both biological and intellectual. These three dilemmas set against the backdrop of farce and comedy delicately convey subjects that really darkened Diderot’s life.
La force féminine confrontée à la cruauté d’un dilemme moral. La quête de nouveaux enjeux dans Les Maures d’Espagne de Pixerécourt et dans Les Hussites de Duval
[The Female Force Confronted with the Cruelty of a Moral Dilemma: The Quest for New Issues in The Moors of Spain by Pixerécourt and in The Hussites by Duval]
This paper focuses on the representation of moral dilemmas in The Moors of Spain by Pixerécourt and the Hussites by Duval. This comparative analysis is necessary for two reasons. As for The Moors critics only saw it as a plagiarism of Duval’s play. On the other hand Duval was criticized for creating a simplistic and unmoving play. However the sacrifice of children for the good of the country is a source of new social and aesthetic issues. The fight against the boredom of the audience by returning to exoticism and to the Middle Ages reveals the need for new scriptural subterfuges such as the oneiric dream. The unprecedented moral dilemma confronting the spectator makes us wonder whether audiences have the ability to take on this new responsibility. The courage of the heroines makes it possible to consider the woman as the pivot of the social system even if the reversal of roles between man and woman is only momentary or only achievable in an intimate setting.
Traduction théâtrale et références à l’actualité socio-politique. La Mère coupable de Beaumarchais en polonais et en italien
[References to the Current Socio-Political Climate and Theatre Translation: Beaumarchais’ The Guilty Mother in Polish and Italian]
Beaumarchais’ drama L’Autre Tartuffe ou La Mère coupable [The Guilty Mother] (1792) is an increasingly appreciated part of the trilogy following the family of count Almaviva and Figaro. This article presents the results of a comparative analysis of the first translations of the French play into Polish and Italian (published in 1827 and 1874 respectively) focusing on the cultural references related to the circumstances of its creation. The research has shown that the Italian version in most cases closely follows the original while the Polish one contains several alterations such as loss deformation or substitution.
Front Matter ("Introduction")
Le théâtre de femmes : auctorialité et évolution des genres. Exemples d’Habis de Madeleine-Angélique de Gomez et du Dédain affecté de Mlle Monicault
[Women’s Theatre: Authorship and the Evolution of Genres (Based on the Example of Habis by Madeleine-Angélique de Gomez and Dédain Affecté by Mlle Monicault)]
This paper deals with selected aspects of women’s theatre: the non-recognition of women as authors and their contribution to the evolution of genres. These issues are discussed using the example of two plays from the early 18th century a tragedy entitled Habis by Madeleine-Angélique de Gomez and a comedy entitled Le Dédain affecté by Miss Monicault. The history of both texts shows men’s attempts to appropriate women’s works to negate their status as independent authors and resentment of these practices expressed by Mme de Gomez in the introduction to her play. At the same time both works testify to women’s search for a new contemporary formula for tragedy and comedy and confirm the contribution of female playwrights to the changes to genres taking place in theatre that resulted in the emergence of sentimental drama and comedy.
Révolutionner le théâtre tragique ou le métathéâtre à l’épreuve des genres dramatiques
[Revolutionising Tragic Theatre or Metatheatre in the Face of Dramatic Genres]
The tragedies of the last third of the 18th century abound with hanging settings engineered spaces and action scenes. This aesthetic and technical revolution was preceded by diffuse dramatic processes even before the technical means of the time allowed a satisfactory scenic set. Thus the metatheatre in the French tragedy of the beginning of the century would announce the shift in the genre as a whole without affecting the noble style or reducing its moral or political significance. This type of tragedy revolutionised theatre up until the dawn of Romanticism.
Pièce d’un angry young man du xvii e siècle dans le contexte de l’histoire du théâtre européen. Le Prince constant de Pedro Calderón de la Barca
[A Play by an Angry Young Man from the 17th Century in the Context of the History of European Theatre: The Constant Prince by Pedro Calderón de La Barca]
The Polish staging of The Constant Prince by the Laboratory Theatre played a revolutionary role in the world of theatre: with this performance during the 10th season of the Théâtre des Nations in Paris the method of acting developed by Grotowski and his company began to be known throughout the world. This study presents the circumstances of the premiere of Calderón’s play and its first European performance by Goethe as well as the contemporary Spanish reception of The Constant Prince in particular Alberto Conejero’s Esta primavera fugitiva (varaciones sobre “El príncipe constante” de Calderón de la Barca) from 2021 which refers to the poet Juliusz Słowacki the translator of the play into Polish and to Jerzy Grotowski and Ryszard Cieślak the authors of its staging in Wrocław in 1965.
Les (r)évolutions dans le théâtre européen (xvii e-xviii e siècles)
Au fil des siècles le théâtre a subi plusieurs transformations : formelles esthétiques et techniques. Le jeu d’acteur l’arrangement de la scène et l’aménagement de la salle de spectacle ont aussi évolué. Les dramaturges et les comédiens se sont investis dans la recherche de la meilleure forme d’expression visant à influer le mieux sur le public. Dans différents pays européens ces évolutions se manifestèrent de différentes manières et intensités selon la spécificité culturelle politique et sociale locale.
Les contributeurs du présent ouvrage essaient de retracer certaines de ces (r)évolutions théâtrales qui ont eu lieu en Europe à travers les siècles. Leurs textes offrent une vue panoramique sur cette thématique invitant les lecteurs à explorer les aspects parfois un peu moins connus de l’histoire du théâtre.
La censure théâtrale dans l’Espagne de la période moderne (xvii e ‑xviii e siècles)
[Theatrical Censorship in Modern Spain (17th-18th centuries)]
The 17th 18th and 19th centuries saw important manuscript and printed transmission of the theatre of the Spanish Golden Age. The testimonies of many textual witnesses have been preserved some with very interesting features: marks and notes written in the margin or between the lines indicating additions deletions and even changes in content. Verifying these features opens questions about the possible author and the purposes of these changes. One of the reasons for the changes was to adapt the texts to the prevailing ethics with this intervention of censors taking place before or during performances as well as in the passage of the text to the printing press. Even so the apparently free the circulation of manuscripts and printed matter with censorship marks intact is surprising. Some censored manuscripts went to the printers but the censor’s notes were not taken into account. The printed texts preserve the censored passages as if nothing had happened. Could it be that censorship in this period was quite random? We believe that this was indeed the case. It is likely that there were no established norms for censorship so the individual discernment of censors prevailed. It would have been impossible to establish consistent rules about what could or could not be performed or published for the vast corpus of almost ten thousand Golden Age plays. In most cases censors marked the elimination of brief passages expressions and specific terms that seemed inappropriate. Only on rare occasions was a complete work censored.
Noble Magnificence
Culture of the Performing Arts in Rome 1644-1740
The thirty chapters in this book are based on the work of an international multidisciplinary team of researchers and archivists brought together for the PerformArt project funded by the European Research Council from 2016 to 2022. This project investigated the artistic patronage of the great Roman aristocratic families of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through research in the extant archives.After the accession to the papal throne of Innocent X in 1644 and more so after the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659 – which led to a greater loss of power for the pope in his relations with other European states – the Roman families stepped up their efforts to assert their social preeminence not only through architecture and the fine arts but also through the ephemeral performing arts: music theatre and dance which were omnipresent throughout the year and especially during the intense period of artistic production that was the Roman Carnival. The search for traces of these spectacles in the archives of these families reveals that their desire to display their magnificence – an ideal well documented in the literature of the period – gave rise to lavish expenditure on a scale that could only be justified by the benefits (if not tangible then at least symbolic) they hoped to gain.The essays in this book which draw on social economic history the history of ideas and the evolving artistic practices of the time make a major contribution to our knowledge of courtly societies in Ancien Régime Europe by integrating the performing arts into their analyses in innovative ways.
Migrations of Concepts
From Philosophical Text to Scene
Migrations of Concepts brings together the results of an experimental research on the migration of philosophical concepts into the languages of the arts. The monograph explores the intersection of philosophy literature and art and presents a theoretical-performative investigation on the transposition of philosophical contents into theatrical and musical performance. Starting with Giambattista Vico and Samuel Beckett a first part elaborates the paradigm of the ‘Disbelonging’ of the I – which is the condition of the I who realizes that it is both its own and foreign at the same time – shows how this is transposed into the language of sounds and reflects on the significance of public performance of a philosophical work. The second and third parts further explore the transposition of philosophical thought into art by presenting the theatrical performances written and directed by the author. More specifically the book contains the text of two theatre readings on Vico and Gorgia and the libretto of two melologues dedicated to Hegel and the Prince of Sansevero with the corresponding scores of music composed by Rosalba Quindici. By exploring the boundaries of adaptation studies this monograph radically proposes a new and innovative way to study and communicate philosophical concepts.
From the Domesday Book to Shakespeare’s Globe
The Legal and Political Heritage of Elizabethan Drama
The phrase ‘Jus Uncommon’ summarizes England’s claim to independence from Europe a claim supported by its unique legal system and Elizabethan theatre and their strong interconnexion. Elizabethan tragedy begins at the Inns of Court. It was no mere coincidence but a result of the long history of intersecting processes of law politics and theatre. This book sets out to contextualize and explore such legal and literary intersections charting the emergence of Elizabethan legal culture from its various English and European sources over the course of the four hundred years running from Magna Carta to Shakespeare. It encompasses the major strands of legal history and culture that formed the background to Elizabethan political drama republican tradition theories of monarchical sovereignty European and English theories of imperium pedagogical and rhetorical practices of the Inns of Courtlegal-antiquarian research parliamentary privilege and Tudor political pamphleteering.
Legal texts discourses and social practices constructed a pervasive intellectual culture from which Elizabethan drama – like Shakespeare’s – emerged. Shakespeare is not the central object of this study but he is central to its argument. What he knew about law was what collective memory had stored from centuries past at home and abroad. The issues characters themes theories and metaphors dramatized by the Elizabethan playwrights followed the way opened at the Inns. Emblematic figures of lawyers-writers and their Senecan patterns paved the way to Gorboduc and to Shakespeare’s histories.