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Home , Basque (clothing), Cardinal (comics), Cyrano (Damrosch), Cyrano (DiChiera), Cyrano (musical), Cyrano de Bergerac

McGuire Proscenium Stage / March 16 – May 5, 2019

Cyrano de Bergerac by adapted and directed by JOSEPH HAJ PLAY GUIDE Inside

THE PLAY Synopsis, Setting and Characters • 4 Responses to • 5

THE AUTHOR Edmond Rostand • 7 About Cyrano de Bergerac • 8

CULTURAL CONTEXT Characters Based on Real People • 9 It Sings of • 11 Précieuses • 12 The Thirty Years’ War • 13 People, Places and Things in the Play • 15

BUILDING THE PRODUCTION From the Director and Creative Team • 19

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION For Further Reading and Understanding • 21

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Guthrie Theater Play Guide Copyright 2019

DRAMATURG Carla Steen GRAPHIC DESIGNER Akemi Graves CONTRIBUTOR Carla Steen

Guthrie Theater, 818 South 2nd Street, Minneapolis, MN 55415 All rights reserved. With the exception of classroom use by teachers and individual personal use, no part of this Play Guide ADMINISTRATION 612.225.6000 may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic BOX OFFICE 612.377.2224 or 1.877.44.STAGE (toll-free) or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in guthrietheater.org • Joseph Haj, artistic director writing from the publishers. Some materials published herein are written especially for our Guide. Others are reprinted by permission of their publishers.

The Guthrie Theater receives support from the National The Guthrie creates transformative theater experiences that ignite the imagination, Endowment for the Arts. This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation stir the heart, open the mind and build community through the illumination of our by the Minnesota State Legislature. The Minnesota State Arts Board received additional funds to support this activity from common humanity. the National Endowment for the Arts.

2 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PHOTO: JAY O. SANDERS IN CYRANO de BERGERAC (T CHARLES ERICKSON) “I’ll lend you my words, and you lend me your face. Together we’ll make one storybook hero!” – Cyrano to Christian in Cyrano de Bergerac About This Guide

This play guide is designed to fuel up on a play before you see it your curiosity and deepen your onstage. Or perhaps you’re a fellow DIG DEEPER understanding of a show’s history, theater company doing research If you are a theater meaning and cultural relevance for an upcoming production. company and would like so you can make the most of your We’re glad you found your way more information about theatergoing experience. You might here, and we encourage you to this production, contact be reading this because you fell in dig in and mine the depths of this Dramaturg Carla Steen at love with a show you saw at the extraordinary story. [email protected]. Guthrie. Maybe you want to read

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 3 THE PLAY

SETTING Paris, , and , , 1640

Act One: The theater at the Hotel de Bourgogne Act Two: Ragueneau’s pastry shop Act Three: Roxane’s house Act Four: embankment, Spanish-occupied Arras Act Five: Convent of the Sisters of the Holy Cross

CHARACTERS Cyrano de Bergerac, a poet and soldier Madeline Robin, called Roxane, his cousin and a précieuse Christian de Neuvillette, a soldier in Cyrano’s company Duenna, Roxane’s companion Count de Guiche, a nobleman and soldier Valvert, his friend and Roxane’s suitor Cuigy, a marquis Brissaille, a marquis Le Bret de Castel-Jaloux, the captain of the Gascony Guards Ragueneau, a baker and poet PHOTO: JAY O. SANDERS, JENNIE GREENBERRY AND ROBERT LENZI IN CYRANO de BERGERAC (T CHARLES ERICKSON) Lise, his wife Montfleury, an actor Synopsis Bellerose, an actor and theater manager Mother Marguerite, an abbess Cyrano de Bergerac is a poet, soldier and consummate with a at the convent prominent nose that keeps him from declaring his love for Roxane. But that’s Sister Claire, a nun at the his only vulnerability — he bullies actors from the stage, battles a hundred convent swordsmen alone, fights alongside his company of Gascon cadets and Sister Martha, a nun at the composes impeccable verse on the spot. convent

When Roxane tells him she loves a handsome new cadet named Christian, Other characters include Cyrano selflessly takes the tongue-tied young man under his wing and cadets, poets, pages and helps him woo Roxane, who revels in language and poetry. Their plan works cavaliers as well as a marquis, perfectly until Christian goes rogue and decides to speak for himself. actress, lady, buffet girl, musketeer and sentry. But Christian and Cyrano aren’t Roxane’s only suitors. The powerful Count de Guiche, who is no fan of Cyrano, has his own designs on Roxane. When the cadets are sent to war abroad, it is during the siege of Arras that love, heroism and the true Gascon heart are revealed.

4 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE PLAY

Responses to Cyrano de Bergerac

Cyrano de Bergerac is not a great If Cyrano falls short of the highest as Horatio; a poetic clown who on play, merely a perfect one. The literary standards — indeed, a humbler level is not unworthy distinction is worth noting. Great Rostand’s last plays, Chanticleer of the fools in Shakespeare. plays struggle with materials so and Don Juan’s Last Night, are Altogether, Cyrano at its worst is intractable, explore terrain so superior as literature — it is rather like Shakespeare rewritten uncharted, attempt things so truly nevertheless a masterpiece of the by Dumas père; at its best, like impossible, that parts of them theatrical. Consider the characters: Dumas adapted by the young inevitably resist encompassing a hero who is a delicious mixture Shakespeare. by the author, let alone by the of Romeo and Falstaff, Mercutio audience. In Cyrano, however, the and Hotspur; a heroine who is John Simon, “Cyrano de Bergerac: An playwright is always in full control. brave, beautiful, pure, faithful and Appreciation,” December 5, 2007; Updated The profile of every act is a swiftly even literate; a young soldier of from a piece originally published in rising action, a succession of ever overwhelming handsomeness who, Singularities: Essays on the Theater more resounding climaxes, ending though lacking the gift of words, 1964–1974 with a perfect punch line. The can at crucial points find the right contour of the whole play, on the insight and even the right remark; other hand, is a parabola reaching a villain who in the end proves Hamlet and King Lear may or may its peak with the fourth act, then intrepid and chivalrous, devoted to not have been real people, but falling away into the bittersweet the woman who spurned him and Cyrano de Bergerac was as real as denouement of the quietly generous to an old enemy; a friend the nose on your face. … He was a heartrending fifth act. … to the hero at least as appealing soldier, twice wounded, who gave up military life in 1642 to study science and literature in Paris. He PHOTO: JENNIE GREENBERRY AND JAY O. SANDERS IN CYRANO de BERGERAC (T CHARLES ERICKSON) was always an expert swordsman and always had a nose of uncommon size. How big this nose was we have no means of knowing, but it is safe to assume that its size has been exaggerated. It assumes, in Rostand’s play, the dimensions of a character in its own right, and this is just one of the ways a 19th- century romantic fantasticated a 17th-century realist. …

Rostand shows himself aware of the talents and preoccupations of the real Cyrano, but he twists them for his dramatic ends. The bravery and fighting skill are much present, though swollen to epic proportions, but the engaging boastfulness — which expresses all Cyrano’s attributes except the one (physical beauty) which seems to matter — is the dramatist’s contribution to the historical inventory of character. … The all-round result of Rostand’s meditations on the life and character of the historical Cyrano

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 5 THE PLAY is a glorious monster wholly post- The student who recently declared and his actions are completely Byronic who, one assumes, could that, in this age of cosmetic motivated by his convictions. In this have found no place in true 17th- surgery, Cyrano of Bergerac is no respect, he is true to life. He is also century Paris. longer plausible nor relevant, has, a type character, the universal hero. of course, missed the whole point Rostand’s megarhinoid hero is of the play. It is not Cyrano’s nose Patricia Elliott Williams, “Some Classical really an incarnation of a very that prevents Roxane from loving Aspects of Cyrano de Bergerac,” Nineteenth romantic ideal, which the author him; it is rather the fact that he is Century French Studies, February 1973 expresses in the term . not Christian. … A panache is properly the white plume that a cavalier wears on Rostand merely develops [from the Some of the classics in the world of his — a waving, dashing, historical Cyrano] the figure of the the arts are like family heirlooms, dandyish challenge to the world. By noble idealist who fights against objects of lingering sentiment metaphorical extension it becomes the reality of ordinary life. His rather than pinnacles of aesthetic something rather more difficult Cyrano, however, never admits to quality. Is the Mona Lisa a great to define. …Panache is a kind of such a reality but creates his own painting, Les Sylphides a great disarming conceit, expressed in world. In such a personal cosmos, ballet or “Clair de Lune” a great the exaggerated or the quixotic. It the objective observer might judge piece of music? Not really, but they is also, says Rostand, a device of him to be the loser, but Cyrano are all sentimental favorites. So it is self-comfort or consolation called gains for himself his most precious with Cyrano de Bergerac. Both the up by such a heroic extravagance ideal – panache. Cyrano’s world play and its hero are more than a as needless self-sacrifice. It is, then, comprises two existences: the life trifle silly. Yet this poet-duelist ham a stoic grace that can still wave of each day and the life of love. He who boasts of besting 100 men in in the air at a time of defeat or cherishes the highest concepts of a single encounter has depression. … Mercutio and Hamlet life and duty; in them are contained proved endearing. have it, but not Coriolanus and the plot of the play and the story of Brutus. It is one thing to be stoic; his soul. It may be because Cyrano wears it is quite another to be stylishly or his soul with panache, a plume of gaily stoic. Alba della Fazia Amoia, Edmond Rostand, the lyric spirit. He has the brio of a Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1978 Don Juan, yet he dares not woo … , translator, in a program Roxane for fear that his monstrous note for the Guthrie Theater’s 1971 nose will render him ridiculously production of Cyrano de Bergerac Consider the hero: Cyrano is ugly in her eyes. And so he puts probably the best developed his words of eloquence, passion character in all of Rostand’s plays. and longing at the service of … In about three and a half centuries Each act reveals a new dimension Christian, whom Roxane fancies. of modern theatrical history, of his personality: in Act I he is Cyrano also possesses some of there have been recorded in bold, courageous and arrogant the romantic chivalry of Don France only two other triumphs in the face of superficiality; Act II Quixote. He tilts at the crass, comparable to that of Rostand’s shows him in love, in firm control compromising windbags of this Cyrano of Bergerac: the first was of his emotions when his love is world. He has an innate gallantry Corneille’s Le Cid, produced in not returned, and generous to that makes his last-act death scene 1637 during the time of Richelieu; protect and to tolerate jibes from extremely poignant. the other, Le Mariage de Figaro by his rivals; in Act III his poetry, lyric Beaumarchais, presented in 1784 in and imaginative facets are revealed; T.E. Kalem, “The Theatre: Coolheaded the dawn of the French Revolution. Act IV discloses his scorn for Gascon,” Time, May 28, 1978 cowardice, the lengths to which Cyrano of Bergerac was first love has carried him, his joy at the produced on December 28, 1897, promise of Roxane’s recognition at the Porte Saint-Martin Theatre. and his despair at the death of Exactly one hour after the curtain Christian; Act V maintains his sense had fallen, practically the entire of humor, his devotion to and love audience was still in the theater for Roxane and his courage in applauding. … death. He is completely credible,

6 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE AUTHOR

Edmond Rostand

Born April 1, 1868, in Marseille, France, to a family that counted poets and a composer among their ranks, Edmond Rostand was a quiet, intense student who enjoyed designing stage sets and for his puppet theater. By adolescence, he was named “school poet” and began to publish his poetry in the local magazine Mireille.

At age 16, Rostand went to Paris to The play was almost immediately attend the Collège Stanislas, where translated into other languages he excelled at French composition, and produced around the world. history and philosophy. He also studied law to please his father In 1901, Rostand was the youngest but pursued his literary interests to be elected to the by writing plays and poems. prestigious French Academy. His first play was produced in His next play, Chanticleer, finally 1888, and in 1890, he published a appeared in 1910 after delays due ROSTAND’S WRITINGS poetry collection, Les Musardises. to Rostand’s health. The hype was 1888 The Red Glove, written That same year, he married poet almost unprecedented, yet it proved with Henry Lee, premieres at Rosemonde Gérard, with whom he to be a disappointment among Cluny Theatre would have two children. audiences. Scholars today consider it to be Rostand’s masterwork. 1890 Publishes poetry collection Rostand would rise to the heights Les Musardises of French theater over the next During World War I, Rostand was 1894 The Romancers premieres decade. The Romancers received disappointed that his declining at Comédie-Française popular accolades (and is the health kept him from fighting source story for the 1960 musical for his country, and he produced 1895 The Princess Far-Away The Fantasticks), and he wrote two a collection of patriotic poems premieres at Renaissance Theatre plays for actress : in The Flight of the Marseillaise. The Princess Far-Away and The Rostand died on December 2, 1918, 1897 The Woman of Samaria Woman of Samaria. But it was shortly after the war ended. His premieres at Renaissance Theatre Cyrano de Bergerac that made final unfinished play,The Last Night 1897 Cyrano de Bergerac Rostand an overnight sensation of Don Juan, was published and premieres at Porte Saint-Martin with its opening in December 1897. performed posthumously. Theatre

1900 The Eaglet premieres at Sarah-Bernhardt Theatre “It may be of interest to note that as a young boarder at school, Edmond Rostand, already distinguished among 1910 Chanticleer premieres at Porte Saint-Martin Theatre his companions for his talent in composition, had offered to write love letters and poems for a friend of his, who 1910 Publishes poetry collection The Canticle of the Wing copied them over and sent them to his young girlfriend. This personal recollection somehow imposes itself on the 1914 Publishes poetry collection chronicles that have created the immortal trio of Cyrano, The Flight of the Marseillaise Christian and Roxane.” 1922 The Last Night of Don Juan premieres posthumously Alba della Fazia Amoia, Edmond Rostand, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1978

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About Cyrano de Bergerac

1971 1973 2019

PHOTOS: JAMES BLENDICK AND ROBERTA MAXWELL IN CYRANO de BERGERAC (1971); IN CYRANO (ACT TWO PHOTOGRAPHY); JAY O. SANDERS, MARK MAZZARELLA AND ERIC SCHABLA IN CYRANO de BERGERAC (T CHARLES ERICKSON)

Edmond Rostand began work on However, the audience was charmed. and a seat in the French Academy Cyrano de Bergerac in the spring More than an hour after the curtain while giving the world a story that of 1896. The year before, he read fell, they were still applauding the has inspired millions and been retold his play The Princess Far-Away for show. It became an unqualified and adapted countless times. the famed French actress Sarah success, rocketing Rostand to fame Bernhardt and her company. Among the invited guests was renowned actor Benoît-Constant Coquelin, who “Edmond Rostand is said to traits in varying degree by was so impressed with Rostand that he said, “Write me a part, and I’ll play have become interested in bringing his magnificent it whenever and wherever you like.” Cyrano de Bergerac in the imagination to bear on days of his youth because them, and he gave particular Rostand had long wanted to write a Cyrano represented a emphasis to several which play about Cyrano de Bergerac — a poet, minor nobleman and soldier type, le rate [the failure], embodied his own ideals. who lived during the 17th century. In which had a great appeal Indeed it is probably Coquelin, he discovered the actor for him. When years later true that fundamentally who could bring the role to life as he he wanted to compose a the Cyrano of the play imagined it. Rostand began work on the play in 1896, and in December play for his friend Coquelin, represents to a considerable 1897, Cyrano de Bergerac opened the life of Cyrano readily extent the author himself, at the Porte Saint-Martin Theatre suggested itself to him as the author as he would have starring Coquelin as Cyrano. a subject ideally suited to liked to be, a fact which the talents of that famous must account in part for the By the play’s opening, no one thought the play would succeed. actor. The principal traits remarkable vitality of this The producers’ lack of faith kept of character of the hero of dramatic hero.” production expenses minimal, so his play, as well as most of Rostand paid for the costumes — a his accomplishments and Clarence d. Brenner, Rostand’s hefty 100,000 francs — out of his Cyrano de Bergerac: An exploits, Rostand took from own pocket. Before the actors took Interpretation, Studies in the stage for the first performance, the life of the real Cyrano. Philology, October 1949 he apologized for dragging them He elaborated each of these into his disaster.

8 \ GUTHRIE THEATER CULTURAL CONTEXT Characters Based on Real People

Edmond Rostand drew most, if not all, of CUIGY AND his characters in Cyrano de Bergerac from BRISSAILLE French history, including many offstage Played by Robert O. Berdahl characters such as actors, précieuses and and David O'Connell poets. Discover the historical people who Both were well- inspired Rostand to cast them in his known Parisians. heroic tale. Cuigy was the son of the Advocate of the Parliament of Paris; BELLEROSE Brissaille was Mestre Played by de Camp of the Prince de Conti’s regiment. They Jason Rojas witnessed Cyrano’s fight with the one hundred at the Pierre le Messier Port de Nesle. (ca.1592–1670), called Bellerose, CYRANO de BERGERAC apprenticed with Played by theater manager Jay O. Sanders Valleran LeComte at The French The King’s Players poet, playwright, in Paris. Upon army officer and LeComte’s death in swordsman Savinien 1613, Bellerose and members of the company toured de Cyrano (1519– the provinces, returning to Paris in the 1620s and 1655) was born in settling into the Hotel de Bourgogne, where Bellerose Paris and gained the was the troupe’s manager as well as an actor. Known title de Bergerac as a fine actor in both comedy and tragedy, he retired when the family in 1647. acquired a second castle called Bergerac. His early schooling was in the LE BRET country, under the tutelage of a curate. His education Played by there wasn’t great, but he did meet his lifelong friend Remy Auberjonois Le Bret. He attended the College de Beauvais in Paris Henry Le Bret (1617– before entering a company of Gascon guards under 1710) was educated the captainship of Carbon de Castel-Jaloux. After he with young Cyrano was wounded at the siege of Arras, he retired from by a country the military and spent the rest of his life on his literary priest. The two pursuits. During this time, he likely met the young remained lifelong man who would eventually become known as the friends, and Le Bret playwright Molière. Among Bergerac’s best-known became Cyrano’s works are State and Empire of the Moon and State biographer. Le Bret introduced Cyrano to the Gascon and Empire of the Sun, both published posthumously captain whose cadets Cyrano later joined (Le Bret has and sometimes considered early examples of science been combined with that character in the Guthrie’s fiction. He did indeed have a large nose, and he died as production) and was the friend who took Cyrano for a result of severe head wounds from a falling beam. treatment after he received his fatal head wound.

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 9 CULTURAL CONTEXT

COMTE DE RAGUENEAU GUICHE Played by Played by Ansa Akyea Cameron Folmar As a well-known Antoine III Agénor de Parisian pastry Gramont-Toulongeon cook and poet, (1604–1673) was a Ragueneau’s life colonel in the French closely paralleled Guards by 1638 and the job-hopping one of 12 marshals of described in Cyrano. the French Army by He was hired by 1642. wanted to extend the network Molière’s troupe as a candle snuffer and super. He died of people loyal to his policies and sought alliances with in 1654 while the company was on tour. His son-in-law prominent families. To that end, Richelieu married his wrote the first biography of Molière. niece, Mlle de Plessis de Chivray, to de Guiche in 1634, and they had four children. De Guiche became the ROXANE AND Count of Gramont in 1644, presumably after the death CHRISTIAN of his father, and was elevated to Duke of Gramont Played by in 1648. Jennie Greenberry and Robert Lenzi MONTFLEURY Cyrano’s cousin Played by (through his mother), Joel Liestman Madeleine Robineau Zacharie Jacob (1610–1657), was born (1600–1667), called in Paris and became Montfleury, joined an educated and The King’s Players social . She married Christophe de Champagne, around 1637 and baron de Neuvillette, in 1635. He was killed at the was second only to siege of Arras in 1640. After his death and the death Bellerose. He was of her mother and stillborn child, she devoted herself a large man with a to prayer and helping the poor and sick. She (as bombastic delivery who had many fans. However, both well as one of Cyrano’s aunts) was connected to Molière and de Bergerac did not care for his acting the Daughters of the Cross convent, who looked style, and the quarrel depicted in the play, in which after Cyrano later in his life. Roxane died on April 10, Cyrano bans Montfleury from the stage, is based on a 1657. The Carmelite father Saint-Cyprien wrote the real event. Collection of the virtues and the writings of Baroness Neuvillette in 1660. Rostand gave her the précieuse name Roxane. MOTHER MARGUERITE VALVERT Played by Played by Charity Jones Eric Schabla The abbess (d.1657) Pierre d’Auteuille, founded the convent baron de Valvert, was of the Daughters of a poet, protector of the Cross in Paris, men, writer of letters which was located and a one-time near the Bastille. performer in one of Marguerite was rich, Molière’s plays. well-connected and beautiful, and she kept up her societal connections even after entering religious life.

10 \ GUTHRIE THEATER CULTURAL CONTEXT

It Sings of Gascony

Gascony is a region in southwestern France that borders . - speaking people from Spain invaded and established the of Gascony in the early seventh century. Throughout its history, Gascony has been under the influence of the , the English and the French, and it became an official part of France in 1607. Gascony, like PHOTO: THE CAST OF CYRANO de BERGERAC (T CHARLES ERICKSON) much of the south of France, spoke a slightly different entourage, and they were the first fighting each other in duels. In the French than the north. The to be integrated into the king’s taverns, one could not help but southerners’ reputations guard. The reigns of Henri IV, Louis notice their fondness for good food XIII and Louis XIV saw the apogee and drink. … grew as one of their own, of the King’s military house and, Henry IV, became king in consequently, the Gascons. A Gascon character appeared on the 1589 and held court in Paris. French stage and in literature in the But the Gascons had a very 17th century. His traits were that of a different personality compared to braggart and teller of tall tales in the From the 16th to 18th centuries, the inhabitants of the kingdom’s lineage of the matamore of Spanish anyone who spoke a langue d’Oc, capital. With their arrival in Paris, comedy or the capitan of the Italian one of the languages of the south these boisterous men brought with Comedia dell’Arte. However, this of France, was … unjustly labeled a them their colorfulness, and they buffoon was a little less excessive Gascon. (Langue d’Oui was spoken shocked the Parisians who were and, more importantly, French (or in northern France and the parent unaccustomed to such displays rather, Gascon). This new character of modern French.) of exuberance. And the fact that became a real success with they occupied powerful posts, the public. In military circles, however, one with access to the king and his did not make this mistake, and the counselors, drew the jealousy and Excerpted and edited from “L’esprit only Gascons whom one spoke animosity of many a northerner. Gascon” on The World of D’Artagnan, of were those who actually hailed In the 17th century, in particular, created by Regis Meyer and Claudia Richard, from that province of the far the Gascons’ omnipresence in the of Academie de Civilisation et Cultures southwest known as a “breeding military and political spheres of Europeennes: lemondededaragnan.fr ground for soldiers” — a reputation France was quite palpable. They that it would continue to enjoy for had established their own network, centuries. Even would and it was among the elite corps say, “Give me an army of real of Musketeers that they were Gascons, and I’ll cross a hundred most present. (Even without the leagues of hell!” Gascons, these elite soldiers had quite a reputation in Paris.) When Because they were such fearless they were not busy on the field of warriors, the Gascons quickly battle, they noisily took over the became part of the royal capital, making ladies swoon and

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Précieuses

Précieuses were people, Among the chief interests and aims refinement, threatened to convert especially women, who of the précieuses was to improve the clear into the aspired to refined taste, the “indelicacies” of the French most confused and absurd tongue language, which led to a fondness in the world,” writes scholar Karl manners and language. The for rhetoric and circumlocution. It Mantzius in Molière and His Times. term is usually associated also led to the general impression “But what gave importance to his with the précieuses of 17th- that they were affected and play was not the subject, but the century France. The French exhibited a kind of artificiality. wonderful humour and inventive Novelist Honore d’Urfe (who is power with which the style of the word literally translates to mentioned in passing in Cyrano précieuses was parodied.” “precious,” but that doesn’t de Bergerac) wrote a pastoral capture the nuance of novel called L’Astree in 1607 that A.B. de Somaize created a the French. is thought to have inspired many Dictionary of Précieuses in 1660, in aspects of the précieuses’ code. which he recorded not only many of the précieuses themselves, The précieuse movement was Molière wrote an enormously but a good number of their rooted in French high society and successful play called Les preferred elegant expressions. That likely got its start in the cultural Précieuses ridicules in 1659. dictionary is likely the place where and literary salon maintained by “Everybody knows that the Rostand found the names of his Catherine d’Angennes (1588–1664) little farce ridiculed the literary précieuses, including Roxane. There at her Paris townhouse, the Hotel movement which had originated is a Roxane in the dictionary, but de Rambouillet. Marquise de in the Hôtel Rambouillet and she is not associated with Madeline Rambouillet held her salon from extended over the country, with the Robin (that is Rostand’s invention). about 1610 to 1650, and some of object of improving and purging the salon regulars helped found the the French language, but which, French Academy in 1635. with its extreme affectation of

12 \ GUTHRIE THEATER CULTURAL CONTEXT The Thirty Years' War

The Siege of Arras in Act Four of Cyrano de Bergerac is a tiny footnote to a long series of conflicts in Europe called the Thirty Years’ War. It began as a religious within the and ended as a political war that affected most of the continent. By its end, France had asserted its influence and power and was on the rise.

BACKGROUND The issues underlying the Thirty Years’ War were many, WAR PERIODS not least of which was the ongoing religious struggle between Catholics and Protestants. The Protestant Bohemian Period (1618–1624): The rebels made Reformation began in 1517 and threw much of Europe some advances, but Ferdinand appealed to the into turmoil for the bulk of the 1500s as Protestantism Spanish branch of the Habsburg family and the grew and Catholicism pushed back. A number of Catholic League (a military alliance among German decrees brought some stability: the Edict of in Catholic states), and the Bohemian Protestants were 1598 gave Protestants in France freedom to worship defeated in 1620. Frederick lost both Bohemia and (mostly) as well as civil rights; a Letter of Majesty the Palatinate, and Ferdinand made Bohemia solely issued by Bohemian ruler Rudolf II in 1609 gave Catholic. Rebel leaders were rounded up, many of his subjects some religious liberty and established them executed, and Protestants were exiled or had Defensors to enforce it. But it wouldn’t be quite to convert. But these harsh countermeasures against accurate to call it a purely religious war. Protestantism ultimately extended the conflict.

Another major factor was the tension between the Danish Period (1625–1629): Other Protestant countries Holy Roman Empire and independent states in Europe. felt threatened and became involved in the conflict The Empire was based in central and western Europe directly and indirectly. Catholic support came from (modern-day Germany, with other states coming and Rome and Genoa (money) and Tuscany and Poland going over time) and had existed since 962. Since (troops), but some countries that might otherwise 1438, the Habsburg family held the imperial throne, but support the Empire initially remained neutral, including the Protestant Reformation had weakened the Empire England, France and the Dutch Republic. Dutch as it divided German states along religious lines. Many neutrality didn’t last long — a 12-year truce with nearby countries, such as France, were long suspicious Spain was about to expire in 1621, and, not trusting of the political aspirations of the Empire. Complicating either branch of the Habsburgs, they threw in with matters for France was that there was also a Spanish the Protestants. Denmark got involved (ostensibly to line of the Habsburgs, and France was geographically defend Protestantism; really to expand its influence in caught between the two branches of the Habsburg northern Germany) and invaded the Empire in 1625. family. After they were beaten a few times and the imperial army in turn invaded Denmark, peace was made and BEGINNINGS Denmark was out for good. Ferdinand issued an edict The event that started the war was the Defenestration that restored Catholic control of land that formerly of Prague in May 1618. The previous year, the Bohemian belonged to the and had most ruler Ferdinand reneged on the Letter of Majesty. At recently been in Protestant possession. But because an assembly in Prague, Protestant Defensors threw other rulers within the empire weren’t consulted, he two members of a newly established Catholic regency met with opposition and other countries outside the council and their secretary out of a window (they empire felt even more threatened. survived). The Protestants removed Ferdinand as king, gave the Bohemian to Frederick of the Swedish Period (1630-1634): Sweden was the next Palatinate, raised an army of rebellion and war was Protestant country to join the war, led by Gustavus imminent. Then Ferdinand was elected Holy Adolphus, because it was in Sweden’s interest for Roman Emperor. German states to be both Protestant and independent. The Swedes made decent headway, gathering support among some German Protestants and financing from

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the Dutch and French (the latter didn’t like their independence; Sweden got control in the Baltic WAR PERIODS (continued) Sea; and the Empire acknowledged Lutheranism and Calvinism on an (almost) equal footing to Catholicism. the Habsburgs, despite their shared Catholicism). After a few solid years of victories, Sweden suffered The Holy Roman Empire’s power was significantly a huge blow when Adolphus was killed in battle in diminished. Germany was as devastated as it would November 1632. Spain arrived in southern Germany to be after World War I or II. Its economy and population aid the Empire in 1634 and helped force Sweden out. didn’t recover for a century. France took a huge step Protestant Germans didn’t want Swedish involvement forward on the international stage. Louis XIV had in Germany, so they negotiated with the Emperor and become king of France in 1643 at age 4 and was got some of the things they wanted (in part because crowned in 1654. France entered its golden age under French armies gathering at the border put pressure on Louis, nicknamed the Sun King, who would rule the emperor). The Peace of Prague in 1635 mostly left until 1715. Sweden without German Protestant support.

French Period (1635–1648): France officially jumped Siege at Arras into the war militarily in 1635. Behind the scenes, Arras is the historic capital of the region France had provided financial support to Sweden, in northeastern France that borders modern-day entered into alliances with the Dutch and Swedes and Belgium. It has seen more than its fair share of occupied a key bit of land that connected the Spanish war: besides its siege during the Thirty Years’ War, and German Habsburgs. Now it was finally ready to it was almost destroyed in 1435 when declare war on Spain. At this point, it was primarily and France carried out a series of wars and it France, Sweden, Dutch Republic and Protestant sustained heavy damage during both world wars. German princes on one side and the Habsburg Holy Beginning in 1493, the Spanish occupied Arras Roman Empire and Spain on the other. and the surrounding Artois. It was reconquered by the French during the Thirty Years’ War siege, STAKES which is depicted in Cyrano de Bergerac. France’s main goal was to defeat its longtime rival Spain; it didn’t have political aspirations in Germany. Though important in Cyrano, the siege of Arras The Swedish-French alliance was tenuous, but after is a very minor event within the Thirty Years’ neither was able to make headway against the War. Its strategic purpose was to secure France’s Habsburgs, Sweden threw in fully with France in 1641. northeastern border and hit the Spanish while They agreed not to seek separate peace but to have they were also dealing with an internal difficulty joint negotiations with the Empire and in Catalonia. A memoirist from the time, Charles German princes. de Montglat, recorded some of what happened: The siege began on June 13, 1640, with the French They coordinated strategies, but generally France surrounding the city with two armies. Within two fought the duke of Bavaria and the Spanish while weeks, the French had built their fortifications for Sweden took on Ferdinand and the Empire. Arras was the siege and defenses for themselves should they just a few miles north of France’s then-border, in the be attacked (as did happen), as well as a bridge Artois region known then as the Spanish Netherlands over the river which runs north of Arras to provide (Artois is now French). Sweden put Ferdinand on the better communication between the armies. The run and advanced toward Vienna — the seat of Spanish, however, surrounded the French and cut the Habsburgs. them off from provisions. French reinforcements arrived on August 2 and the city fell on August 9. PEACE The Peace of Westphalia was negotiated by the After the fall of Arras, the French invaded and Emperor, France, Sweden, German princes and occupied the rest of Artois, which was captured the Dutch between 1644 and 1648 (it involved 194 from the Spanish Habsburgs. Spain got it back European rulers in total — only England, Poland, as part of the peace terms in the Treaty of Russia and the Ottoman Empire weren’t involved). Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years’ War. France gained territory on its northeast border; the Dutch Republic and Swiss Confederation gained

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People, Places and Things in the Play

PEOPLE beadle after French reinforcements finally An inferior parish officer appointed arrived. Cardinal is a high-ranking Achilles by parishioners to keep order in official in the Catholic Church and One of the greatest legendary church, punish petty offenders and is part of the college that elects Greek heroes, the son of the mortal act as the messenger of the parish; Popes. Infante means prince — son king Peleus and the sea nymph a parish constable. of the Spanish king and queen but Thetis. During the Trojan War, not the heir to the throne. Achilles had a falling out with Greek Monsieur Benserade leader Agamemnon, which resulted Isaac de Benserade (ca. 1612– in Achilles refusing to fight and 1691), a minor French poet and sulking in his tent. It was only the playwright in the court of Louis XIV. death of his friend Patroclus that brought Achilles back into the war. Comte de Bucquoi Charles II Albert de Longueval, 3rd Aristophanes count of Bucquoy (1607–1663), A Greek playwright (ca. 450 – ca. who served in the Habsburg army 388 BCE) who worked in the style and rose to the rank of general of Old Comedy, known for Birds, in the Spanish Cavalry in the Low Lysistrata, Frogs, etc. Countries; his family had the hereditary title of Master of the Hunt of Artois.

cadet A young gentleman training to become an officer. PHOTO: CARDINAL INFANTE OF SPAIN

Caesar Cleopatra Julius Caesar (ca. 100–44 BCE), a Cleopatra VII (ca. 69–30 BCE), a Roman general turned statesman historical queen of Egypt, perhaps who was famously killed on best known for her entanglements the Senate floor on the Ides of with Julius Caesar and Mark March. He was a member of Antony. She was an intelligent,

PHOTO: Rome’s aristocracy; a general who capable ruler who is often conquered and crossed the associated with great beauty. Balthazar Baro Rubicon to wage and win a Roman A poet and playwright from civil war. Cupid Valence in southeastern France From Roman mythology, the god (1600–1650) who wrote three Cardinal Infante of Spain of love, who is often depicted tragedies, two odes, one pastoral, Archduke Fernando (1609–1641), with a bow and quiver of arrows, one heroic poem and four dramatic a son of Philip III and brother to sometimes as a child and poems. He was secretary to Philip IV, kings of Spain. Fernando sometimes blindfolded. Cyrano’s French novelist Honoré d’Urfé led an army in 1634 through reference to “Cupid’s arrows, and responsible for getting the southern Germany on his way to quivers, torches,” may refer to fourth and fifth parts of d’ Urfé’s Flanders. He led an army of 30,000 the story of Cupid and Psyche. novel Astrea published after the to keep French convoys from To protect her from his mother author’s death. Baro was prominent reaching the French army at Arras, Venus, Cupid hid Psyche, a mortal enough to be elected to the French but ultimately had to surrender princess, and visited her only at Academy in 1636. to the French on August 9, 1640, night in complete darkness. One

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night she lit a lamp to look at her fairly contemporary reference for mysterious lover and found he was Cyrano to make. The Roman name of the Greek hero in fact a god, but oil from the lamp Heracles known for his strength fell on Cupid and he awoke. He fled, Guards and temper. He was a son of Zeus, then rescued her again; she was The French Guards were one of the king of the gods. One of his made immortal and they married. the royal household regiments earliest exploits occurred when (dating back to 1563), the oldest he was an infant: he strangled two Descartes permanent regiment in France and serpents Hera sent to kill him in René Descartes (1596–1650), a foot soldiers along with the Swiss his cradle. French scientist, mathematician Guard. Le Bret’s company would be and philosopher best known for one of 20–30 companies within the Lazarus his phrase, “I think, therefore I Guards. Various regiments vied for In Luke 16 of the Bible, Jesus tells am.” Cyrano in 1640 is reading a precedent and privileges, with the a parable about a rich man and a contemporary’s work, and it is most Guards claiming the right to be first beggar named Lazarus who lived likely Descartes’ Discourse on the through a breach during a siege, at the rich man’s gate and hoped Method published in 1637. as well as pride of place on parade, to eat whatever fell from the table. first choice of barracks and first Both men died, and Lazarus was duenna choice of position in battle. taken to heaven while the rich man A chaperone or older female was taken to hell. companion; originally a Spanish Henry of term for a lady in waiting at court. Henry IV, king of France and Mancini Navarre (1553–1610, r. 1589–1610), Marie Mancini (1640–1715), a lover D’Urfé the founder of the Bourbon line of of Louis XIV. Louis wanted to marry Honoré d’Urfé (1567–1625), a French kings that lasted until the her, but Cardinal Mazarin sent French author whose major work French Revolution. He helped end Marie to Spain and arranged for was the pastoral romance L’Astrée, the Wars of Religion in 1598 in part Louis to marry Marie-Therese of which was published in five parts by converting from Protestantism Austria. Mancini was described in between 1607 and 1627. L’Astrée is to Catholicism (“Paris is worth a a Dictionary of Précieuses as the about the loves and adventures of mass”), rebuilt and mostly united wittiest, cleverest woman on earth. shepherds and shepherdesses, with France and set the country on its the title character being the female way to becoming a major European Madame Montglat half of a pair of lovers unable to power. He was the father of Louis Marguerite de Montglat, a woman marry because their families don’t XIII, the king of France at the time famous for her amorous adventures like each other. It was incredibly of the events in Cyrano. A recent and intellect. popular in the 17th century and high-water mark for French royalty, influenced later . military prowess and charm, Henry is a natural reference point for Count Fiesque Cyrano. Henry was also a Gascon. A 16th-century Italian nobleman in Genoa who conspired against the Doria family.

Galileo An Italian philosopher, astronomer and mathematician (1564–1642) whose treatise comparing the Ptolemaic and Copernican ideas PHOTO: MOLIÈRE about the world (earth-centered Molière versus sun-centered) raised the Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622–1673), hackles of the pope, led to Galileo’s the greatest comic playwright in trial by the Inquisition and his French theater. He and Cyrano de subsequent conviction and house Bergerac knew one another, either arrest in Siena and Arcetri. This is a PHOTO: HENRY OF NAVARRE as classmates or as adults when

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they were both young writers. Among Among its many agricultural Molière’s best known works are The products are tobacco, several School for Wives (1662), Tartuffe excellent wines, wheat, orchards (1664), The Misanthrope (1666), and truffles as well as livestock. The Bourgeois Gentleman (1670) and The Dordogne gave the area direct The Imaginary Invalid (1673). access to the Atlantic Ocean and trade with Britain, the Baltic and Musketeer the Netherlands. In 1600, Henry IV, king of France, reformed the cavalry and created PHOTO: CARDINAL RICHELIEU a special king’s guard called the Carabiniers armed with carbines. and international stages and was a His son Louis XIII continued patron of the arts. the force, but armed them with muskets, added pikemen and Samson renamed them the Musketeers in A legendary warrior and leader of 1622. They lasted in this form the Israelites who got his strength until 1646. from his uncut hair. After the deaths of his wife and father-in- law, the spirit of God helped him break his ; he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey and killed a thousand men.

Socrates A Greek philosopher (ca. 470–399 BCE) who was a gadfly to Athenian PHOTO: THE TOWN OF BERGERAC democracy. He was tried for Doullens PHOTO: MUSKETEERS religious impiety, found guilty and A town in the Picardie region of sentenced to death by poisoning. northeastern France about 23 miles Orpheus southwest of Arras. In Greek mythology, Orpheus Ulysses was a Thracian poet whose music The Roman name for the legendary Flanders was so powerful, it could affect Greek hero Odysseus, known for A former small county in the Low even inanimate objects. After the his wit, cleverness and eloquent Countries (Netherlands, Belgium death of his wife Eurydice, he tongue. He spent 10 years at the and Luxembourg) along the North plunged into a prolonged grief. siege of Troy and 10 more years Sea; now part of Belgium and The maenads, female attendants of after to return to Ithaca and his wife France. Dionysus, encountered him in his Penelope, in adventures detailed in grief and tore him to pieces during The Odyssey. Fontainebleau one of their orgies. A town in France 40–45 miles PLACES southeast of Paris and the location Phoebus of a historical residence for French From Greek mythology, a name for Bapaume royalty. Louis XIII, the French king Apollo, the god of music, poetry, A town in northeast France about at the start of Cyrano, was born oracles and the sun. 13 miles south of Arras in Artois. at Fontainebleau. His successor, It eventually surrendered to the Louis XIV and the king during Act Cardinal Richelieu French army in September 1641, a Five, began work on the Palace at Armand Jean du Plessis (1585– year after Arras was captured. Versailles in 1661. 1642), a Roman Catholic priest and prime minister of France under Bergerac Quai d’Orfevres Louis XIII from 1614 until his death. A town in southwestern France A road on the Ile de la Cite, an He was instrumental in raising along the Dordogne River in island in the Seine, which runs France’s profile in the European the historical region of Gascony. along the southwestern edge of

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the island. The detritus of Cyrano’s fight would have extended from the Quai, across the Seine on the New Bridge and along the Quai des

Conti to the Port de Nesle. PHOTO: A MUSKET

Porte de Nesle ballade musket The gate next to the Nesle Tower, A poem typically consisting of A shoulder-fired gun in which which was one of the guard towers three (or multiples of three) the ammunition is loaded via the along the wall that circled Paris stanzas of seven or eight lines, muzzle. The musket came into in 1220. with cross-rhymed lines and each use in the mid-16th century and stanza sharing a common final line. its heyday lasted until the breech- Red Sea It usually ends with an envoi (a loading rifle (ammunition inserted A long, narrow stretch of water that summary postscript). toward the back) was invented in connects Suez, Egypt, with the Gulf the mid-1800s. A musket might of Aden in the Arabian Sea. have a range of 250 yards, but It occasionally has a red-brown An early 17th-century novel (1605– a salvo by musketeers would color when certain algae in the 1610) by Spanish author Miguel generally be fired at 65 yards. water dies. de Cervantes. Its title character is a self-declared knight-errant Scapin St. Roch who sets out from his home in La Molière wrote The Deceits of Scapin A famous old parish church on the Mancha for adventure. Suffering late in his career in 1671. Rostand Rue St. Honore just north of the from delusions of grandeur, he gets fudges the dates in Act Five of Tuileries and a few blocks west of into a number of embarrassing Cyrano a bit, because the historical Le Palais Royal, which itself is a few scrapes while conducting himself Cyrano de Bergerac and the Cyrano blocks west of the Theater Burgundy. with honor. of the play die in 1655 and wouldn’t have been around for the playing Hippocamelelephantoles of Scapin. THINGS An imaginary animal created from a hippocampus (sea horse), camel serge Academy and elephant. If Aristophanes A wool fabric known for its The Académie française, an referred to this creature, that play durability and often associated organization of 40 members (the is lost. with being worn by the poor. Forty Immortals) that was formally established in 1634 by Cardinal Iliad sleeve-knots Richelieu in order to maintain An epic poem attributed to Homer A bunch of ribbons worn on standards of taste and establish that details most of the 10th year the sleeve. French as a literary language. of the siege of Troy (aka Ilium) Among those who have been by the Greeks. It is a very military, white Immortals are Corneille, , very testosterone-driven epic, not In most companies, the infantry and , Eugène Ionesco and inappropriate reading for impatient officers essentially wore the same Edmond Rostand. and bored soldiers waging their clothes, though an officer might own siege. add a . Officers’ white Agrippine made them recognizable on Cyrano de Bergerac wrote a La Clorise the battlefield. tragedy called La Mort d’Agrippine, A pastoral comedy (ca. 1631) by probably around 1650, which Balthazar Baro that is dedicated finally found a patron and was to Cardinal Richelieu. It has eight produced in 1654. Because of characters: Phedon, the father of a misinterpreted line that the Clorise; Nicandre, father of Éraste; audience saw as sacrilegious, there Éraste; Clorise; brothers Alidor and was a riot at the first performance, Philidan; Éliante; and Dorilas. the play was shut down and sales of the script skyrocketed.

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From the Director and Creative Team

PHOTO: NATHAN DALE STUDIOS

The cast and creative team for Cyrano de Bergerac met for the first day of rehearsal on February 12, 2019. Adapter and director Joseph Haj invited members of the creative team to describe their inspiration and vision for the world of the play. Below are edited excerpts from their comments.

DIRECTOR JOSEPH HAJ Rostand wrote his play in fin de siècle Paris at an incredibly cynical time. France had lost its position as It’s probably worth mentioning that the French love a world leader rather capriciously. Most of the plays this story. I don’t just mean the story of Cyrano; I mean that were being written were taking on the social ills the story of the idea of where beauty truly resides, of the day. He wrote a remarkably un-cynical play for a which I think is the central question and theme of remarkably cynical time. Trying to make a production Cyrano. If you look at Beauty and the Beast from the in today’s world mirrors that a little bit. 1740s and The Hunchback of Notre Dame from the 1830s, they’re trafficking in that space. In the 1940s, We’re doing my own adaptation — version is probably the central tenant of Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince the better word for it — of the play. I think it’s very true to is that what is essential is invisible to the eye. So the what Rostand was pursuing. It hasn’t been dropped from French love this story and the examination of where a great height. It isn’t “inspired by.” We’re doing the play beauty is and isn’t. largely as it was made.

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death, the idea being that you can have all this beauty but ultimately, death will come and you must always remember your mortality and reality.

The audience first will see a big plume and letter, and they may be thinking that they’re looking at a writing box. The plume and letter leave the stage, and what we’re left with immediately is the basic curiosity cabinet. It’s very decorative, but actors burst through it and start setting up the theater and taking down panels. What looks like a large drawer comes out and is a bench. A couple of the panels on the become Montfleury’s stage. All of the drawers hold props, SCENIC DESIGNER are furniture or become something else. By the very McKAY COBLE end, it’s all gone. We have an enormous explosion of red leaves, and they continue to fall on this naked set NOTE: The container for the set is a curiosity cabinet where Cyrano says what he needs to say to Roxane with panels painted with Vanitas inspired by the work and she hears what she needs to hear of Jan de Heem and Rachel Ruysch. from Cyrano.

Cabinets of curiosity were really big starting in the 17th century. Because travel and trade was so extensive, people would gather objects from around the world. It almost became a competition to have the coolest stuff in your curiosity cabinets, so it also became the coolest thing to have the best curiosity cabinet. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of all the different drawers and compartments you have. I love the idea that it looks like one thing, yet when you start to pull it apart, it has so much variety and other information.

Another inspiration for this is the Vanitas, in which the images — beautiful flowers, carrots, different fruits, COMPOSER oysters — represent a whole world we don’t even JACK HERRICK understand anymore. In the Vanitas is an indication of Joe [Haj] came to me last fall with the idea of doing

PHOTO: SCENIC DESIGN BY McKAY COBLE Cyrano, and we talked about what kind of music it ought to be and came to absolutely no conclusion. So I listened to a lot of French music of the period, and there are a couple French composers that I have come to love in researching this. One, Yann Tiersen, is minimalist, beautiful, French folky stuff, and that was my model.

Our scheme is to have pre-recorded, beautiful- sounding music as well as live music from onstage. Not that the beautiful production music isn’t going to be completely wonderful, but we want anyone in the cast who’s willing to play. It’ll be fun.

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For Further Reading and Understanding

EDITIONS OF THE PLAY FRENCH AND THIRTY YEARS’ Roxanne, directed by Fred Schepisi, WAR HISTORY screenplay by , starring Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Steve Martin as C.D. Bales, Daryl Rostand, Paris: Gallimard, 1999. By the Sword: A History of Hannah as Roxanne and Rick Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Rossovich as Chris, 1987. Color, Translation in verse by Gladys Swashbucklers, and Olympic 117 minutes. Thomas and Mary F. Guillemard, Champions by Richard Cohen, New dating to 1898, available on York: Random House, 2002. The Truth About Cats & Dogs, . directed by Michael Lehmann, Eminence: Cardinal Richelieu and starring Jeaneano Garofalo as Translation in prose by Gertrude the Rise of France by Jean-Vincent Abby, Ben Chaplin as Brian and Hall, New York: Doubleday & Blanchard, New York: Walker & Uma Thurman as Noelle, 1996. McClure Co, 1898, available on Company, 2011. Color, 97 minutes. . French Armies of the Thirty Years’ Classics Illustrated Cyrano de Translation in prose by Helen B. War by Stephane Thion, Auzielle, Bergerac, adapted by Peter Dole, Cleveland: World Publishing France: Little Round Top David and Kyle Baker, New York: Company, 1931. Editions, 2008. Papercutz, 1991.

Translation in verse by Brian How the French Invented Love: The World of D’Artagnan: Hooker, New York: Bantam Nine Hundred Years of Passion and http://www.lemondededartagnan. Books, 1923. Romance by Marilyn Yalom, New fr/SITE/ENG/accueil.htm York: Harper Perennial, 2012. Translation in verse by Anthony Burgess, New York: Applause An Introduction to Seventeenth Theatre & Cinema Books, 1985. Century France by John Lough, NOTE: Burgess was commissioned New York: David McKay Company, by the Guthrie Theater in 1971 to Inc., 1954. write a translation/adaptation, which he further revised for a The Thirty Years’ War: Europe’s musical version titled Cyrano. He Tragedy by Peter H. Wilson, revised it once more for Royal Cambridge: Harvard University Shakespeare Company production Press, 2009. in 1983.

FILM AND OTHER MEDIA WRITINGS BY CYRANO DE BERGERAC Cyrano de Bergerac, directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, starring Journey to the Moon by Cyrano Gérard Depardieu as Cyrano, Anne de Bergerac. Brochet as Roxane and Vincent Perez as Christian, 1990. Color, Other Worlds: The Comical History 137 minutes. In French. of the States and Empires of the Moon and the Sun by Cyrano de Cyrano de Bergerac, directed by Bergerac. Michael Gordon, starring José Ferrer as Cyrano, Mala Powers as Roxane and William Prince as Christian, 1950. Black and white, 113 minutes.

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