Sonorizing Melodramatic Stage Directions: ‘Reflexive performance’ as a way of approaching nineteenth-century French melodrama

TY - JOUR

T1 - Sonorizing Melodramatic Stage Directions

T2 - ‘Reflexive performance’ as a way of approaching nineteenth-century French melodrama

AU - Hesselager, Jens

PY - 2012/2

Y1 - 2012/2

N2 - Early nineteenth-century French melodrama was spoken theatre, often involving passages of mime or spectacle, and rather extensively accompanied by orchestral music. This article argues that the history of melodrama is best examined if melodrama texts are taken to include not only the printed plays but also the music that were part of the historical performances – and if these composite texts, furthermore, are approached methodologically from the perspective of performance. To that end, an experimental workshop format is sought developed which might function as a means of questioning and examining the reconstructed, composite melodramatic text, and reflect on the types of theatrical acts it may testify to. The article suggests the term ‘reflexive performance’ for the type of performance that should be practiced within this workshop format. ‘Reflexive performance’ is defined as a type of ‘restored behaviour’ (Richard Schechner), in which attention is, ideally, turned towards observing how the historical text acts on us as we try to perform it, and, at the same time, towards the ways in which we, as we perform and observe ourselves performing, go about construing the past. A passage from the melodrama Sept heures (Paris, 1829) has been used in a preliminary workshop experiment, trying out the proposed ideas.

AB - Early nineteenth-century French melodrama was spoken theatre, often involving passages of mime or spectacle, and rather extensively accompanied by orchestral music. This article argues that the history of melodrama is best examined if melodrama texts are taken to include not only the printed plays but also the music that were part of the historical performances – and if these composite texts, furthermore, are approached methodologically from the perspective of performance. To that end, an experimental workshop format is sought developed which might function as a means of questioning and examining the reconstructed, composite melodramatic text, and reflect on the types of theatrical acts it may testify to. The article suggests the term ‘reflexive performance’ for the type of performance that should be practiced within this workshop format. ‘Reflexive performance’ is defined as a type of ‘restored behaviour’ (Richard Schechner), in which attention is, ideally, turned towards observing how the historical text acts on us as we try to perform it, and, at the same time, towards the ways in which we, as we perform and observe ourselves performing, go about construing the past. A passage from the melodrama Sept heures (Paris, 1829) has been used in a preliminary workshop experiment, trying out the proposed ideas.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Melodrama

KW - performativitet

KW - practice-based research

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0904-6380

VL - 23=2011

SP - 20

EP - 30

JO - Nordic Theatre Studies

JF - Nordic Theatre Studies

ER -