| Musical
programme Poetry,
Declamation and Music at the classical Age |
05/2002 |
Poetry,
Declamation and Music at the classical Age
programme focuses on the relation between text and music in opera at the Age of
Enlightment. Projects concern the study of librettos.
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In
2001, researches were supported by the
BACILLY
Study Grant.
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First
libretto: Thesée by Quinault, with Boston
Early Music Festival (June 2001), in the production by Gilbert Blin, with
continuo leaders Paul O'Dette & Stephen Stubbs. Rémy-Michel Trotier
has been studying and implementing the libretto of Lully's Thesée,
approaching in the meantime the meaning and the sounding of
this text. He coached declamation for the chorus; for this goal, he has
been studying pronunciation and declamation treatises of the XVIIth
and XVIIIth
centuries, that he has put at the test of his own practice in order to be
able to interpret them. This first study gave a general overview of the
kinds of relationships existing between a written and a declaimed
text.
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Second
libretto: Samson by Voltaire. 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, 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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Third
libretto: Iphigénie en Tauride by Guillard. (RAPARLIER
Study Grant) Many moments in this
period of somehow one hundred and twenty years reveal the strong relation
between the spoken declamation in theatre and the declamation notated in
operas, the actors of the first one having inspired the composers of the
second. This study focuses on a later example of this phenomenon with
Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride: an article by Gilbert Blin already
published in Drottningholms Slottsteater's program book in 1990 will be
published in an extended version, together with a word-for-word translation
of the libretto. The linking of both may allow the description of a method
for singers who nowadays study this repertoire.
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Fourth
libretto: Le Carnaval de Venise by Regnard. (DUBOS
Study Grant) After three studies
dedicated to the study of sung texts in three different tragedies
corresponding to three moments of time, it was necessary to wonder about the
musical translation of un-sung written text. For this last approach, an
opéra-ballet by Regnard and Campra has been chosen: Le Carnaval de
Venise. The study will lead to a typology of the varied and contrasted
dramatic situations, to be compared to the corresponding characterisations
implemented by Campra.
Rémy-Michel Trotier
May 2002
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