Performing the Eighteenth Century

What can artists learn from theatre scholars when it comes to performing historical works on stage today? What can theatre scholars learn from today’s artists when it comes to understanding the works and practices of the past? How is the experience of modern spectators affected by attending performances in historic theatres? And how, aesthetically, do we experience the reconstruction of productions from the remote past?

This collection of essays covers the findings of the research project ‘Performing Premodernity’: an international group of theatre scholars whose work centred on the Drottningholm theatre from 1766: just outside Stockholm, this famous theatre has authentic stage sets and machinery preserved almost in their original eighteenth-century state.

Behind all the essays is a mixture of fascination and dissatisfaction with today’s performances of drama and opera classics, particularly those that take place in historic theatres, and those operating within the so-called Historically Informed Performance movement. Moreover, they reflect a desire to develop and expand the methods traditionally used by theatre historians. And they present a variety of angles on today’s performances in historic theatres and on today’s attempts to revive theatrical practices of the past.

The authors combine academic and artistic research as a way of deepening and nuancing our understanding of eighteenth-century theatre practices. The historical research is set in dialogue with the dramaturgical insights and aesthetic experiences the historians gained from their practical doing in historic spaces. Experimentation with lighting, costumes, stage movement, vocal and instrumental practices, and the flow of energy between performers and spectators led to the investigation of topics that theatre historians otherwise tend to ignore. In turn, this has led the researchers to challenge long-held views of the sites, repertoires, and performance practices of eighteenth-century theatre.

Performing Premodernity’s experimental, practice-based approach accords with the view of the late Enlightenment as what Vincenzo Ferrone has called ‘a real and still unexplored laboratory of modernity’. The second half of the eighteenth century was a time of both wide-ranging artistic innovation and earth-shaking political revolutions; it was a period when ideal and practice, philosophy and art influenced and guided each other to an unprecedented degree. The essays start from the conviction that any attempt at a holistic understanding of the theatrical practices of the time must take these exchanges into account. And that a strictly antiquarian approach that merely tries to establish ‘how it really was’, without considering the utopian dimension of the reforms of people like Rousseau, Gluck, and Mozart, will fail to grasp the impetus and the dynamic, communicative aspect of eighteenth-century theatre. Therefore, several of the essays revolve around the group’s historically informed production of a true ‘avantgarde’ work of the eighteenth century: Pygmalion, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s scène lyrique from 1762. Performing Premodernity’s research-based production premiered at Český Krumlov Castle Theatre in 2015.

The present anthology is essential reading for theatre scholars and musicologists studying eighteenth-century performance as well as for theatre and opera artists concerned with period performance practice.

Review Quotes

“[…] an unforgettable and exciting journey into premodernity with all the details of the time brought back to the stage today in order to question the intervening times and traditions in performing arts, particularly opera. On the one hand, [the book] is a piece of meticulous, in-depth research that has brought together history, theory, and practice, which is not a regularity in academic research. On the other hand, the book can be used as a very practical guide to staging eighteenth-century operas today, uncovering potential challenges and solutions depending on the chosen performers and their experience, the place (stage), and the audience. Basically, one could not find a better, more precise discussion on “how to stage an eighteenth-century opera” today, free from any embarrassment of one’s personal ignorance, as the authors invite each other to dig deeper, cross-reference each other, and keep the conversation alive instead of presenting a set of didactic indications. I would describe it as a must-read compendium for practitioners of eighteenth-century performing arts, as well as theatre scholars and musicologists to be. One may be surprised by the ease with which the text holds the readers’ attention and entices them to discover more chapter by chapter. This is the case when professional literature dares to bring in some excitement from behind the scenes of both the practical and the academic part of research. […]
In short, Performing the Eighteenth Century: Theatrical Discourses, Practices, and Artefacts represents an essential source of information for anyone working with the repertoire in question, both for performance and academic research. The theory-praxis-based anthology already functions as a handbook for staging eighteenth-century operas in quite a few projects across Europe, and I predict that more and more interested producers and musicians will use it in the future. In it, theatre and music scholars will find a fresh, helpful source of references and material to develop their lectures.”
—Lauma Mellēna-Bartkeviča, Latvian Academy of Music, Nordic Theatre Studies

“The joy and enthusiasm of working with practical exploration shines through the book, and as a reader, I become engaged and interested in the thoughts [the authors] had, the choices they faced during the various processes, and how they made decisions. ... The texts provide valuable insight into the interaction between academic and artistic work, and into the exchange between the two through processes that involved various stagings and the exploration of elements such as the placement of actors on stage, lighting, and costumes. ... It is a solid and rich publication with high interdisciplinary relevance. I hope they are already planning their next project, and I hope that researchers, directors, and theatre artists will engage with the project's questions and findings and will work with historical pieces with the “reflexivity” and attention presented here. In the words of Mark Tatlow: “Ultimately, these are things you have to explore and experiment with in rehearsal and even in performance.”
—Elizabeth Svarstad, Norwegian Academy of Music