Thesis--Musicology--Montréal--McGill university, 2001. / Bibliogr. p. 217-245.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität zu Köln, (1983?). / Includes bibliographical references (p. 321-341).

No description available.

Diss.--Philosophie--Durham (N.C.)--Duke University, 1995. / Bibliogr. p. 489-529.

The primary focus of this thesis is a selection of lesser-known Ballets Russes works, which, despite being largely neglected in academic studies, constitute important chapters in the history of the company. The bright light of publicity that shone on Stravinsky - in particular on Le Sacre du Printemps - has cast shadows over other Ballets Russes works, creating an over-simplified historical perspective. This is not to deny that Le Sacre was a watershed moment for the company, and in seeking to enrich our understanding of its place within broader musical trends, the thesis is divided into three sections, representing works composed before, around the same time as, and after, Stravinsky’s notorious masterpiece. Following a brief introduction, and a descriptive chapter outlining Diaghilev’s artistic heritage, as well as Paris before the arrival of his company, the first section deals with the Ballets Russes’s early modus operandi; focusing on Nikolai Tcherepnin’s Le Pavillon d’Armide and Reynaldo Hahn’s Le Dieu bleu. The next explores the Ballets Russes in the wake of Le Sacre du Printemps, using Erik Satie’s Parade as an example of a ballet indebted to Stravinsky’s innovations. However, influence was not entirely a one-way phenomenon, and part of this section also discusses connections between the early Ballets Russes works and Le Sacre. Finally, the season of French ballets performed in 1924 allows me to reflect on the stylistic changes that occurred in the later years of the company, using Darius Milhaud’s Le Train bleu, Georges Auric’s Les Fâcheux, and Francis Poulenc’s Les Biches as examples of the company’s shift to an enterprise that placed greater emphasis on the visual. This research argues that even the lesser-known works, despite their apparent lack of musical innovation, contributed to the more path-breaking scores that have come to command scholarly interest. Moreover, the seasons I have highlighted reflect the changing ideologies of Diaghilev and his company, as it evolved from a Russian troupe inspired by the Mir Iskusstva, to a European artistic collective presenting the ideas of Cocteau and Les Six to Paris. Areas of future research extend from this thesis, as many other lesser-known ballets not encompassed here would clearly benefit from detailed scrutiny. Applying the principles of musical examination here outlined, together with an open-minded approach to new historical perspectives, should further help to redress the balance of scholarly attention that has skewed the overall understanding of the Ballets Russes.

During its twenty-year lifespan, the Ballets Russes (1909 to 1929) was celebrated for bringing together illustrious artistic and cultural figures to collaborate on exotic productions based on Russian, Spanish, English and French themes. Notable by its absence from the Ballets Russes’ exotic interests is the culture and music of America, and this despite that during the 1920s Americans culture was a source of fascination and unease in the European cultural imagination. The Ballets Russes’ impresario, Serge Diaghilev, is recognized as holding the culture of the New World in disdain, yet nonetheless commissioned a “typically American” ballet score from Chicago composer John Alden Carpenter in 1923, which resulted in a score featuring a skyscraper-inspired machine aesthetic, and the inclusion of jazz and spirituals. Carpenter’s ballet was dropped by the Ballets Russes before production and was ultimately premiered as Skyscrapers: A Ballet of Modern American Life by the Metropolitan Opera Company on 19 February 1926. This thesis seeks to better understand Diaghilev’s perceived disdain for American culture, the reasons that caused him to avoid the inclusion of an American ballet in the Ballets Russes’ repertory, and his motives for commissioning a score from Carpenter. Drawing on archival documents from the Library of Congress, I construct a historical narrative of the commission and offer insight into the complex politics of patronage in the Ballets Russes. Furthermore, I position Skyscrapers as a product of cultural transfer, thus illustrating the manner in which Carpenter conceived of his ballet as an American work for an international audience. Finally, I examine the Metropolitan production of Skyscrapers and how it perpetuated racial stereotypes and participated in the debates about the mechanization of American life during the 1920s.

Le monde des arts est en pleine effervescence au début du XXe siècle, après le scandale déclenché par l’exposition des œuvres des Fauves au Salon d’Automne de 1905. Loin de cette agitation, les décors de scène sont réalisés par des décorateurs professionnels qui restent attachés aux procédés traditionnels. En 1909, l’arrivée des Ballets russes au Châtelet marque une rupture dans la conception du rôle du peintre dans le ballet. En 1919, alors que la compagnie jouit d’une grande renommée, Serge Diaghilev commande à André Derain les décors et les costumes de La Boutique Fantasque. Au sortir de la guerre où il a servi, Derain saisit cette fabuleuse occasion de remonter sur la scène artistique. Grâce au succès du ballet, c’est une longue série de collaborations fructueuses avec le monde du spectacle qui débute pour le peintre. Entre 1919 et 1953, Derain conçoit les décors et les costumes de deux pièces de théâtre, deux opéras, treize ballets et élabore de nombreux projets qui n’ont jamais été créés. Il rédige également plusieurs arguments, participe à la mise en musique de certaines de ces œuvres, réalisations auxquelles s’ajoutent les idées qu’il apporte à la mise en scène et à la chorégraphie. Cette étude met en lumière l’importance de l’œuvre scénique d’André Derain et ses particularités. Son travail révèle une richesse jusqu’alors méconnue et inexploitée. Notre étude permet ainsi de donner un nouvel éclairage sur le peintre et son œuvre. Artiste accompli et aux multiples facettes, Derain ne s’est pas contenté du rôle de décorateur, sa passion pour la musique et le théâtre l’ont, bien plus encore, amené à se poser en véritable créateur de ballets. / In the early twentieth century the art world was bubbling with excitement following the scandal caused by the exhibition of work by members of the Fauves movement at the 1905 Salon d’Automne. Away from this fuss, stage sets were being created by set designers who remained attached to traditional methods. In 1909 the arrival of the Ballets Russes at Châtelet marked a breaking away from the understanding of the scenic artist’s role. In 1919, when the company was immensely famous, Serge Diaghilev commissioned Andre Derain to create sets and costumes for La Boutique Fantasque. Having served in the War, Derain grasped this fabulous opportunity to return to the world of art. The success of the ballet heralded a series of fruitful collaborations between him and the world of show business. Between 1919 and 1953, Derain created sets and costumes for two plays, two operas and thirteen ballets, as well as working on several uncompleted projects. He also wrote several librettos and was involved in the musical setting of some of these works, achievements that added to the ideas that he brought to the staging and choreography. This research highlights the importance of Derain’s stage work and its special features. This reveals the hitherto unrecognized and untapped wealth of his work. Our study thus sheds a new light on the painter and his creations. A skilled and multi-faceted artist and not content with his role as designer, Derain’s passion for music and theatre begs a true creator of ballets.

This project compares the career of the early 20th century ballet dancer, Vaslav Nijinsky, to Friedrich Nietzsche’s theory of the tragic arts. In The Birth of Tragedy (1872) and elsewhere, Nietzsche argues that artists play the central role in communal mythmaking and religious renewal; he prescribes the healing work of the “tragic artist” to save modernity from the decadence and nihilism he identifies in scientism, historicism, and Christianity. As a dancer, and especially as a choreographer for the Ballets Russes (1912-1913), Nijinsky staged a kinetic response to modern culture that not only displayed shared concerns with Nietzsche, but also, as I argue, allow him to be interpreted as Nietzsche’s archetypical tragic artist. By juxtaposing the philologist-philosopher and dancer-choreographer as artists, I situate the emergence of Modern Art as a nascent movement still bound to Romanticism even while rebelling against it, and as an attempt to reinterpret art in a mythic (and thoroughly modern) context.

La compagnie des Ballets russes, fondée par Diaghilev en 1911, constitue un tournant dans l’histoire de la scène occidentale. Reprenant le principe de l’œuvre d’art totale, la troupe propose des spectacles composés par des peintres, des chorégraphes et des musiciens. Leur succès est fulgurant et leur influence décisive. Cette thèse se propose d’étudier la réception des Ballets russes en Espagne. Alors que l’Europe est en guerre, la Péninsule constitue une terre d’accueil propice aux échanges. Les intellectuels du pays s’interrogent sur les possibilités de rénover la scène théâtrale et sont attentifs aux expériences qui viennent de l’étranger. Les ballets que propose la compagnie entrent en résonnance avec leurs propres préoccupations. Ils posent à la fois la question de la tradition au sein de la modernité, du national et du cosmopolitisme et s’exportent à l’étranger. Ce travail s’attache à confronter les différentes réceptions qui sont simultanément menées dans les deux capitales culturelles de l’Espagne au moment où les régionalismes s’affirment toujours plus. La présentation de l’état des lieux de la scène espagnole constitue le premier moment de cette thèse. La deuxième partie est entièrement consacrée à la première saison (1916) que la compagnie donne en Espagne ainsi qu’aux débats auxquels elle donne lieu. Les troisième et quatrième parties mettent en miroir les lectures qui sont faites à Madrid puis à Barcelone et présentent les singularités de chacune des deux capitales culturelles du pays. / The Ballets Russes company was founded by Diaghilev in 1911, and marked a turning point in the history of the Western European stage art. Taking up the Gesamtkunstwerk, the company offered shows composed by painters, choreographers and musicians. Their success was immediate and their influence was decisive. This work will examine how the Ballets Russes were received in Spain. The Spanish peninsula offered a fertile ground for exchange while Europe was at war, with the country's intellectuals wondering about how to renew the theatre scene and being receptive to foreign experiments on the matter. The ballets offered by the company reflected those concerns by addressing the question of the role of tradition within modernity as well as the concepts of nationalism and cosmopolitism while managing to find an audience abroad. This study aims at confronting the simultaneous reception of the Ballets Russes in the two cultural capitals of Spain at a time when regionalism was becoming increasingly strong. The first part will give a description of the Spanish theatre and arts scene. The second part will be entirely dedicated to the company’s first season in Spain (1916) and to the debates it raised. The third and fourth parts will deal with the way the ballets were received and understood in Madrid and Barcelona, through a presentation of the particularities of each of these two cultural capitals. / La compañía de los Ballets russes, fundada por Diaghilev en 1911, constituye un momento relevante de la historia de la escena occidental. Inspirándose del principio del Gesamtkunstwerk wagneriano, la compañía presenta espectáculos compuestos por pintores, coreógrafos y compositores. Su éxito es enorme y su influencia decisiva. Esta tesis estudia la recepción de los Ballets russes en España. Durante la Primera Guerra Mundial, la Península aparece como una tierra de acogida propicia a los intercambios. Los intelectuales españoles se interrogan sobre las posibilidades de renovar la escena teatral y están atentos a las experiencias realizadas en el extranjero. Las obras estrenadas por la compañía llaman su atención. Compaginan la tradición y la modernidad, lo nacional y el cosmopolitismo y se exportan al extranjero. Este estudio presenta una comparación entre las diferentes recepciones llevadas a cabo en las dos capitales culturales españolas en un momento en que los regionalismos se afirman cada vez más. Una presentación general de la escena español de aquel entonces constituye el primer momento de esta tesis. La segunda etapa se centra en la primera temporada rusa que la compañía presenta en España (1916) así como en los debates que surgen entonces. Las etapas 3 y 4 estudian las recepciones que tienen lugar en Madrid y en Barcelona comparando las características de cada una de las capitales culturales del país.

Cette thèse analyse le mythe fondateur des Mille et une nuits, ou « mythe de Shéhérazade », par une approche psychanalytique et comparatiste. Nous mettons en évidence que le récit-cadre des Nuits constitue un récit mythique, miroir de l’imaginaire collectif, qui révèle la place de la femme, du féminin et du maternel dans le processus de civilisation.En effet, les Nuits s’ouvrent sur un double adultère et un double meurtre: deux femmes, sultanes, trompent leur époux avec un esclave noir. Ce désir féminin transgressif est le déclencheur de tout le recueil. Il constitue le péché originel qui entraîne la déchéance et le chaos. Shahrayar, tel le patriarche de la horde primitive freudienne, se venge et instaure le meurtre de la femme comme loi. La parole infinie de Shéhérazade, à la fois amante et mère, crée une zone transitionnelle féconde et mène le sultan à renoncer à la jouissance éphémère pour entrer dans le champ de la sublimation et du symbolique. Par la fonction symbolique du langage, la conteuse conduit le tyran à advenir sujet, parlêtre, soumis aux lois fondamentales de la civilisation.Nous analysons l’évolution de la dialectique du féminin, du maternel et des lois symboliques dans les réécritures, imitations, pastiches, perversions, parodies, tragédies, suites et adaptations musicales du mythe de Shéhérazade du XVIIIe au XXIe siècle. / This thesis analyzes the founding myth of the Arabian Nights, or « myth of Scheherazade », with a psychoanalytical and comparative approach. This research points that the frame story of the Nights is a mythical story that constitutes the mirror of the collective imagination, which reveals the place of the woman, the feminine and the maternal in the process of civilization.The Nights open on a double adultery and a double murder scene: two sultanas commit adultery with a black slave. This transgressive feminine desire is the trigger of the Arabian Nights' collection. It constitutes the original sin that leads to the forfeiture and the chaos. Shahrayar, such as the patriarch of the Freudian primal horde, decides to take revenge on them and institutes as a law the murder of women. The infinite word of Scheherazade, who is at the same time lover and mother, creates a transitional fertile space and leads the sultan to give up the temporally enjoyment to enter the field of the sublimation and symbolism. With the symbolic function of the language, the storyteller leads the tyrant to become parlêtre, subject to the fundamental laws of civilization.We examine the rewritings, imitations, pastiches, perversions, parodies, tragedies, continuations and musical adaptations of the myth of Scheherazade from eighteenth to the twenty-first century, to analyze the dialectic’s evolution of the feminine, the maternal and the symbolic laws.