“This lecture aims to understand why Shakespeare is still so powerfully with us, despite the four centuries’ distance, and today’s meagre knowledge of literary history. My answer, based on my reading of Hamlet but also of other plays, especially Antony and Cleopatra and The Winter’s Tale, is that Shakespeare’s sensibility to the poetic potentials of the dramatic medium gave him access to a mode of thought where being is constantly threatened with amnesia if not actual censorhip, particularly where relationships between man and woman are involved.” Yves Bonnefoy (Collège de France, member of PSL) Press Officer: Nathalie Gasser +33 6 07 78 06 10/ [email protected] 2 PATRONS, PARTNERS AND SPONSORS Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL Research University) Rectorat de Paris Société Française Shakespeare Théâtre de l'Odéon Musée Delacroix Musée Victor Hugo Opéra de Paris Comédie-Française BnF/ Arts du spectacle Centre National du Livre Centre des Monuments nationaux Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme Centre National du Costume de Scène France-Culture Festival d’Avignon Maison Jean Vilar French Debating Association Éditions Thierry Marchaisse Librairie Shakespeare and Co. Librairie Le Coupe-papier Jour2fête Carlotta Films École Normale Supérieure rue d'Ulm, member of PSL Mines ParisTech, member of PSL Paris III – Sorbonne Nouvelle PRISMES (EA 4398) Paris IV Sorbonne VALE (EA 4085) Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense HAR (EA 4414) Caen ERIBIA Le Havre GRIC (EA 4314) Picardie – Jules Verne CERCLL (EA 4283) Rennes II ACE (EA 1796) CNRS /IRCL Montpellier III (UMR 5186) Société des Anglicistes de l’Enseignement Supérieur King’s College London Shakespeare Birthplace Trust Deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft European Shakespeare Research Association Spanish and Portuguese Society for English Renaissance Studies Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre Fundación Shakespeare Argentina Centro Estudos Shakespeareanos Brazil Shakespeare Society of Japan International Shakespeare Association Fondation Hermès Ville de Paris – DDEEES dispositif ‘Colloques internationaux à Paris’ Ambassade du Royaume-Uni His Serene Highness Prince Albert of Monaco British Council Région Ile-de-France Aéroports de Paris 3 SHAKESPEARE 450 PARIS, 21-27 APRIL 2014 Presentation Two significant anniversaries are coming up, in April 2014 (450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth) and 2016 (fourth centenary of his death), which the Société Française Shakespeare (SFS) is preparing to celebrate with a programme of events stretching over the next three years. Shakespeare has been for several decades the most frequently performed playwright around the world. The universal appeal of his work was showcased in London during the Olympic Games, when the Globe featured the complete canon in thirty-seven languages, from A (Albania ) to Z (Zimbabwe). This programme of events, supported by the Ministry of Culture and Communication, is built in partnership with Théâtre de l’Odéon, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris-III, Paris Sciences et Lettres, Rectorat de Paris, various research centres (CREA from Nanterre University, CNRS/IRCL in Montpellier, Centre de Recherche en Langues et Littérature d’Amiens, Groupe de Recherche Identités Cultures du Havre, Unité de Recherches Rennes-II), King’s College who monitor the 2016 Anniversary in London, as well as the Musée Delacroix, Musée Victor Hugo, Centre National du Costume de Scène, BnF/ Arts du spectacle, Centre National du Livre, Opéra de Paris, MC 93, Maison Jean Vilar and the Avignon Festival… 4 The 2014 project, “Shakespeare: une passion française”, has its source in the poet’s rising influence on writers and artists in France from the 1820s. A weeklong international conference, Shakespeare 450 will gather some four hundred foreign participants, many world-renowned scholars among them, who will question the meaning and impact of his works in their own culture. Over sixty panels, seminars and workshops will confront studies and theories in this most active field of academic research. It will also bring in closer relation academic research centres and cultural institutions involved in the Shakespeare 450 programme through theatrical and operatic productions, exhibitions, readings, and the world premiere of a film in concert (see Cultural Events section). We also expect a large number of PhD students, some of whom will act as hosts and guides during the conference. Also under way, a programme designed for schoolchildren in partnership with higher education administrators will invite classes to devise a theme of study, recreation, reading, performance or exchange with foreign correspondents centred on Shakespeare’s plays. 2014 Conference of the Société Française Shakespeare The conference, exceptionally this year, will spread over a whole week, 21-27 April 2014, alternating keynote lectures, seminars, panels, workshops and roundtables with visits to the various places where special exhibitions and performances will be held in honour of this momentous anniversary. A multilingual website dedicated to past and future celebrations keeps and updates the agenda of events around the world: http://www.shakespeareanniversary.org 5 About the Société Française Shakespeare http://shakespeare.revues.org The Société Française Shakespeare (SFS) is a non-profit professional organization created in 1975 by a group of academics gathered by Jean Jacquot, the founder of musicology and theatre studies at the CNRS (the largest research institution in France). The SFS brings together academics and theatre professionals, including directors, actors, scenographers, authors and translators from around the world, to discuss Shakespeare’s work during an annual conference. Since the creation of the SFS, many directors have attended these conferences, including Guy Rétoré, Antoine Vitez, Peter Brook, Terry Hands, Robert Hossein, Roger Planchon, Gabriel Garran, Marcel Maréchal, Jorge Lavelli, Lluis Pasqual, Daniel Mesguich, Denis Llorca, Jean-Pierre Vincent, François Marthouret, Stuart Seide, Georges Lavaudant, Jane Howell, Stéphane Braunschweig, Philippe Adrien, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Arthur Nauzyciel; actors Sylvia Montfort, Sian Thomas, Patrick Stewart, Philippe Avron, Gérard Desarthe, Brian Cox, Philippe Torreton, Jean-Yves and Eric Ruf; scenographers Yannis Kokkos, Guy-Claude François; writers and critics Valère Novarina, Yves Bonnefoy, George Steiner, Philippe Sollers, René Girard, Bernard Dort; classics specialists Jean-Pierre Vernant, Nicole Loraux, Jean Bollack, Bernard Sichère; theatre head managers Michael Attenborough, Patrick Sommier, as well as Andrew Wade (head of the Voice Department of Royal Shakespeare Company), David Pearce (director of the Rose Theatre), Stanley Wells (editor of the Complete Oxford Shakespeare), Michael Coveney (theatre critic from Whatsonstage.com), Jerzy Limon (founder of the Gdansk Shakespeare Festival)... The Société Française Shakespeare welcomes: • academics from around the world specializing in Shakespeare studies, performance studies, Early Modern English literature and history; • graduate students studying in these fields; • teachers and students interested by Shakespeare or connected topics (the French or European Renaissance, theatre studies, art history, etc.) • theatre professionals • Shakespeare enthusiasts. 6 Cultural Programme 21 APRIL: O THELLO, DIR. ORSON WELLES (USA/Italy/Morocco/France, 93’, 1952, B&W) © 2013 WESTCHESTER FILMS, INC. All rights reserved. A few years after the release of Macbeth in 1948, director Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil) decided to adapt another play by Shakespeare: Othello. The shooting proved chaotic: the first producer abandoned the project, the film had to be unexpectedly recast and a number of financial problems forced Welles to interrupt shooting several times. The result is a stunning adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy. The actor-director, working alongside celebrated decorator Alexandre Trauner, played on the contrasts between light and shadow in each shot of this aesthetically amazing Othello. The film, which was rewarded with the Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival in 1952, has been digitally remastered for this release. Pre-release screening at Le Nouveau Latina 20 rue du Temple, 75004 Paris In partnership with Carlotta Films. 7 22 APRIL: FILM- CONCERT: H AMLET, DIR. SVEND GADE AND HEINZ SCHALL (Germany, 110’, 1921, silent film) Original score by Robin Harris ©Deutsches Filminstitut, Frankfurt. Hamlet by Svend Gade and Heinz Schall World premiere of the original score by Robin Harris (2014), commissioned by the Société Française Shakespeare, performed with Laura Anstee The film will be introduced by Prof. Judith Buchanan (University of York) Auditorium Saint-Germain 4 rue Félibien, 75006 Paris Conference participants are invited to the premiere. Event open to the public, with prior booking. To book tickets: http://www.shakespeareanniversary.org/shake450/cultural-events/hamlet-purchase-tickets/ 8 24 APRIL: I CAPULETI E I MONTECCHI, BY V. BELLINI AND F. ROMANI An opera by Vincenzo Bellini in two acts. Libretto by Felice Romani. Bruno Campanella Conductor Robert Carsen Stage director Michael Levine Sets and costumes Davy Cunningham Lighting Alessandro di Stefano Chorus master Paul Gay Capellio Ekaterina Siurina Giulietta Karine Deshayes Romeo Charles Castronovo Tebaldo Nahuel di Pierro Lorenzo Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus When he adapted Romeo and Juliet, the librettist Felice