soggetti/spettacolo/Glasgow 1990/7
 

All the reliable recoverable early-baroque evidence in the world will not produce the equivalent of a home movie of the premiere rniraculously shot by the composer and as miraculously preserved. (Roger Savage, Early Music, 1989)

All the time she was singing, her features and movements and the expression on her face and in her eyes corresponded exactly to the various conceits with which she so subtly beguiled us. (A sz'nger in 'Alidoro', 1568)

The whole dialogue in comedy must seem like a familiar talk, wholly improvised. (Leone di Somi, 1565)

The use of Greek masks in the theatre is not recommended nowadays, since they do not allow the spectator to observe the changes of expression that vary according to the different moods. The only goal is to move the soul of the spectator. (Ingegneri, 1585)

The singer should sing with emotion, both soft and loud, without ornamentation, to express the words so well that they may be understood, and accompany them with gestures and motions not only of the hands but moving the feet as well, which all helps to affect the spectator. (Guidotti, 1600)

While singing, one should not always stay fixed at the centre, but be now here, now there - in a natural way, though also in good order - particularly if one is followed or supported by other performers. (Il Corago, c. 1630)

To be a good actor-singer, one should above all be a good speaking actor... (Ibid)

Endeavour to imagine that you are what you represent. (Moliere to his actors, 1663)

The author ordinarily assists at rehearsals, criticising the actor if he falls into some error, if he does not grasp the meaning, if he becomes unnatural in tone or gesture, or if he uses more or less fire than the situation warrants. (Chappuzeau, 1673)

The rules prohibit the lifting of the arms above the head, but if passion carries them there it is right. Passion knows better than the rules. (Michel Baron, late 17th cent)

Madame de Rochois, rehearsing a pupil in a tragic scene: 'What would you do if you were abandoned by a lover that you adored passionately?' Student: 'Take another.' Madame de Rochois: 'In that case, we are both wasting our time.' (Lully's prima donna, late 17th cent)

To repress an actress's tendency towards exuberant gesticulation, Voltaire ordered her to rehearse with her hands tied to her side. She began her recitation in this enforced quietness; but at last, carried away by the moment of her feelings, she flung up her arms and snapped the threads. In a tremor she began to apologize to the poet. He, smiling, reassured her that the gesticulation was then admirable, because it was irrepressible. (Voltaire's plays were produced in Paris between 1730 and 1760)

The first dramatic principle is the following: To act a passion well, the actor never must attempt its imitation, until his fancy has conceived so strong an image or idea of it, as to move the same... springs within his mind... as when it is natural. The imagination must conceive a strong idea of the passion... the muscles of the face... and the body, must transmit their own conceived sensation to the sound of the voice and the disposition of the gesture. (Aaron Hill, 1746)

[On opera:] In the old days they sang without forcing, and thus they knew how to soften and delight the hearts of those who heard them. (Milizia, 1773)

Recitative is the foundation of opera... should be between ordinary speech and singing a melody, with varied speeds of delivery... an aria demands not only a capable singer but also an understanding actor... dance is mute poetry, the passion of the drama expressed in dancing, every minuet, saraband, contredanse should signify something... (Ibid)

It is not enough for a performer in opera to be a fine singer if he is not a fine pantomime too, since he must not only make us feel what he utters but also what the symphony utters. The orchestra must not put over any feeling that does not rise from his soul. Steps, looks, gestures and everything else must ceaselessly accord with the music without his seeming to think about it. He must be forever interesting, even in silence. Even in a taxing role, if he drops the character to become merely the singer, he is just a musician on stage, not an actor, and he deserves catcalls. (Rousseau, 1776)

The actor should remember that Nature has its limits. The principal and necessary thing for an actor is to show clearly that he does not depart from the truth, for so he can almost convince his audience that what is feigned is not false. (Riccoboni, 1728)

The actor is called upon to be completely involved while distanced - detached without detachment - he must practice how to be insincere with sincerity and how to lie truthfully... (Peter Brook, 1969)

Realistic opera is a contradiction in terms. (Carl Ebert, 1957)

One of the greatest dangers that threatens the actor is, obviously, lack of discipline, chaos. One cannot express oneself through anarchy. I believe that spontaneity and discipline are the two sides of the creative process. Meyerhold based his work on discipline, exterior formation, etc.; Stanislavsky on the spontaneity of daily life. These are respectively the two complementary aspects of the creative process. (Jerzy Grotowski, 1967)

[On examining Gagliano's preface to his Dafne of 1608, which describes in detail the contemporary staging and the concepts behind it:] If Gagliano can be taken as the spokesman of the operatic pioneers (and there is not much in their surviving writings which would rebut anything he has to say), then it becomes clear that these pioneers did not, theatrically speaking, live on some Alpha Centauri across an unbridgeable time-warp from us modems. They are in some measure our neighbours... [even] after profound revolutions in politics, taste, education and theatrical organization, to say nothing of the more personal revolutions of Mozart, Verdi and Wagner... As a perceived work the reawakened Dafne has arguably undergone quite as much of a transformation as its heroine did in her last few minutes as a nymph. And just as Apollo has to contemplate Daphne's transformation and come to terms with it, so must a modern director... make something of the laurel leaves. That something will be a stageable concept of the piece now as it relates to the audience and auditorium now and to the piece then. (Roger Savage, Early Music, 1989)

The farther the past disappears, the less anyone knows about it... You say 'That past is gone, but oh, how lovely it would be if we could get into a time machine and go there. How much better than our poor world.' And then, with the help of conventions, dubious traditions, documents, paintings and so on, we build up a completely bogus past in which everybody in the eighteenth century happens to have the handkerchief there and there is always some expert to be found who will have spent two years at his university doing a thesis on 'The Function of the Handkerchief for the Eighteenth-Century Gentleman...' [Or you say that] eighteenth-century music or eighteenth century words or eighteenth-century behaviour are the expression of something that was once intensely meaningful, alive and real to somebody who is now gone, his period has gone, we have no contact except this work. So this work is of interest to us only if, one way or another, it can suddenly become alive, real and meaningful to us. If that happens, then it is no longer a work of the past, it doesn't take us to the past, it brings the past right to us here in the present. And I think when that happens, we have a rich and living human relation with human beings who no longer exist, and this is a miracle of a magical and highly rewarding nature. (Peter Brook, The Shifting Point, 1988, quoted by permission from Methuen London)

Quotations researched by Kate Brown and Roger Savage
 

            

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