Jean Georges Noverre

Jean -Georges Noverre ( born April 29, 1727 Paris, † October 19, 1810 in Saint- Germain -en- Laye ) was a French dancer and choreographer.

He belongs with Gasparo Angiolini of the most important dancers and choreographers of the 18th century. Noverre fought in the spirit of bourgeois Enlightenment against the solidification and splendor of the court ballets, against hoop skirts and wigs, for naturalness and humanism in dance and ballet for the dramatic action (for example, in ballet d'action ). He was a teacher of important ballet masters such as Charles LePicq (* 1744 or 1749, † 1806). Noverre was involved, among others, from 1744 to 1747 in Berlin, from 1747 to 1750 in Strasbourg, from 1760 to 1767 in Stuttgart and worked from 1767 to 1774 in Vienna, among others, Christoph Willibald Gluck together. 1770/1771 he choreographed the dances of Antonio Salieri's Don Quixote all nozze di Gamace. In Paris Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart contributed music to Noverre's ballet Les petits riens ( 1778) at. Noverre's Letters on the art of dance (1760 ), which in part translated by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, among the most important theoretical writings on the ballet.

Life

Noverre was from circa 1740 his first ballet lessons at the Paris dance master François Marcel and the dancer Louis Dupré. His first appearance as a dancer, he had 1742 in Fontainebleau at the court of Louis XV. From 1744 onwards, he worked with the ballet master Jean -Barthélemy Lany as Figurant at the Court Opera, built by Frederick II in Berlin. After a stay in Dresden he was from 1747 to 1750 worked in Strasbourg, where he in 1748 married the dancer and actress Marguerite -Louise Sauveur. Her daughter Victoire Jenamy was a pianist and is very likely the dedicatee of Mozart's ninth piano concerto, which was erroneously referred to as a long time Jeunehomme concert. 1750 to 1752, the couple was engaged at the Opera House in Lyon, where Noverre now worked as a principal dancer in 1751 and his first own choreography Le Jugement de Paris produced. As of 1753 they were members of the ballet troupe of the Théâtre national de l' Opéra- Comique. 1755/56 he was taken by David Garrick at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London, where he met his play arts learned.

Back in Lyon, he produced 1757-1760 several ballets, where he worked primarily with the composer François Granier. In the same year he published his first theoretical work Lettres sur la Danse et sur ​​les ballets. In 1760 he accepted a call to Stuttgart at the court of the Duke of Württemberg. After the court had to lay off many employees because of insolvency, be applied Noverre in 1766 with an extensive presentation of his previous ballet creation ( Warsaw manuscript ) for the theater at the court of the Polish king Stanislaw August. After he received almost a year no answer, he went in 1767 to Vienna, where he was patronized by the future queen of France Marie Antoinette. In Vienna created numerous ballets, especially to music by Josef Starzer, Franz Aspelmayer (1728-1786), Christoph Willibald Gluck and other composers. 1775 brought him Marie- Antoinette to Paris, where he was appointed as the successor of Gaetano Vestris for the ballet master of the Opéra National de Paris. After another stay in London from 1785 to 1793, Noverre himself withdrew from 1795 in Saint- Germain -en- Laye, where he in 1810, while he was still working on a Dictionnaire de la danse, died.

Noverre is certainly one of the most important choreographers of the 18th century. The importance for his contemporaries as well as posterity is based not least on the publication of numerous writings on the theory and practice of dance. He also wrote numerous detailed scenarios ( = libretti, synopses ) to his ballets that were picked up and nachgetanzt subsequently by other choreographers. Since we have a written record of step material to any of the ballets, we can make the appearance of such ballets only approximate representations. Apart from the scenarios to his ballets were in 1760 before the Lettres sur la danse already mentioned, which were soon translated into several languages. Noverre's Lettres sur la danse served in the sequence and even into the 19th century, many choreographers as a template for his own writings, as well as Carlo Blasis, August Bournonville au 1766 Noverre wrote a circa 2000 -page " letter of application " to the King of Poland. This document ( Warsaw manuscript ) in a total of 11 large-format volumes 18 ballet scenarios, 13 scores and a band with theoretical considerations on the art of dance. A part of it was published in 1781 under the title Observations sur la construction d'une nouvelle salle de l' Opéra in print, other parts from the Warsaw manuscript included in the extended edition of his letters, the Lettres sur les arts imitateurs of 1807.

Noverre was a friend of Voltaire, Frederick II, and David Garrick. He had a strong affinity for the visual arts. One of his central concern was with ballets to paint tableaux, which in turn can serve as a template for visual artists whose works. In Volume 1 of the Warsaw manuscript and in the chapter " Le Ballet mis en la Peinture parallel avec ": " Le Ballet est l' Image du tableau bien composé, s'il est l' n'en original " (p. 25). Accordingly, it subjects found his ballets already in the paintings of the French Rococo painter Jean -Antoine Watteau, François Boucher and Jean- Honoré Fragonard mapped out: Les Amusemems champetres, La Toilette de Vénus, Le Jugement de Pâris, Jason et Médée, Les Horace et les Curiaces, Les Petits riens, etc. Although the relationship between visual art and dance are just striking for Noverre, a thorough investigation is still pending. So come about in Les petits riens (Paris 1778, some with music by WA Mozart) image motifs of Amour en cage ( Watteau) as well as the blind man's buff / Colin Maillard ( Fragonard ) ago. Erotic connotations snapshots with bare nipples are a topos of Rococo painting but also occur in the ballet Les petits riens. The dancer Guimard, who participated as one of the shepherdesses in Les petits riens in the " spicy " scene was painted by the likes of Fragonard frequently.

The theorist

Building on an already sketched by Louis de Cahusac reform of stage dance Noverre represents the belief that in ballet dramatic events must be presented without flatten in divertissements, that is, in linerless dance scenes. The ballet is to show passions and produce, but also represent the traditions and customs of the people. The ballet composer must follow with his choreography of nature and truth. He must tell a logically structured and credible story of the three-part basic structure of the drama, namely its division " exposure - Resolution - node " must be based. The dance is supposed to be more expressive and natural, as technically and virtuosic. The danse en action to move the viewer through an expressive pantomime, with Noverre was inspired by the herein theatrical gestures of David Garrick. Noverre criticized the hierarchical organization of the ballet. He has performed against wearing masks because they " stifle the emotions of the soul ." He campaigned for reality-based costumes that match the featured subject and the dancers allow greater freedom of movement. The dancers should be versatile formed, especially in the study of poetry, history, painting, geometry, music and anatomy, all of which are necessary for the success of a perfect dance.

Writings

  • Lettres sur la danse et sur ​​les ballets, par M. Noverre, Maître de Ballet of the Son Altesse Sérénissime Monsieur le Duc de Wurtemberg ... ', Lyon / Stuttgart 1760; Vienna in 1767; Paris 1783; St. Petersburg, 1803 /04 ( extended edition ), Reprint New York, Broude Brothers, 1967; Paris 1807 ( ext. edition). Online edition of letters ( Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris); Online edition of letters ( Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel )
  • Deux lettres de M. Noverre à Voltaire ( about Garrick, 1801).
  • Lettres à un artiste sur les fêtes publiques (1801 ).
  • Théorie et pratique de la danse en général de la composition of ballets, de la musique du costume et qui leur sont of décorations propres, 1766 ( Warsaw manuscript).
  • Letters on the art of dance and the ballets, Noverre from the Lord. Translated from the French, Hamburg / Bremen in 1769; Reprint of Leipzig, 1977/1981 ( with detailed commentary ); Reprint Munich, 1977. Letter edition Online ( Library Wolfenbüttel )
  • Recueil de Programmes de ballets de M. Noverre, Maître of the Ballets de la cour et imperial royale, Vienna, 1776.
  • Observations sur la Construction d'une Salle d' Opéra, Paris, 1781. Observations Online ( Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris)
  • The Works. Translated from the French, 3 vols., London, 1783.
  • Réflexions sur le costume, 2 vols, 1791.
  • Lettres a un artiste sur les fetes publiques, Paris 1800/ 01.
  • Lettres sur la Danse sur les Ballets et les Arts, St. Petersbourg, 2 vols, Chez Jean Charles Schnoor, 1803 [ first Volume contains the 15 letters from Ed. of 1760, the second volume contains the 20 new letters ].
  • Lettres sur la Danse sur les Ballets et Les Arts, 4 vols Petersburg from 1803 to 1804.
  • Lettres sur Les Arts Imitateurs en général et sur ​​la Danse en particulier dédiées a Sa majesté L' Imperatrice et Reine des Français d'Italie ..., 2 vols, Paris, 1807. Band 1 online, vol 2 online

Modern editions

  • Lettres sur la danse et sur ​​les ballets, précédées d' une vie de l' auteur, par André Levinson. Paris, 1927.
  • Letters on Dancing and Ballets. Translated by Cyril W. Beaumont. London, 1930; Reprint New York, 1966/1975; Reprint Alton, 2004.
  • Lettres sur la danse et les arts imitateurs. Paris, Lieutier, 1952; Reprint Paris, 1977.
  • Lettres sur la danse et les ballets. Moscow, 1965.
  • Lettres sur la danse. Présentation de Maurice Béjart. Paris, 1978. ISBN 2-85956-042-4.
  • Lettres sur la danse. Présentation de Maurice Béjart. Paris, 2006. ISBN 2-7475-9862-4.
  • Lettere sulla danza, sui balletti e le arti (1803 ), Into the Italian translated by Flavia Pappacena, LIM 2011.
  • Lettres sur la danse, sur les ballets et les arts (1803 ), edited by Flavia Pappacena, LIM, in 2012.
  • Jean Georges Noverre, Letters on the art of dance and the ballets, Hamburg and Bremen: Johann Heinrich Cramer, 1769; Documentation Choreologica, Vol XV, ed. by Kurt Petermann, Leipzig 1977.
  • Jean Georges Noverre, Letters on the art of dance. Newly edited and annotated by Ralf Stabel. Henschel Verlag, Leipzig, 2010. ISBN 978-3-89487-632-6.
  • Lettres sur la danse, sur les ballets et sur ​​les arts (1803 ), edited by Flavia Pappacena, LIM, Lucca, 2012

Works (selection)

  • Les Fêtes chinois (Paris 1754)
  • La Fontaine de jouvence (Paris 1754)
  • La Toilette de Vénus: François Granier (Lyon 1757)
  • L' Impromptu du sentiment F. Granier (Lyon 1758)
  • La Mort d' Ajax F. Granier (Lyon 1758)
  • Alceste (Stuttgart 1761 - Vienna 1767)
  • La Mort d' Hercule (Stuttgart 1762)
  • Psyché et l' Amour (Stuttgart 1762)
  • Jason et Médée (Stuttgart 1763 Vienna 1767, Paris 1776 1780, London 1781)
  • Hypermestra (Stuttgart 1764)
  • Diane et Endymion: J. Starzer (Vienna 1770)
  • Don Quixote all nozze di Gamace: A. Salieri (Vienna 1770/71 )
  • Le Jugement de Pâris (Vienna 1771)
  • Roger et Bradamante (Vienna 1771)
  • Agamemnon Venge (Vienna 1772)
  • Iphigénie en Tauride (Vienna 1772)
  • Thésée (Vienna 1772)
  • Acis et Galathée (Vienna 1773)
  • Adèle de Ponthieu (Vienna 1773, London 1782 )
  • Alexandre et de Campaspe Larisse (Vienna 1773)
  • Les Horace et les Curiaces (Vienna 1774, Paris 1777) Scenario Online ( Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris)
  • Renaud et Armide ( Milan 1775 - London, 1782)
  • La nuova sposa persiana ( Milan 1775 Vienna 1775)
  • Lachapelle et Campaspe (Paris 1776; Lyon 1787)
  • Les Caprices de Galatée (Paris 1776; London 1789)
  • Annette et Lubin ( Paris 1778)
  • Les Amours d' ENEE et de Didon (Lyon 1781)
  • La Fête du Serail (Paris 1788)
  • L' Amour et Psyché (London 1788)
  • La Fête de Tempé (London 1788)
  • Admete (London 1789)
  • La Bergère des Alpes (London 1794)
  • La Vittoria (London 1794)
  • Windsor Castle ( London 1795)
Saint-Germain-en-Laye Gaétan Vestris Literary topos Dramatic structure Mime artist Michael Lorenz (musicologist) Integrated Authority File
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