Edmond Rostand

Edmond Eugene Alexis Rostand , born on April 1st, 1868 with Marseilles and dead on December 2nd, 1918 with Paris, of the continuations of the Spanish Influenza, is a dramatic author French.

Its beginnings

Edmond Rostand is born in an easy family from Paris. In 1880, his/her father, fearing the disorders of the Commune, brings all its family, Edmond, his mother and her two cousins in the thermal spa in vogue of Luchon. Lodged initially in the Spont country cottage, then in the Devalz villa, they make build the Julia villa, near the Casino. Edmond Rostand passes more than twenty-two summers to Luchon, which inspires its first works to him. It written a play in in particular there 1888, the red Glove , and especially a volume of poetry in 1890, Musardises . It continues its studies of right to Paris, where it had been registered with the bar without exerting there and, after having a time thought of the diplomacy, it decides to be devoted to poetry.

In 1888, with his/her friend Froyez, Parisian journalist, it goes to the racecourse of Moustajon: and to decorate their crew with an abundance with flowers with the fields. They create sensation in front of an establishment with the mode, the Arnative coffee, and improvise in terrace a merry battle of flowers with their friends. Thus was born the first corso flowered taking place traditionally last Sunday from August in Luchon, and where gaining it saw itself giving a banner.

In the train for Montréjeau, his/her father makes the meeting of Mrs Lee and his daughter Rosemonde Gerard, and invites them to take the with the Julia villa. Edmond Marie on April 8th, 1890 with the latter, poetess it also, whose Leconte de Lisle was the godfather, and Alexandre Dumas the tutor.

Rosemonde and Edmond Rostand will have two wire, Maurice, born in 1891, and Jean, born in 1894. Edmond leaves Rosemonde in 1915 for his last love, the actress Mary Marquet.

Edmond Rostand obtains its first success in 1894 with Romantic the , piece of poetry presented to the Comédie-Française.

Works

List works of Edmond Rostand

Presentation of principal works of the author

Cyrano of Bergerac

The first representation of Cyrano of Bergerac, on December 28th 1897 in Paris, with the Theater of the Door Saint Martin's day, brings glory to him. However, a few minutes before the part, Rostand has a presentiment of a fiasco and is sorry the troop to have involved it in “this alarming adventure”.

The part came at the right moment to return the moral one to France traumatized by the loss of the Alsace-Lorraine, following the Guerre free-Prussian of 1870, and haunted, since, by the humiliation and the spirit of revenge. Its hero shows with plume that one can, in the adversity, to keep the head high and to show a very great direction of the honor, with the highest rise in heart. Also, as of the interval, the room applauds upright and even, a minister comes to find it in the slides, takes down its Legion of honor for fastening to him, and is explained: “Allow me to take a little in advance. ” And, with lowering curtain, the public to applaud all to break, twenty minutes during.

To Act IV, scene VI, a Cadet by Gascogne is presented with titles of imagination, which explicitly refer to various places located around Luchon:

Baron of Casterac of Cahusac

Vidame de Malgouyre Estresc Lesbas of Escarabiot

Knight of Antignac-Juzet

Baron Hillot of Blagnac-Saléchant of Manor house-Crabioules .

In addition, the scene of the balcony would be, says one, inspired by a fact of youth, the poet having actually helped Jerome Faduilhe in his court, up to that point unfruitful, in a certain Marie Castain: he had written his love letters to him.

The part was translated into several languages and had a universal success. The character of Cyrano, shining representing “French spirit”, became a true prototype, as well as Hamlet or that Don Quichotte , that it mentions besides in the part.

A opera, Cyrano of Bergerac , was composed by Italian Franco Alfano (1876-1954) on an adaptation of the librettist Henri Cain (1859-1937), represented in 2005 with the Metropolitan Opera New York, with Plácido Domingo in the role titrates, then in 2006 with the Opéra of Montpellier, with Roberto Alagna.

The Eaglet

In 1900, its new drama, the Eaglet , is him also a success and the doors of the French Academy in 1901 opens to him. Suffering, it is received there only in 1904.

Chantecler

In 1910, its part Chantecler is created with the Theater of the Saint Martin's day Door, with Lucien Guitry in the role titrates, Constant Coquelin, for which the text had been written, being deceased little time before. The characteristic of this part is that all the characters are animals. The great feminine role, that of Pheasant, are held by Simone (Simone Bargy).

One cannot really say if this part were a triumph or a failure. Criticism was shared and part of the diverted public. The part is in worms, like all the theater of Rostand, but the alexandrine is handled by the author with such a virtuosity that it is disconcerting to intend animals to be expressed in such a sophisticated language. The heaviness of the decorations and the costumes plays also a part: in the years 1950, Roland Barthes writes a famous article on “the diseases of the stage costume” and takes this spectacle precisely as example of what one should not do with the theater.

Almost hundred years after the first, it is interesting to reconsider the question of Chantecler , which is a realization much more daring than that of Cyrano or the Eaglet . From a scenic point of view, the setting in scene is enthralling. It offers on the Parisian scene an attempt of renewal and modernization which, if it has nothing to do with the companies of the theater naturalist (André Antoine) or Symbolists (Lugné-Poe), takes into account these projections which it digests with its manner. The animals which speak with the theater are relatively rare. There had been well the Birds of Aristophane. But their return on the scene of the Belle Time has something of surrealist and precedes, in a certain way, joinings of max Ernst.

For the history of the spectacles, the company has also something of remarkable. It is the way in which the event is managed by the press. Indeed, in 1910, Rostand passes, for much, for the largest French playwright, and he is regarded as a kind of official poet of the IIIe République. However it is not very productive. Its last creation, the Eaglet , goes back to 1900. There exists enormous waiting, and the journalistic rumor does not cease swelling in connection with a mysterious part. Rostand voluntarily maintains the mystery. One attends a true press campaign with American. At the exit, in 1910, the newspapers are full with articles, reports, photographs, anecdotes and caricatures. Commercially, the part is far from to have been a failure: there was a great number of representations in Paris, and international rounds were launched, with several parallel distributions.

Critical bibliography

Biographies of Edmond Rostand

ANDRY, Marc. Edmond Rostand, the plume and glory . Paris: Plon, 1986.
GERARD, Rosemonde. Edmond Rostand . Paris: Fasquelle carpenter, 1935.
LlOYD, Known. The Man Who Was Cyrano : In Life off Edmond Rostand Creator off Cyrano of Bergerac . Unlimited Publishing, 2003.
LORCEY, Jacques. Edmond Rostand . Rebated joint: Atlantica, 2004, three volumes.
MARGERIE, Caroline of. Edmond Rostand or the kiss of glory . Paris: Grasset, 1997.

Works on the work of Edmond Rostand

PLASSE, Bernard. Dramaturgy of Edmond Rostand , thesis of doctorate, 1974.
PREMSELA, Martin Jacob. Edmond Rostand . Amsterdam: Groningen, 1933.
RIPERT, Emile. Edmond Rostand: its life and its work . Paris: Hatchet, 1968.
SUBERVILLE, Jean. Edmond Rostand: its theater, its posthumous work . Paris: Etienne Chiron (2nde ED.), 1921.
Edmond Rostand: rebirth of a work , Acts of the international symposium of the June 1st, th and 2nd 2006, text joined together by Guy Lavorel and Philippe Bulinge. Lyon: Cedic, 2007

Jacques Lorcey, Edmond Rostand - Volume 1: Cyrano and the Eaglet (1868-1900) - Volume 2: Cambo - Arnaga - Chantecler (1900-1918) - Volume 3: The Night and the light (1918-2004) , Paris: Séguier editions, coll Impressed, 2004. . Box 3 volumes: .
Olivier Goetz, Song of the Cock, Chantecler of Edmond Rostand, a spectacular event of the Beautiful Time . Constant thesis of doctorate new on December 15th, 1997 at the University of Metz.
Olivier Goetz, “Chantecler of Edmond Rostand, the Animal out of use”, in Animals of Scene , publication of the laboratory Theater, Languages and Companies, Gap - Paris, Editions Ophrys, 2002.
Henri CAP, Luchon and its past , Privat, 1984.

External bonds

Site Edmond Rostand
Cyrano Site of Bergerac
Site of the French Academy

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