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Association Française pour le Rayonnement du Théâtre du Château de Drottningholm

Musical studies Des Orages

2000 Naumann

Poetry, declamation & music

2002 Dubos

2002 Raparlier   

2001 Bacilly

Poésie, musique & mise au théâtre

2004 Muzio

Second Libretto: Voltaire and Rameau's Samson

10/2002

The Programme Poetry, Declamation & Music at the Classical Age aims to examine and describe correspondences, in works written for the stage in France in the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries, between the internal structure and meaning of a written text and its setting in music by composers. This second study proposes an untypical and explorative approach of a text: the libretto chosen is the one of an opera which music is lost. Voltaire and Rameau wrote together an opera about the story of Samson and Delilah, which was Rameau’s first operatic composition and has been completed and rehearsed in 1732; but, because biblical subjects were forbidden on the stage of the opera just two weeks before the Première, the show was cancelled. Rameau is said (and declared himself) to have used a large part of the music in further pieces. The study is a proposal for a general method for reconstructing a lost piece, inspired by the destiny of this opera. The process is articulated in three steps, in relation with the three other studies led in the Programme: - first, a comparison with other librettos set in music by Rameau, on the basis of the rules of Quantité in declaimed texts, may allow to find music re-used by Rameau (Airs & Chorus); - second, a typology of the musical moments should help choosing instrumental music (dance parts, etc.); - third, the reference to artificial intelligence methods might allow oneself to imagine a process for reconstructing the music of the Recitatives, following Rameau’s own writing manners.

 

 

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