This dissertation on Meyerhold situates his theatre practice, and, notably, his work on opera in the context of the changing political and cultural climate in Russia during the period 1905 - 1939 and its impact on developing artistic genres. It studies the way different genres in his theatre interlocked with, anticipated or captured cultural changes in relation to the aesthetics of the World of Art group, Imperial Theatres and the Soviet Policy on the arts and theatre. Meyerhold's work encapsulated the main tendencies and problems of the Russian avant-garde at the time, and the educational role of the arts in relation to the goal of social progress. The newly developing relationship between art and Soviet society was complex, where artists learned from everyday life at the same time as the public learned from art. In this context, concepts such as proletarian culture and artistic synthesis, in respect of the role of the arts are of vital importance to the argument of the thesis. Scholarly research on Meycrhold has predominantly focused on the director's work in dramatic theatre, not on his work on opera, a field that is one of the most important aspects of his practice as a whole. Meyerhold wanted to bridge the gap between the spectator and the performer, to create a unified theatrical experience by utilising all the arts as epitomised in operatic performance. Despite each genre presenting its own problems, which resulted in treatments of staging relevant to it, Meyerhold sought to bring theatre and opera together into an integrated performance -a spectacle set to music. The cross pollination between the arts in the theatre established new ways of perceiving and creating performances. His rewriting of the score and libretto for dramatic purposes significantly opened up new possibilities for staging opera. Mcycrhold established new theatrical techniques drawn directly from musical terminology and structures. The director became an author of a production creating tightly constructed musical, theatrical and visual compositions on the stage, which sought to capture and commemorate the spirit of the age. This interdisciplinary research analyses the aesthetic principles of music, art and drama, which have usually been separated in academic study. The methodology applied consists of an empirical and analytic study.

In the multicultural world of today, as boundaries continue to merge and evolve, issues of accessibility and translation are brought to the forefront of political and social debate. Whilst considerable progress has already been achieved in this domain, the international social and legal recognition of the human right of accessibility to the media and arts demands further advancement in the development of facilities to provide universal access to various art forms including theatre, cinema, and opera. With rapidly developing technology, digitisation and an increasingly socially-aware society, the notion of media accessibility is evolving in response to shifting audience expectations. Performing arts and media, such as opera, are called upon to advance further to embrace all audiences and related audiovisual translation methods are progressing. These include audio description and touch tours for the blind and partially-sighted, as well as sign language interpreting and surtitles for the deaf and the hard-of-hearing. These relatively new translation modalities which are consumer-oriented by nature require an original research design for investigation of the translation processes involved. This research design follows two fundamental principles: (1) audience reception studies should be an integral part of the investigation into the translation process; and (2) the translation process is regarded as a network. This present work explores the unique translation processes of audio description, touch tours, surtitles and sign language interpreting within the context of live opera, focusing on the UK and from the perspective of actor-network theory. A twofold methodology is employed which brings together a study of the translator’s role and an audience reception survey. The translator’s task is examined through observational methods and dialogue with professional practitioners of the various aforementioned translation modalities. The audience’s perspective is investigated through analysis of data collected in a pioneering audience reception project conducted in May 2011, in collaboration with Opera North at performances of Bizet’s Carmen. The focus is on findings assessing the mutual impact of the translator’s choices and audience reception on the distinctive process of translating opera for the blind and partially-sighted as well as the deaf and the hard-of-hearing.

Cette thèse, inscrite dans le cadre méthodologique de l’histoire des représentations, vise à identifier les caractéristiques littéraires, visuelles et musicales de l’imaginaire médiévaliste inventé par le genre de l’opéra-comique français entre 1810 et 1830. Ces années correspondent à une tranche de vie privilégiée de l’imaginaire, celle de son épanouissement et de sa parfaite lisibilité. L’imaginaire se révèle aujourd’hui sur le mode de reflets d’une sensibilité désormais évaporée. Ses contours, conditionnés par l’impératif de la couleur locale, sont précisés au moyen d’une pluricité de méthodes : la prise en compte des conventions de l’opéra-comique, le recoupement d‘oeuvres – livrets, scénographie, partitions –, l’étude de la presse et du regard parodique qui lui est porté a posteriori. L’ensemble des informations collectées mène aux motifs médiévalistes d’opéra-comique, parmi lesquels une bande-son médiévaliste.Le défi méthodologique de cette thèse tient à sa démarche pluridisciplinaire, qui associe étroitement l’opéra-comique à son contexte. L’idée selon laquelle la musique ne prend son sens et sa couleur que dans un cadre imaginaire sous-tend cette approche. Parmi les autres pans médiévalistes de la culture d’époque, les romans de Charles Prévost d’Arlincourt constituent le socle de comparaison le plus précieux.C’est sur fond d’altérité que les contours du médiévalisme se dégagent le mieux, notamment par sa mise en regard avec ce qu’il devient en Italie et en Allemagne, dans le cadre d’adaptations. Si certaines intrigues françaises médiévalistes sont reprises à l’étranger, des motifs pourtant essentiels à la couleur locale en France restent intraduisibles et interdisent d’évoquer un style médiévaliste européen de l’art lyrique. En revanche, à l’heure où chaque pays se cherche une identité, certaines références européennes se retrouvent bel et bien d’une scène à l’autre. / This thesis is rooted in the methodological framework of the history of representations. It aims to identify the literary, visual and musical features of the medievalist imaginary invented in the French opéra-comique between 1810 and 1830. The imaginary now only appears through the reflections of an evaporated sensitivity and through discontinuous hintsthat need to be reassembled.Thus the characteristics of this imaginary conditioned by the couleur locale emerge from the combination of several methods: the comparison of several opéras-comiques – taking into account their booklets, set designs and scores –, the study of the Parisian press and investigation of parodic manifestations of the medievalism in the years that followed.The methodological challenge consists in a multidisciplinary approach, which tightly binds the opéra-comique with its context. The idea that music only acquires its meaning and color in an imaginary framework underpins this approach. Among the other French medievalist aspects considered, Charles Prévost Arlincourt’s novel provide the most valuableway to clarify the lyrical imaginary.The comparison with adaptations and translations of French medievalist plots in Italy and in Germany is one of the best way to identify the characteristics of the imaginary. Thus this study does not identify a European style but rather reveals some untranslatable components in the wake of French medievalist intrigues. However, at the time when each country is seeking roots and identity, some European references emerge in the context of the lyrical medievalism.