TY - JOUR
T1 - Baring the Frame
T2 - Meyerhold's Refraction of Gozzi's Love of Three Oranges
AU - Posner, Dassia N.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2015 American Society for Theatre Research.
PY - 2015/9/7
Y1 - 2015/9/7
N2 - In 1761, Count Carlo Gozzi created a reflective analysis of an Italian fairy tale about three oranges, framing his commedia dell'arte-infused scenario with a series of polemical attacks on his theatrical rivals. In 1914, Vsevelod Meyerhold and two collaborators, Konstantin Vogak and Vladimir Soloviev, published a reflective analysis of Gozzi's reflective analysis. This new Love of Three Oranges (Liubov k trem apel'sinam, translated as Love for Three Oranges), served as the source material for Sergei Prokofiev's opera (1919; Chicago world premiere, 1921). It is also one of the most illuminating, yet strangely understudied sources of information on how Meyerhold redefined the theatrical event, the creative process of the director, and the role of the actor in the years preceding the October Revolution. In particular, this Russian Three Oranges explores how a conscious relationship between actor and character in concert with framing devices that delineate levels of fiction can emphasize an experience peculiar to the theatre: regardless of style, audiences inevitably maintain both belief and disbelief in what they see and perceive theatrical performance as simultaneously real and not real.
AB - In 1761, Count Carlo Gozzi created a reflective analysis of an Italian fairy tale about three oranges, framing his commedia dell'arte-infused scenario with a series of polemical attacks on his theatrical rivals. In 1914, Vsevelod Meyerhold and two collaborators, Konstantin Vogak and Vladimir Soloviev, published a reflective analysis of Gozzi's reflective analysis. This new Love of Three Oranges (Liubov k trem apel'sinam, translated as Love for Three Oranges), served as the source material for Sergei Prokofiev's opera (1919; Chicago world premiere, 1921). It is also one of the most illuminating, yet strangely understudied sources of information on how Meyerhold redefined the theatrical event, the creative process of the director, and the role of the actor in the years preceding the October Revolution. In particular, this Russian Three Oranges explores how a conscious relationship between actor and character in concert with framing devices that delineate levels of fiction can emphasize an experience peculiar to the theatre: regardless of style, audiences inevitably maintain both belief and disbelief in what they see and perceive theatrical performance as simultaneously real and not real.
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U2 - 10.1017/S0040557415000307
DO - 10.1017/S0040557415000307
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84941264399
SN - 0040-5574
VL - 56
SP - 362
EP - 388
JO - Theatre Survey
JF - Theatre Survey
IS - 3
ER -