le merveilleux

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moving visuals on the operatic stage

a question of dramaturgy

Fabienne Joanne Vegt

Universiteit van Amsterdam // Faculty of Humanities MA Theatre Studies // Dramaturgy

academic year 2017/2018 studentnumber: 10168389

advisor: Ricarda Franzen

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Table of content

Preface 3

INTRODUCTION

1. Le merveilleux 4

1.1 Operas' grand visual effects 4

1.2 Comparing past- and present-day dramaturgies 5

1.3 A term travelling in time 7

2. A dramaturgical task 9

2.1 Dramaturgy on two levels 9

2.2 Orphée et Eurydice by Romeo Castellucci 10

2.3 Armide by Barrie Kosky 12

2.4 Being (un)faithful to the original text 14

2.5 The status of the libretto 16

2.6 Dramatic scenography 18

2.7 The following chapters 20

RESEARCH

3. Historical context 21

3.1 Visual spectacles in the seventeenth century 21

3.2 Today’s Baroque vision 23

3.3 Opera as a dramatic genre 25

3.4 Criticism on le merveilleux 27

3.5 The Enlightenment 28

3.6 The Italian tradition 30

3.7 Christoph Willibald Gluck, opera reform 31

4. Le merveillleux, a strategy of representation 35

4.1 Le merveillleux in the libretto of Orphée et Eurydice 36

4.2 Le merveillleux in the libretto of Armide 37

4.3 Le merveillleux on stage 38

5. Opera and visuality 40

5.1 Interlocking sign systems 41

5.2 Visual dramaturgy 42

5.3 Visual strategies by Adolphe Appia and by Heiner Goebbels 45

5.3.1 Adolphe Appia’s Orphée et Eurydice 46

5.3.2 Heiner Goebbels’ co-presence of two spaces 50

6. Le merveilleux redefined 54

6.1 Three parameters 55

6.2 Analysis of Orphée et Eurydice by Romeo Castellucci 58

6.3 Analysis of Armide by Barrie Kosky 62

6.4 Limits of le merveilleux 64

CONCLUSION

7. Visual dramaturgy in opera 67

7.1 Written with an image in mind 71

7.2 The supernatural; technology and beyond 72

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Preface

During the four months of my dramaturgy internship at Nationale Opera & Ballet (as assistent to dramaturg Klaus Bertisch), I had a growing question on my mind: Why does it seem to me, that a text based dramaturgy - one that focusses mainly on the libretto - is not a completely satisfactory method of analysing an artform that is written as music and mostly staged in big opera houses, with all the grand mechanics of the theatre machine at its disposal? While gaining more experience in the practise of opera dramaturgy, I was thinking about literature and arguments for this idea that I based on my observations. By looking at the visuality of an opera performances and trying to find a workable category in this field, this thesis aims formulate an answer to that question.

With many thanks to my teacher and advisor Ricarda Franzen, my family and friends - who were always patient enough to kindly ask me about the status of my final thesis for university. Thank you for your patience. Here it is.

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INTRODUCTION

1. Le merveilleux

1.1 Operas’ grand visual effects

From its inception, grand visual effects have very often been part of opera’s success. The greatest examples can be found in times of the French Baroque, when the operas performed for the Royal Court of Louis XIV included complex stage inventions which intended to leave the spectator with a dazzling impression. Historical opera studies designate the phenomenon of these miraculous stage effects with the term le merveilleux. Le merveilleux is strongly connected to French opera, as it developed its own operatic style at the Royal Court of Versailles and in Paris in the seventeenth and eighteenth century.

Since the 1970s’, the development in theatre and opera practise show a significant shift of focus towards the dramatic function of the visual effects on stage. The term visual dramaturgy arose as a 1

reference point in the scholarly discussion on contemporary theatre, referring to the dramatic function of communicative images and optical data. Significant research has been done exploring the complex relationship of theater with images (Knut Ove Arntzen 1990, Hans-Thies Lehmann 1999, Christopher Balme 2008, Kati Röttger and Alexander Jacob 2009, Clemens Risi 2012). This discourse - triggered by the development in theatre from a textual into an image-based dramaturgy, focussing on the employment of visuals on stage - is important in the field of opera, because the visualilty of the performance was (for example in the times of the French Baroque) and is (still today) a central aspect in opera. This is one of the several reasons, on which this thesis elaborates,

Karen Jürs-Mundy, “What’s in the ‘post’?” in the introduction to Postdramatic Theatre by Hans-Thies 1

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that show the importance of studying the relationship between the recent discours on visual dramaturgy and the visual aesthetics of the French Baroque operas of long time ago.

1.2 Comparing past- and present-day dramaturgies

Studying the visual elements of opera stagings, this thesis compares the visual aesthetics of contemporary scenic practise to the marvellous visual elements the of French opera in the seventeenth and eigteenth century: le merveilleux. Most recently, the term le merveilleux is comprehensively defined by Bram van Oostveld and Stijn Bussels in The Sublime and French Seventeenth-century theories of the Spectacle: Toward an Aesthetic Approach to Performance: “Le merveilleux is clearly considered as an aesthetic term. It designates music theatre as a spectacle of excess that pulls out all the stops to produce a maximum and almost ecstatic or sublime effect on the spectator.” The notion of the spectacle that supposes a visual quality of the performance, and its 2

“almost ecstatic or sublime effect” is described as well in the writings of Downing A. Thomas 3

(2002), Catherine Kintzler (1997), Joseph Kerman (1988), Tili Boon Cuillé (2011) and Aubrey S. Garlington Jr. (1963). Their literature will substantiate the term le merveilleux later on in this thesis. The similarities between the seventeenth century theories of the spectacle and the visual strategies in opera today seem remarkable. This thesis centers around the question if this historical term, le merveilleux, could be useful for today’s understanding of opera and its dramaturgy:

Looking at the correlation between past- and present-day visual strategies, could the reintroduction of the term le merveilleux help to analyse some essential visual strategies in dramaturgy in opera today?

Bram van Oostveld and Stijn Bussels, “The Sublime and French Seventeenth-century theories of the

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Spectacle: Toward an Aesthetic Approach to Performance,” in Theatre Survey (American Society for Theatre Research, 2017), 226.

Ibid, 226.

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This thesis allows for a reflection on opera dramaturgy in a broad sense. However, this research will focus mainly on the analysis of the visual strategies on stage. Looking at le merveilleux as a

historical term of a phenomenon that supposes a particular visual strategy, this thesis inquires into the possibility of using this term as a category in visual dramaturgy in opera. The term, its historical context, and the strategies behind le merveilleux will be researched. Comparing past- and present-day dramaturgies in regards to the visuality of opera performances implies several steps of research, as will be elaborated on in this introduction.

Testing if the term le merveilleux - as defined by Van Oostveld and Bussels - is workable in the 4

analysis of opera practice today, this thesis proposes to look at two contemporary opera stagings: Orphée et Eurydice directed by Romeo Castellucci at Koninklijke Munt Schouwburg / La Monnaie in Brussels (première June 17, 2014) and Armide directed by Barrie Kosky at De Nationale Opera in Amsterdam (première October 6, 2013). Both of these repertoire pieces are written by the eighteenth century composer Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787). These two Gluck operas directed by Castellucci and Kosky will serve as examples to the discussion of the visual strategies in contemporary opera stagings. The following question lies at the base of their analysis: On which level are the visual strategies in the contemporary stagings of Orphée et Eurydice directed by Romeo Castellucci and Armide directed by Barrie Kosky analyzable through the lens of le merveilleux?

Exploring how the employment of different media and visual elements of the scenic practice of these present-day operas remind of le merveilleux in the times of the French Baroque and its image-based opera culture, and looking at the consequences of these observations for the understanding of

“Le merveilleux is clearly considered as an aesthetic term. It designates music theatre as a spectacle of 4

excess that pulls out all the stops to produce a maximum and almost ecstatic or sublime effect on the spectator.” Bram van Oostveld and Stijn Bussels, “The Sublime and French Seventheeth-century theories of the Spectacle: Toward an Aesthetic Approach to Performance,” in Theatre Survey (American Society for Theatre Research, 2017), 226.

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visual dramaturgy in opera today, this thesis presents a research that should be considered as an open invitation for critical debate and further study.

1.3 A term travelling in time

The composer Christoph Willibald Gluck is interesting for this research, because his work

exemplifies the shifting ideas of the aesthetic values in the arts in eighteenth century Europe. With a series of new works Gluck brought about a reform of the dramaturgical practise in opera. Gluck aimed to compose opera music with a radically different approach than his predecessors (as will be elaborated on in Chapter 3. Historical Context). Combining elements of different opera traditions, his reform operas were influenced and inspired by French operatic style.

In eighteenth century France, le merveilleux had become the poetic cornerstone of French opera. 5

Gluck, composer at the Habsburg court in Vienna, adapted his operas for the Parisian audience by allowing for more marvellous elements in the performance. In writing for the French tradition, Glucks work carries traces of le merveilleux (as will be elaborated on in Chapter 3. Historical 6

Context). The example of these operas written by Gluck show that the term le merveilleux has travelled in time; from its inception at the French Royal Court in the seventheenth century to the age of the Enlightenment a century later. Looking at le merveilleux as a specific artistic aim (that one can take up or take distance from) and as a term that can travel in time, suggests that the strategies behind it could be defined. But how to identify le merveilleux? How does it work? What are its parameters? And how to find a continuity of the old term in a translation to the now?

Bram van Oostveld and Stijn Bussels, “The Sublime and French Seventheeth-century theories of the 5

Catherine Kintzler “La poétique du merveilleux dans l’opéra français et son effondrement à la fin du 6

XVIIIe siècle,” in Mozart: Les chemins de l’Europe; actes du Congres de Strasbourg, ed. Brigitte Massin (Strasbourg: Editions du Conseil de l’Europe, 1997), 410.

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On a broader level; could this historical term be made into a workable category in opera dramaturgy today? And more specific: what in the two examples of recent opera stagings, Orphée et Eurydice by Castellucci and Armide by Barrie Kosky, would belong to that category?

Exploring past- and present-day visual strategies in opera and testing if the reintroduction of the term le merveilleux helps to define some essential strategies in visual dramaturgy in opera today will be substantiated by a theoretical framework. Visual dramaturgy, opera studies and art- and music history will be considered as a background of this research. In the analysis of Orphée et Eurydice directed by Romeo Castellucci and Armide directed by Barrie Kosky the term le

merveillieux will function as a possible category, testing if it is still a practicable term outside of its original historical context.

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2. A dramaturgical task

2.1 Dramaturgy on two levels

The intention to reintroduce a historical term, to take back an earlier form, is a mode integral to the development of opera. Like David Levin explains in his book Opera Through Other Eyes; “opera was invented in late sixteenth-century Florence as part of a programmatic determination to recreate Greek tragedy. As such, it was born of nostalgia and marked from its inception by determination to regain a lost anteriority.” It seems that the exploration of a historical phenomenon is conform the 7

interests characteristic to the field of opera. The research for this thesis is inspired by a similar motivation: looking back in history (to the term le merveillieux) in order to find new insights on opera practise today. Though different as the description by Levin, the intention to bring back an earlier form, is not motivated by a certain nostalgia or the “determination to regain a lost

anteriority.” This thesis approaches the term le merveillieux on the level of dramaturgy and the 8

challenges that a dramaturg has to face when working with opera repertoire today. How could a closer understanding of the term le merveillieux contribute to the discourse on visual dramaturgy in opera? Is the term le merveillieux valuable for the analysis of opera repertoire and ‘problems’ that occur in the transmission of an old opera piece to a new staging for a contemporary audience?

Looking at the scenographic interventions on the operatic stage in seventeenth century France, this research subsequently focusses on the visual strategies in the contemporary stagings of Orphée et Eurydice and Armide by Christoph Willibald Gluck - operas that belong to the classical repertoire. Looking to identify le merveilleux, the distinction between two levels of dramaturgy need to be clarified.

David Levin, Opera Through Other Eyes, Stanford University Press Stanford California 1994, 11.

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Ibid, 11.

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One is the type of dramaturgy that deals with the organisation of dramatic elements within a work; looking for strategies, developments and a certain order of appearances that communicate the dramatic sense of a performance. The question if le merveilleux finds its continuation in the visual strategies used by Castellucci and Kosky, directs this thesis to the field of visual dramaturgy (as elaborated on in Chapter 5. Opera and visuality). This thesis provides research concerning the visual dramaturgy of opera, a field not yet fully explored.

The second type of dramaturgy concerns the work of a dramaturg which involves to explore the potentiality of a piece, to understand its historical context and to place it in a contemporary context. When working with repertoire, it is important to research the original writings (the score and the libretto) in order to analyse and value the artistic intentions of the authors.

Chapter 2.4 Being (un)faithful to the original text later on in this introduction, will open the debate on being faithful to the original text of a piece (Patrice Pavis 2008). What does it mean to approach an old work with a dramaturgical relevant reading of it without disregarding the original intentions of the piece? And how can this research contribute to the discussion on being (un)faithful to the original text?

First, the performances of Orphée et Eurydice directed by Romeo Castellucci and Armide directed by Barrie Kosky will have to be introduced. These performances will serve as points of reference throughout this thesis. A brief technical overview of the visual strategies in those two productions will help to illustrate the analysis later on.

2.2 Orphée et Eurydice by Romeo Castellucci

In directing Orphée et Eurydice Romeo Castellucci uses a dramaturgy that relies predominantly on visual strategies. Castellucci presents two narratives parallel to each other, dividing the opera performance into two distinct experiences: one on a visual level and one on an auditory level.

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While the music plays and singers sing, Castellucci uses a live-stream film projection of a situation outside the theatre, in which a woman named Els lies in a coma in a hospital nearby the opera house. The images are documenting the situation of Els, a woman lying in bed (unable to move but presumably able to hear, see and feel). The recording is preceded by the story of her life, projected as a text on a transparant gauze screen. As in a cinema, this screen reaches to the edges of the theatre frame. Here a second story line (that of Els’ life) overlaps with the story of Orphée and Eurydice on two levels. Both stories are presented simultaneously: the surtitels of the sung text appear simultaneously with the projected words and images of the story of Els. On a texual level this calls for a some difficulty; it is hard to to read both texts at the same time. But on a

dramaturgical level the images of Els situation appear associatively linked to the content given by the libretto of the opera. Here, the visual dramaturgy seems to carry more importance than the (surtitled) libretto text.

While the opera performance takes place, Els listens to a live broadcast of the opera performance by wearing headphones. The mutual live-stream connection with Els listening to Gluck’s opera on headphones and the audience seeing Els on a screen while listening to the same music live in the theatre, allows for these two places (inside and outside the opera house) to have a impact on the drama in both stories (that of Els and that of Orphée and Eurydice). Els could be interpreted as the alter ego of Eurydice, while Els’ story also is made known its own right, guided by the music.

On stage the film screen divides two spaces; that of Eurydice (the singer behind the screen) and that of Orphée (the singer in front of the screen). Castellucci instructed the singers to hardly move or act, they sing almost as if in concert. Besides the role of the singer, it is the camera that plays the role of Orphée - moving with his perspective (the audience sees the journey through his eyes), the framing of the images of the road, the hospital building, Els, - also playing with the effect of blur

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and sharp focus -, this results in a third space that open ups in the theatre space: the real world outside the theatre becomes present on stage.

In the third act (when Eurydice dies after Orphée couldn’t resist to look at her while guiding her out of the underworld), Castellucci employs a blackout when Orphée sings “I have lost my Eurydice”. 9

When the light comes back on stage, a landscape is revealed in which a nude nymph-like woman bathes in a water pool surrounded by plants and rocks. The film screen shows a paradise landscape, depicting a divine garden in soft colours. This happens briefly, as the opera ends again with the image of Els. With the fading last notes of the music, the headphones are lifted from Els’ ears. The camera zooms out and a second blackout announces the final silence of the performance. This double blackout hints to Euydice’s deaths in Glucks opera, she dies in the beginning and ‘once again’ in the underworld, when Orphée can’t withhold from looking back at her.

2.3 Armide by Barrie Kosky

Barrie Kosky approached Armide in a more traditional theatrical way. Where Castellucci asked the singers to sing most of the piece standing still, Kosky works with a more realistic acting method, giving a motivation to the actions of the characters on stage. The scenography by Katrin Lea Tag in Kosky’s Armide makes uses of grand visual statements: it shows a dark landscape, in which a water bassin stretches to the full width of the stage, surrounded by larger-than-life plants.

White painted figures walk and dance in the water, while a naked man on a (real) horse parades through it (making a one minute appearance). At moments, the costumes and the props recall the

Orphée:

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“J'ai perdu mon Eurydice, Rien n'égale mon malheur; Sort cruel! quelle rigueur! Rien n'égale mon malheur! Je succombe à ma douleur!”

Orphée et Eurydice, Opéra en trois actes, Livret Ranieri de’ Calzabigi / Pierre-Louis Moline. Accessed on

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historical times and French battle fields. For example the sword with which Armide attempts to kill Renaud, the shields and the armor of Ubalde and the Danish knight. There are no big scene changes, everything stays in place. In this fixed scenography very subtle visual dynamics are found in the reflection of the light in the water, creating shimmering rays of little golden figures on the

backdrop. Bigger visual effects take place during two full scenes as a continuous rain of black and pink confetti dazzles down from above. The historical props and costumes and the shiny elements on stage seem to remind of the theatre spectacles of the French Baroque, but other than that the stage remains an ambiguous grey space. Kosky blends the different locations that the libretto prescribes (a square in Damascus, a garden, a desert, a misty landscape, an enchanted palace) in 10

one quite undefined moonlike landscape. As he explains in the program book of Armide this landscape represents the inner being of Armide. Like in a dream Armide is part of this landscape herself, as Kosky points out: “The impressive scene changes as described in the libretto - from a desert to Armides magic castle, are for me the changes within Armide’s inner being. The landscape is therefore more like a soul landscape. Katrin Lea Tag and I thought of a barren landscape that is simultaneously a desert and a garden, drought and water: the memory of a utopian world where you do not know whether you are in the beginning or the end of something. The landscape is part of Armides soul and body, and at the same time Armide is a part of this space as well - a space which consists of dreams, desires and hallucinations.” To make the scenography the expression of an 11

internal world of dreams, desires and hallucinations seems to be a way to avoid the seventeenth

Christoph Willibald Gluck and Philippe Quinault, Armide, drame héroique en cinq actes in programm

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book Armide (Amsterdam: De Nationale Opera, 2013), 46 - 78.

“De in het libretto beschreven imposante scènewisseling van een woestijn en dan naar Armides toverslot

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zijn voor mij veel meer veranderingen in Armides innerlijk. Het landschap is daarom eerder een

zielenlandschap. Daarom hebben Katrin Lea Tag en ik gedacht aan een schraal landschap, dat tegelijkertijd woestijn en tuin, dorheid en water is: de herinnering aan een utopische wereld waarbij je niet weet of die het begin of het einde van iets is. Het landschap is een deel van Armides ziel en lichaam, en omgekeerd is Armide een deel van deze ruimte, die bestaat uit dromen, verlangens en hallucinaties.” translation English by Fabienne Vegt.

Bettina Auer, “Een zielenlandschap - Gesprek met Barrie Kosky”, in programm book Armide (Amsterdam: De Nationale Opera, 2013), 21.

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century theatre aethetics - a style for which the libretto provides for many unrealistic events, impressive set changes and possibilities to represent miraculous worlds on stage (fantasy castles, flying chariots, wonderful gardens etc., as will be elaborated on in Chapter 4. Le merveillleux, a strategy of representation). It seems that Kosky’s choice to stage this sequence of fantastic images as if in a dream, allows Kosky a more psychological interpretation; one that rather focusses on the internal emotional state of the characters in the opera, than on external splendor of the operatic performance itself.

2.4 Being (un)faithful to the original text

Both Castellucci and Kosky use the scenography and the images on stage in order to convey their dramatic interpretation. Though in comparison both stage directors chose to employ different scenographic means, materials and styles. Castellucci explores the latest possibilities of multimedia and livesteam connections, a documentary style of filming in combination with a natural way of non-acting. Kosky works within a tradition that establishes a coherent theatrical world, using the scenography as a means to create a world on stage that is closed of by a fourth wall, as if the edge of the stage is the line that separates the fiction on stage from the reality of world outside of it. Looking at Castellucci’s big and always moving images on the screen and Kosky’s continuous rain of glimmering confetti, both directors make use of moving visuals that “produce a maximum and almost ecstatic or sublime effect on the spectator” , similar to what Van Oostveld en Bussels 12

descibe as le merveilleux.

Here it is remarkable that the choices made for these visual effects are developed from the artistic ideas of Kosky and Castellucci, who deliberately chose to not follow the scenic changes and the

Bram van Oostveld and Stijn Bussels, “The Sublime and French Seventheeth-century theories of the

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stage directions of the libretto. Both stage directors rely in their dramaturgy on images independent from the indications of the original work.

If directors choose for a dramaturgy that depends on the development of visual elements (that are employed independently from the original text) while deliberately ignoring the scenic changes and the stage directions in the libretto, does this mean that the interpretation is unfaithful to the original work?

Here, this thesis touches upon a second topic: the argument of being (un)faithful to the original text. Theatre scholar Patrice Pavis - specialized in the field of dramaturgy, semiotics and performance practise - points out that theories of interpretation come back to the permanent argument of ‘fidelity’. In his article On Faithfulness: The Difficulties Experienced by the Text/Performance Couple he shows how our Western obsession with the (un)faithful relationship of text to performance never ceases to loose its topicality. 13

“Fidelity: such is the illusion that we have of reading, interpreting and performing the play according to the author’s intentions, as if there existed a correct reading, a reading that reveals a verifiable truth in the play or the interpreted work. It seems that at whatever historical moment, in whatever culture, common sense – and society with it – holds on to an idea of a truth of the text, inscribed in it, incontestable, inalienable, and so to an idea of a necessary and possible fidelity of interpretation.” 14

The vivid debate whether opera productions are faithful to the original piece or not, takes place as well among opera audiences: there is a strong ongoing discussion on the Facebook page Against

Pavis, Patrice “On Faithfulness: The Difficulties Experienced by the Text/Performance Couple.” Theatre 13

research international vol. 33 no. 2 (2008), 118. International Federation for Theatre Research.

Ibid.

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Modern Opera Performances, dividing opinions on opera into two camps; pro- and against 15

modern opera performances. It shows how being faithful to the original work is a highly debated topic today. Most of the discussion is about the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ of the choices made by a stage director to disregard the indications, the words and/or the plot given by the libretto of the opera. How much freedom can a stage director take when interpreting of a piece of repertoire when he/she deliberately decides to move away from the original text or ignore elements of it, without being disrespectful to the intentions of the author(s)?

This discussion shows that the transmission of an old operatic work to a new and contemporary interpretation, is highly debated in opera. This thesis relates to this discourse, by proposing to take the visual strategies of the original work into consideration as well, additional to the analysis on level of the text and the music. This thesis looks for other ways of reading the libretto, for example by searching for images in the text or scene changes that provide for marvellous visual effects on stage, looking for le merveilleux. Not in favor of a conservative approach or motivated by a

nostalgic desire, but in search of a contemporary translation of the original artistic aim of the piece, also on the level of the visual. This is a dramaturgical approach, free of judgement on how things ‘should’ or ‘should not’ be done, exploring the historical context of the piece and looking for new insights and translations of the old work to a contemporary context.

2.5 The status of the libretto

This thesis intends to contribute to the field of theatre studies and especially to opera dramaturgy, on two levels. First on a methodological level: applying a historical term in a contemporary context. On a second level this thesis explores a dramaturgical task, concerning the re-interpretation of a work that belongs to opera repertoire. If being faithful to the original work is expedient, analysing

Facebookpage Against Modern Opera. Accessed on April 5, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/

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the libretto on the base of the images that are described in the text would allow a reference to the visual strategies that were implicit to the original piece. Instead of only and literally referring to the scene changes as described in the libretto, a contemporary translation of the original visual

strategies (of for example le merveilleux) proposes another possibility of being faithful to the original piece and the intentions of the authors (long dead).

Considering le merveilleux an aesthetic term that “designates music theatre as a spectacle of excess” , Chapter 4. Le merveillleux, a strategy of representation, will discuss how le merveilleux 16

can both be found in the scenic effects on stage as well as in the libretto. As will become clear, the libretto can supply for marvellous events and situations - ready to “produce a maximum and almost ecstatic or sublime effect on the spectator” on stage. The stories of both Armide and in Orphée et 17

Eurydice center around theme’s of power, enchantment, love and loss and their libretti indicate actions that employ supernatural powers. Looking for traces of le merveilleux in the libretti, and finding references or similar visual strategies of le merveilleux in the contemporary stagings of Armide and Orphée et Eurydice might offer a new perspective on the argument on being faithful to the orginal work, because - besides the analyis on a musical and textual level - it includes the original intentions of the piece on a level of visuality.

When working with opera repertoire it is important to identify the status of the libretto text in relation to the choices made on the visual strategies on stage. Likewise, it is important to identify the relationship between the music and the visuals, and their mutual influence in expressing the dramatic sense of the piece.

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Ibid, 226.

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2.6 Dramatic scenography

As will become appearent in Chapter 5. Opera and visuality, the visual strategies influence the way we perceive the music, and vice versa. In the work of scenographer Adolphe Appia (1862 - 1928) and of composer and theatre director Heiner Goebbels (1952 -) examples are found that show how music and visuals have a dramatic impact on each other in a mutual way. The work of Heiner Goebbels shows a dramaturgy in music theatre that neighbours the visual strategies in Orphée et Eurydice by Romeo Castellucci (as will be elaborated on in Chapter 5.3.2 Heiner Goebbels’ co-presence of two spaces). The visual strategy in the work of Adolphe Appia are of interest for this thesis because it examplifies a certain dramaturgy in the scenography - one that reduces the visual illustration of the narrative. Appia chose for a more abstract scenography that allows a

concentration on the drama in the music, deliberately disregarding the stage directions of Richard Wagner when creating a new scenographic dramaturgy for the Wagner operas he staged. Appia was ‘unfaithful’ to the original intention and notations as provided by the author. Yet, in doing so Appia argues that in his mis-en-scene (in which the scenography plays a main part) the content of the work is revealed. Here Appia proposes another way of being faithful to the original work; one that 18

concentrates on the drama in the music by reducing the dramatic illustrations that literally depict the story on stage.

When working with a repertoire piece, it is a dramaturgical task to find the potentiality of a text in a new contemporary context. This means an informed reading of the text regarding its historical and cultural context (the times in which it was written), as well as an open reading of the text - looking for the timeless and timely values that the work contains today. Pavis proposes that our concern with being faithful to the original text and the authors intentions revolves around the question of

Adolphe Appia, La musique et la mise en scène. (Theaterkultur-Verlag Bern, 1963), 79-83.

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what the stage director brings from the outside. Following Appia’s theory and taking into 19 20

account that being faithful to the original piece and the authors intentions revolves around the question of what the stage director brings from the outside (as argued by Pavis ), it becomes 21

interesting to look again at Kosky’s Armide: Kosky chose not to illustrate the specific locations in the story. His stage is an open space that doesn’t transform by means of stage machinery, nor does it demonstrate the scene changes as described in the libretto in another way. The strategies on stage look similar to the scenographic dramaturgyas proposed by Appia. The reduced illustration of the drama on stage allows to concentrate on the drama in the music, meant to reveal the inner world of Armide. But in contrast to Appia’s theory, Kosky also makes use of marvellous scenographic effects. For example the ‘water ballet’ in the second act, and the almost endless rain of shiny black and pink confetti dazzling down on stage. How do these visuals strategies relate to le merveilleux?

This thesis will look for le merveilleux in the libretto text as well as in the visual strategies on stage. The transmission from the old piece to the new context is a challenging work. The contemporary stagings by Kosky and Castellucci of the two operas by Gluck are interesting examples because they approach these opera repertoire pieces in very different ways. Castellucci adds a new narrative to the original text by using new images on stage in such a way that they overlap with the story and the sung text of Orphée et Eurydice. Kosky on the other hand only uses the images in the original text that serve his interpretation of the piece. By using only what he needs to tell the story he decides to ignore the stage directions and the scene changes that the libretto of Armide provides. Kosky’s Armide is based on the psychological reading of the main character. This thesis proposes

research international vol. 33 no. 2 (2008), 120. International Federation for Theatre Research.

Adolphe Appia, La musique et la mise en scène. (Theaterkultur-Verlag Bern, 1963), 79-83.

20

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another way of reading the libretto, one that focusses on the images that can be found in the text on the level of word choice, scene changes, stage directions and plot. When searching to identify le merveilleux in the libretto, this kind of reading focusses on supernatural events, marvellous appearances and hints to visual splendor.

2.7 The following chapters

This thesis tries to identify where le merveilleux can be found in the libretto and in the visual strategies on stage, and explores if le merveilleux can help define some essential strategies on the level of visual dramaturgy in opera. The following chapter, Chapter 3. Historical Context, will provide for the historical background of the term le merveilleux and the opera reform by Gluck. Chapter 4. Le merveilleux, a strategy of representation will focus on where to find le merveilleux in the libretto and on stage. Subsequently this thesis will explore the importance of studying the visual elements in contemporary opera performances, in Chapter 5. Opera and visuality. Chapter 6. Le merveilleux redefined looks for parameters of le merveilleux and proposes a definition of the term that is workable outside of its historical context. The redefined term of le merveilleux will be tested as a workable category in analysis of the contemporary stagings of two operas by Gluck: Orphée et Eurydice directed by Castellucci and Armide directed by Kosky. Reintroducing the term le

merveilleux is not a conservative approach, but an attempt to find a new category as part of visual dramaturgy that could be useful in working with opera repertoire, and it proposes a novel

perspective to the discussion of being faithful to the original text. The concluding chapter of this thesis, Chapter 7. Visual dramaturgy in opera, will discuss the outcome of the research on le

merveilleux. And this last chapter will come back to the question of faithfulness when reinterpreting a piece of repertoire, reflecting on the role of the dramaturg in the field of opera. What does it mean to be ‘faithful’ to the original work, when aiming to discover the timely and timeless values of the repertoire piece in a present-day context?

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RESEARCH

3. Historical Context

As mentioned in the introduction of this thesis le merveilleux is a term characteristic to French opera. The term was designated to understand the marvellous visual effects of the opera performances at the Royal Court of King Louis XIV in the seventeenth century. Considered as “poetical cornerstone of French opera” le merveilleux set a stylistic standard for French opera well 22

into the eightheenth century. The following chapter will provide a historical framework to the opera practise of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, in order to explore the term le merveilleux. This historical context will also serve as a background to Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera reform. A brief summary of the developments in opera in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth century provides for the overview necessary to understand the complexity of opera and its performance practise, the changing status of le merveilleux and the difficulties that have always been part of regarding the libretto as a dramatic text within this multimedial genre.

3.1 Visual spectacles in the seventeenth century

In the book Aesthetics of Opera in the Ancien Regime, 1647-1785, Downing A. Thomas combines a close reading of significant seventeenth century and eighteenth century French operas together with a reception history, pointing out the broad impact of opera in the early-modern French culture. Following Downing A. Thomas

22

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“the seventeenth century dramatic theory was extraordinarily concerned with determining how things could or should, or should not, be placed in front of the spectator. Tragédie en musique, to greater degree than any other dramatic idiom, highlighted the visual merveilleux of supernatural appearances and special effects. […] This emphasis made tragédie en musique, along with the

tragédie à machines that it replaced, the most visually oriented of spectacles.” 23

The founding of the French opera in the seventeenth century was influenced by the Italian operas that were imported by Jules Cardinal Mazarin, the first minister under the regency of Anne of Austria, and performed in Paris in the late 1640’s. The arrival of Italian opera at the Royal French 24

court created a vogue for musical spectacle with overwhelming stage machinery. The popularity of the theatrical transformations made possible by machines is shown in by the opening of Salle des Machines at the Tuileries Palace in Paris in 1662. The opening, on occasion of the wedding of Louis XIV and Maria Thesera of Spain, was celebrated with the performance of Francesco Cavalli’s

Ercole amante. The performance anticipated the development of French opera as it combined a 25

number of French genres - the through-sung pastorals, the ballet de cour, and the comédie-ballet with the stage machinery imported from Italy, designed by Carlo Vigarani. 26

In 1672 the French Court officially created an opera of its own by founding the Académie Royale de Musique. The director of the Académie Royale de Musique Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 - 1687) created a model for opera that adopted the elaborate décors and the Italian machinery, combining

Downing A. Thomas, Aesthetics of Opera in the Ancien Regime 1647-1785. (Cambridge University Press,

23

2002), 101 - 106. Ibid, 18. 24

Bram van Oostveld and Stijn Bussels, “The Sublime and French Seventeenth-century theories of the 25

Ibid, 29. 26

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spectacular scenic interventions with music, spoken text and ballet. These multisensorial

performances were considered as theatre of enchantment - dealing with everything that was exposed to eyes and ears.

3.2 Today’s Baroque vision

Most recently, Bram van Oostveld and Stijn Bussels published an article on the theories of the spectacle in seventeenth century France: The Sublime and French Seventeenth-century theories of

the Spectacle: Toward an Aesthetic Approach to Performance. They state that - instead of 27

reducing the idea of le theatre classique to the theatrical canon of Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine and Molière - the view on the theatrical corpus of the French classicism should be enlarged by taking into account the performance practises in music theatre and dance in the seventeenth century. The motivation for this article is similar to the research of this thesis, as it moves away from the literary perspective that concentrates on the dramatic text, looking for a broadened view on the theatrical event by exploring the historical concepts of the performing arts. Van Oostveld and Bussels refer to sensuous effects of the spectacles as theorized in the writings of Michel de Pure and

Claude-Francois Ménestrier. What is important regarding the notion of the spectacle, following Van Oostveld and Bussels, is that “in early modern dictionaries the word ‘spectacle’ does not refer to a simple or superficial effect, but on the contrary is considered as a multisensorial experience that produces strong affective response in the spectator.” As becomes apparent here - and will be 28

elaborated on further in this thesis - the seventeenth century understanding of the spectacle, including le merveilleux, shows parallels with contemporary performance studies and visual

dramaturgy. Following Van Oostveld and Bussel, the concept of le merveilleux neighbours concepts

Bram van Oostveld and Stijn Bussels, “The Sublime and French Seventheeth-century theories of the 27

Spectacle: Toward an Aesthetic Approach to Performance,” in Theatre Survey (American Society for Theatre Research, 2017).

Ibid, 210. 28

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such as ‘the sublime’, ‘le-je-ne-sais-qoui’ and ‘magnificence’, as it was used to understand these spectacle in terms of ‘presence’ in the sense that it overwhelms, transports, or elevates the spectator and for a short moment abolishes the gap between reality and representation. 29

Similar to the times of the Baroque, contemporary performance practices consider the theatrical event in terms of presence. Moving beyond the emphasis on the dramatic text, theatre is explored as a multisensorial experience that produces strong affective response in the spectator. Time and again stage directors play with the liveness of a performance in order to create the effect of presence, using the full potential of the theatre machine to close the gap between reality and representation, fully absorbing the audience into the theatrical experience. This shows parallels to the early theories on the spectacle, as stated by Van Oostveld and Bussels: “Through their live character spectacles function as “moving images” or “peintures parlantes” that can bring back distant pasts, revive the dead, and even embody the most abstract ideas and thus create this effect of vividness.” 30

Looking at the early modern definition of the spectacle and the opera performances of Baroque seem relevant in the regards to visual dramaturgy (“moving images” or “peintures parlantes”) at 31

work in contemporary opera performances, because it presents a model for visuality that counteracts a dramaturgy which is imbedded in neo-Aristotelian poetics - one that emphasizes the dramatic text (as will be elaborated on in Chapter 5. Opera and Visuality).

29

Ibid, 213. 30

Ibid, 213. 31

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3.3 Opera as a dramatic genre

At the French art academies, opera was considered to be a dramatic genre (part of the category of literature). The director of the Académie Royale de Musique Jean-Baptiste Lully had adopted certain classical rules of theatre for opera. He used a five-act structure, never mixing the comic and the tragic, for instance. However, the dramatic text figured as one of the many elements in the opera performance, as French opera placed more emphasis on the visual merveilleux.

Following Bram van Oostveld and Stijn Bussels in The Sublime and French Seventheenth-Century Theories of the Spectacle: Toward an aesthetic approach to performance:

“Far more important than the coherence and concentration of the dramatic plot is the purely

sensuous effect of this multimedial genre. The combination of different media surpasses the singular effects of music, dance, text, and painting. They address several senses at once and in so doing excite in the spectator a feeling of the marvellous, or le merveilleux, that transports and ravishes them but that can never be captured in a set of rules.” 32

These artistic rules for opera - using a combination of different media in order to create an affective response and excitement in the audience - were quite different on the level of dramaturgy compared to the much appreciated classical dramas of that time. The theatre plays written by Racine,

Corneille and Molière relied on a classical dramaturgy in which (following Artistotles’ Poetics) a 33

unity of time, place and action was a standard; a dramatic coherence that could not be disrupted. In contrast, the dramaturgy for French operas dealt with simple blocks of grand visual effects. In the classic French theatre is was unthinkable to allow sudden changes to different places in the story or

32

Aristotle, Poetics. (The Penguin Group, 1996).

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to treat the dramatic text as a subordinated element in the performance. Here the dramatic text was of main importance, while in opera several media were combined and the artistic approval of the performance was based on spectaculair movements (big chorusses, ballets and moving

architecture). The large scenic changes and wonderous visual effects would together with the music and the text constitute the opera performance as a whole.

Because the libretto is a dramatic text, opera as a genre was classified as a dramatic genre. “Until the end of the eighteenth century, opera belonged to at least as much and perhaps more to literature than it did to music.” The operas were based on Greek myths and tragedies, stories that dealt with 34

the interaction between men and gods. “An important aspect of the interest of opera derived from the confusion of the celestrial and the wordly realms.” The miraculous events in the narrative 35

authorized scene changes and eliminated the need for a strict unity of place.

Following Aubrey S. Garlington Jr. in his essay “Le Merveilleux and operatic reform in the 18th-century French opera” (1963), the marvellous visual effects of these spectacles had to do with the art of suggesting an unreality on stage or creating the illusion of a supernatural reality. 36

The opera libretto was important as it served both as literary text (referring to classic Greek mythology and tragedy) and as action text (for example, instructing the movements on stage). As action text the libretto didn’t only motivate the acting of the singers on stage, it was also written to encourage scenic changes - proposing different locations in the story. As will be exemplified with the libretti of Orphée et Eurydice and Armide (elaborated on in Chapter 4. Le merveilleux a strategy

Downing A. Thomas, Aesthetics of Opera in the Ancien Regime 1647-1785. (Cambridge University Press, 34

2002), 37. Ibid, 45. 35

Aubrey, S. Garlington Jr. “Le Merveilleux and operatic reform in 18th-century French Opera.” The

36

musical Quarterly (1963): 740580. Accessed on October 12, 2016. JSTOR.www.jstor.org.

It is remarkable that Aubrey S. Garlington Jr. writes about spectacular visual effects (an article dating from 1963) as, since the sixties, scenic effects became topical in theatre with the rise of theatre practises that explored the meaning of visual elements in theatre performances - opposed to text based dramaturgy.

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of representation), le merveilleux was incorporated in the libretto: a text written to invite visual opulence on stage. 

3.4 Criticism on le merveilleux

From its inception in 1672 - with the foundation of Académie Royale de Musique - French opera (termed tragédie en musique) was modeled on spoken tragedy. But “while Lully’s recitative was much praised, the weight of his opera shifted toward the chorus, together with the ballet and large scenic effects - what the French aptly consider as ‘le merveilleux’,” wrote musicologist Joseph 37

Kerman in his book Opera as Drama (2005). Although derived on the same theoretical base as the classic theatre, French opera had evolved in a different direction as it took le merveilleux as its fundamental law. In his book Aesthetics of Opera in the Ancien Regime 1647-1785 Downing A. 38

Thomas remarks that “the literary credentials that this model provided, however, worked both in favor of tragédie en musique and against it. Some sensed the mythical presence of ancient Greek theater in opera; yet, because it incorporated the supposedly vacuous pleasures of music and

spectacle, opera was attacked as a moral danger and as having precipitated the demise of tragedy.” 39

The emphasis on le merveilleux in French opera is comparable to the employment of visual effects in the early cinema, calling for a similar kind of criticism, remarks Thomas. Tragédie en musique was, along with the tragédie à machines that it replaced “the most visually oriented of spectacles, similar from this perspective, and from that of the criticism it first received, to early cinema.” 40

By the end of the seventeenth century le merveilleux was a well-set style attribute of French opera.

Joseph Kerman, Opera as Drama, New and Revised Edition. (University of California Press, 2005), 42.

37

Downing A. Thomas, Aesthetics of Opera in the Ancien Regime 1647-1785. (Cambridge University Press,

38 2002) Ibid, 7. 39 Ibid, 104 - 106. 40

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And the Encyclopédie of Diderot and Alembert (1751) shows that the model set by Lully had a 41 determining influence on opera creation, well into the eighteenth century. The definition of Enchantement as “an operatic term of which le merveilleux lies at its base”, and the definition of

Opera “as a theatre of enchantment with any kind of marvel in its responsibility” exemplify how 42

le merveilleux was considered the core of French opera.

Though, the danger was that over this period of time “le merveilleux might become the raison d’être instead of an integrated dramatic element”, following Joseph Kerman. Kerman argues that le 43

merveilleux could become a mere self-referential effect, with consequently no other purpose than being a marvellous effect.

3.5 The Enlightenment

The questionable pleasures of le merveilleux became a topical in the eighteenth century as the philosophy of the Enlightenment introduced new aesthetic concepts to the arts, valueing grand simplicity over splendor. The criticism on le merveilleux arose from the shifting artistic values in 44

the eighteenth century (also referred to as ‘the age of reason’). The scientific discoveries and

“Enchantement,” Diderot and d’Alembert, Enyclopédie. Accessed on October 12, 2016. The ARTFL 41

Projects. http://artflsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c. 4:1191:2.encyclopedie0416.6179596

Ibid. 42

“Enchantement, (Belles - Lettres.) terme d'Opéra. Le merveilleux est le fonds de l'opéra françois. Cette premiere idée que Quinaut a eue en créant ce genre, est le germe des plus grandes beautés de ce spectacle. (V. Opéra.) C'est le théatre des enchantemens; toute sorte de merveilleux est de son ressort, & on ne peut le produire que par l'intervention des dieux de la fable & par le secours de la féerie ou de la magie. Les dieux de la fable développent sur ce théatre la puissance surnaturelle que l'antiquité leur attribuoit. La féerie y fait voir un pouvoir surprenant sur les créatures sans mouvement, ou sur les êtres animés: la magie par ses

enchantemens y amene des changemens qui étonnent, & tous ces différens ressorts y produisent des beautés

qui peuvent faire illusion, lorsqu'ils sont conduits par une main habile.”

Joseph Kerman, Opera as Drama, New and Revised Edition. (University of California Press, 2005), 42.

43

Compared to other stylistic labels of the seventheenth century, for example the term ‘Baroque’, also le

44

merveilleux could be used as a term of negative criticism. Similar to ‘Baroque’, the decorative richness of le merveilleux signified a deviation from the norm. These qualities of exuberant splendor could be used as an

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innovations incited a rational debate on the function and the power of art: Descartes and Locke 45

propounded a philosophy based on empirical observation and common sense, and Newton provided a rational explanation of the laws determining the structure and the working of the universe. 46

Theories of the Enlightenment inquired into the function of art and how it could or should be controlled. The turn of the century marked a transition in the ideas on aesthetics for the stage. Subsequently this resulted in a reconsideration of the quality of the opera libretti, shifting the focus to the credibility of the performance, giving importance to a logical dramatic development.

The self-referential merveilleux was criticised to be an illogical and dramatically disruptive element in the performance; mere visual spectacle didn’t make sense to the eightheenth century critics. With the modern views about the emancipation of mankind, the concentration on a more human emotional level was appreciated over the appearances of gods and goddesses and the multitude of scenic changes that were rendered possible by the use of elaborate stage machinery. The elimination of mechanical interventions in opera (closely linked to the appearances of godly characters) allowed for a concentration on the human elements within the drama. Though this didn’t include the

removal of all magical or imaginary elements of the operatic performance. As Tili Boon Cuillé argues in the article Marvellous Machines: Revitalizing Enlightenment Opera (2011): “the contested use of machines […] did not necessarily entail the elimination of the supernatural”. Also 47

Catherine Kintzler, in The Poetics of the Merveilleux in French Opera and Its Collapse at the End

of the Eighteenth Century (1997), acknowledges that le merveilleux didn’t disappear. Le 48

merveilleux lived on in a rudimental form, especially in the operas composed and staged by Hugh Honour and John Fleming, A World History of Art. (Laurence King Publications London, 2009),

45

608.

Ibid, 608.

46

Cuillé, Tili Boon. “Marvelous Machines: Revitalizing Enlightenment Opera.” Opera Quarterly (2011):

47

66-93. Accessed on October 12, 2016. http://oq.oxfordjournals.org

Catherine Kintzler “La poétique du merveilleux dans l’opéra français et son effondrement à la fin du

48

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Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714 – 1787). 49Concurrent to the gradual demise of visual special effects, opera was reinvented on a musical and dramatic level. It was composer Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683 - 1764) who gave opera a new dramatic flow by developing larger units of music, in which arias, recitatives and ballets were composed complementary to each other. On a musical 50

level Rameau explored the potential range and variety of harmony within the given structures of opera music. Gluck was much inspired by the work of Rameau, as he got acquainted with French opera during his travels in 1745. 51

3.6 The Italian tradition

Where Italian opera had set the example for opera in the rest of Europe, France had developed its 52

own characteristic opera style. A brief explanation on the development of Italian opera, will help to introduce the operatic reform by Christoph Willibald Gluck which will be discussed in the next paragraph.

By the end of the seventeenth century, Italian opera aesthetics had moved far away from its original ‘parlar cantando’, as opera had emerged as an art form among members of the Florentine Camarata in the sixteenth century. In the times of the Italian Baroque, the music didn’t serve the words or 53

the dramatic scene anymore. Instead the vocal virtuosity of the singers had become the central

Catherine Kintzler “La poétique du merveilleux dans l’opéra français et son effondrement à la fin du

49

Robert Cannon, Opera, Cambridge Introductions to Music. (Cambridge University Press, 2012), 55.

50

Roeland Gerritsen “Orfeo ed Euridice 1762, Christoph Willibald Gluck,” in Opera, Twaalf opera’s als

51

spiegels van hun tijd, ed Dick Disselkoen (Nijmegen: SUN | Ou, 1993), 80.

Even Jean Baptiste Lully, disavowing the Italian style, was originally Italian (born as Giovanni Battista

52

Lulli).

53

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element in Italian opera. In contrast to French opera (where the correlation between the music and 54

the dramatic text, the aria and the recitative was explored, and all dramatic elements —music, text, dance and scenography— were integrated into a coherent whole), Italian opera developed the formalisation of the da capo aria. The repetition in the da capo aria allows the singer to show his 55

vocal capacity, but it ignores the dramaturgical function of the libretto text. In Italy, the philosophy of the Enlightenment resulted in a new opera genre, opera seria. Opera seria was demonstrated in the work of the Italian librettist Apostolo Zeno (1668 - 1750) and his successor Pietro Metastasio (1698 - 1782). Zeno and Metastasio emancipated the libretto from its subordinate function, in order to lift up the dramatic and literary quality of the text. Their libretti were much praised and set the standard for many opera compositions. These examples, also in the history of Italian opera, show 56

the complex relationship between the libretto as a dramatic text and the performance practise of opera as a multimedial genre. Opera seria soon became popular at court everywhere Europe, except in France. In France the opera libretti were not supposed to be constructed as a text that could also 57

be performed on it’s own - the way Zeno and Metastasio were writing their libretti.

3.7 Christoph Willibald Gluck, opera reform

It is of interest for this thesis to discuss the work of Christoph Willibald Gluck against the

background of his time. The introduction to his opera reform will give the context necessary for the analysis of the contemporary opera stagings of Armide and Orphée et Eurydice.

54

Robert Cannon, Opera, Cambridge Introductions to Music. (Cambridge University Press, 2012), 30.

55

56

The work of Zeno and Metastasio was much appreciated at court until the end of the eighteenth century 57

(and of influence in the work of Gluck, Mozart and other composers and librettists) but somehow their operas don’t belong to the opera repertoire that is still regularly performed in Europe today. The French operas from this period in history on the other hand, are still part of the repertoire, in France ánd abroad.

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Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (1714 – 1787) was a composer at the Habsburg court at Vienna. With a series of new works he brought about a reform of opera’s dramaturgical practise. Inspired by the developments in French opera his work radically broke with the formal opera seria that been popular for much of the century. Glucks' international career brought forward an opera style which combined elements from Italian opera, French prosody and influences of German composers (like Johann Sebastian Bach). His opera reform marked the beginning of a European 58

opera style, a style no longer dominated by the Italian tradition.

Instead of a mere presentation of the impressive virtuosity by the singers (characteristic to Italian operas at that time) Gluck was interested in a musical composition that concentrated on immersive emotions and more simple but delicate movements. According to his own writings on opera, Gluck claimed that his music wants nothing other than to clearly express and support the declamation of the text. In February 1773 he wrote to the editor of Mercure de France about the importance of the simple and clear motives in his musical composition. The concentration on a profound and 59

personal experience of music reflected the Enlightenment ideas of his time: questioning the truth and valuing simplicity over artificial exuberance.

Concerning the importance of the libretto and the meaning of the words written for a musical score Gluck stated: “The poem is no more made for the music than the music for the poem.” Aiming to 60 relate the musical score to the libretto text as a dialogue between two equally important dramatic elements, Gluck’s explorations on the dramatic expression of music allows the audience to

Willem Bruls, Mijn Opera. (Uitgeverij Atlas, 2009), 140.

58

“Mijn muziek, die zonder uitzondering zo eenvoudig en natuurlijk is als in mijn vermogen ligt, wil niet

59

anders dan de expressie met grootste duidelijkheid weergeven en de declamatie van de tekst versterken. Om deze reden voeg ik geen trillers, loopjes of cadensen toe, waar de Italianen altijd zo gul mee strooien.” English translation by Fabienne Vegt.

Christoph Willibald Gluck “Uit de correspondentie” in programm book Armide (Amsterdam: De Nationale Opera, 2013), 12.

Christoph Willibald Gluck in Opera, Cambridge Introductions to Music ed. Robert Cannon (Cambridge 60

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experience the drama in his operas on a more personal human level. The characters’ actions and words are motivated musically and therefore perceived with more integrity, instead of the artifice of the Baroque style.

The opera reform Gluck developed was first employed in Orpheo ed Euridice, the first of the three operas Gluck composed in collaboration with the Italian librettist Ranieri da Calzabigi (1714 - 1795). After spending years in Paris, in company of the intellectual high society (among others the philosopher Rousseau and encyclopedist Diderot), Calzabigi settled in Vienna in 1761 where he met Gluck. Together they developed a new opera dramaturgy; reducing the amount of characters and 61

scenes, searching for a sincere dramatic content. For example, Gluck and Calzabigi reduced Orpheo ed Euridice to three acts (versions by Monteverdi, Rossi and Händel employ five or four acts) and used only three characters: Orpheus, Euridice and Amor. Pluto, Prosperina, Apollo and Charon (as in Monteverdi’s Orfeo) or Creon (as in Händels Orfeo ed Euridice) make no appearance in Orpheo ed Euridice by Gluck and Calzabigi. This reduction provides a concentration on the music and the dramatic action which explores the emotions of love and loss that Orfeo feels for Euridice. 62

Orpheo ed Euridice had its première in Vienna in 1762 and twelve years later the opera premièred in Paris (1774). For this occasion the libretto of was translated and adapted to the French taste by

Pierre-Louis Moline, who added new arias and more ballets to the original version. The main 63

adjustment concerned the role of Orphée, which had to be re-worked for the voice of a tenor, since castrato singers were never popular in Paris. In 1859 composer Hector Berlioz (follower of Gluck) re-wrote the Parisian version Orphée et Eurydice, adapting the role of Orphée for a mezzo soprano. This is the version Castellucci staged in 2014. The Gluck/Berlioz version is based on the same

61

spiegels van hun tijd, ed Dick Disselkoen (Nijmegen: SUN | Ou, 1993), 84. Ibid, 87.

62

Ibid, 95. 63

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libretto that was used for the Parisian version Orphée et Eurydice. The adaptations of the role of Orphée deal with the technical adaptations in the music, but proposes no changes in its dramaturgy. Gluck’s Armide premièred in 1777, being his fifth opera for the Parisian stage. The opera was composed on the same libretto as written for Lully’s Armide in 1686 by Philippe Quinault, one of

the most merveilleux operas of its time and still regularly performed in the eighteenth century. 64

Gluck composed music that explores a profound human drama to a seventeenth century libretto that

was written for a opera performance full of marvellous effects: le merveilleux is found both in the story itself - staging characters with supernatural powers and appearances, and in the way the libretto was structured, written to the employ a follow up of marvellous scene changes that were much in vogue at that time (as will be elaborated on in the next chapter, Chapter 4. Le merveilleux, a strategy of representation). Following Downing A. Thomas in in Aesthetics of Opera in the ancien Regime:

“Though Armide was not always staged with machines, it was nonetheless conceived with the most elaborate stage technology in mind, allowing for effects such as the aerial departure of Armide and Renaud at the close of act 2, the arrival and appearance of Hate and his followers as they are swallowed up into the abyss at the end of act 3, and the destruction of Armide’s palace at the close of the opera.” 65

Finding that the opera was created with the maximum of possibilies of the theatre machine taken into account - looking at the propositions for visual effects in Armide - allows for a reflection on how to identify le merveilleux.

Cuillé, Tili Boon. “Marvelous Machines: Revitalizing Enlightenment Opera.” Opera Quarterly (2011): 64

66-93. Accessed October 12, 2016 http://oq.oxfordjournals.org

Downing A. Thomas, Aesthetics of Opera in the Ancien Regime 1647-1785. (Cambridge University Press, 65