Overview

Following his opposition to the establishment of a theatre in Geneva, Jean-Jacques Rousseau is often considered an enemy of the stage. Yet he was fascinated by drama: he was a keen theatre-goer, his earliest writings were operas and comedies, his admiration for Italian lyric theatre ran through his career, he wrote one of the most successful operas of the day, Le Devin du village, and with his Pygmalion, he invented a new theatrical genre, the Scène lyrique (‘melodrama’).  Through multi-faceted analyses of Rousseau’s theatrical and musical works, authors re-evaluate his practical and theoretical involvement with and influence on the dramatic arts, as well as his presence in modern theatre histories. New readings of the Lettre à d’Alembert highlight its political underpinnings, positioning it as an act of resistance to external bourgeois domination of Geneva’s cultural sphere, and demonstrate the work's influence on theatrical reform after Rousseau’s death. Fresh analyses of his theory of voice, developed in the Essai sur l’origine des langues, highlight the unique prestige of Italian opera for Rousseau. His ambition to rethink the nature and function of stage works, seen in Le Devin du village and then, more radically, in Pygmalion, give rise to several different discussions in the volume, as do his complex relations with Gluck. Together, contributors shed new light on the writer’s relationship to the stage, and argue for a more nuanced approach to his theatrical and operatic works, theories and legacy.

Full Product Details

Author:   Maria Gullstam ,  Michael O'Dea
Publisher:   Liverpool University Press
Imprint:   Voltaire Foundation
Volume:   2017:09
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.250kg
ISBN:  

9780729411998

ISBN 10:   0729411990
Pages:   312
Publication Date:   30 September 2017
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of illustrations Jean-Jacques Rousseau: a theatre and music chronology Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Maria Gullstam and Michael O’Dea, Introduction: ‘La vérité est que Racine me charme’ Part I. Rousseau as theorist of theatre and opera 1. The anthropological foresight of the Lettre sur les spectacles, Felicity Baker 2. The dramaturgy of Rousseau's Lettre à d’Alembert and its importance for modern theatre, Patrick Primavesi 3. The voice of nature in Rousseau’s theatre: reconstructing a dramaturgy, Jørgen Langdalen 4. Rousseau’s Pygmalion and the limits of (operatic) expression, Jacqueline Waeber Part II. Rousseau as playwright 5. Pygmalion’s power struggles: Rousseau, Rameau and Galathée, Maria Gullstam 6. Rousseau and his early comedies: the concept of the comic, Marie-Emmanuelle Plagnol-Diéval 7. Rousseau’s Pygmalion and the theatre of autobiography, David Marshall Part III. Rousseau’s operatic and theatrical posterity 8. The melodic language of Le Devin du village and the evolution of opéra-comique, David Charlton 9. Rousseau’s ghost: Le Devin du village at the Paris Opera, 1770-1779, Michael O’Dea 10. A theatrophobic dramatist: J.-J. Rousseau’s position in theatre historiography and on today’s stage, Willmar Sauter 11. The judgement of Rousseau: Paride ed Elena by Gluck and Calzabigi (Vienna, 1770), Magnus Tessing Schneider Summaries Bibliography Index

Reviews

Reviews'Rousseau on Stage is a handsome book with thirteen illustrations, and its contributors include some well-known Rousseau scholars, such as Jacqueline Waeber and David Marshall. While the book is directed at an audience of Anglophone postgraduate students and scholars of French theatre, literature, and music, the footnoted translations make the material accessible to readers with little to no knowledge of French.' Modern Language Review

Reviews'Rousseau on Stage is a handsome book with thirteen illustrations, and its contributors include some well-known Rousseau scholars, such as Jacqueline Waeber and David Marshall. While the book is directed at an audience of Anglophone postgraduate students and scholars of French theatre, literature, and music, the footnoted translations make the material accessible to readers with little to no knowledge of French.' Modern Language Review

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