The relationship between gesture, affect and rhythmic freedom in the performance of French tragic opera from Lully to Rameau - Wentz, Jed (Leiden Faculty of the Humanities, 2009)
What was the link, at the Académie royale de musique, between non-musical aspects of period stage craft (such as facial expressions, attitudes and gesture) and rhythmic freedoms in the performance of the music itself? This thesis explores the relationship between contemporary acting techniques and musical freedoms in the performance of the tragédie en musique. By examining acting and rhetorical sources the researcher has attempted to recreate a language of gesture suitable for experimentation in operatic scenes from the genre. Medical sources were consulted in order to understand the broader context of affect and the body within which gesture and musical performance were situated. The researcher proposes that the performances at the Paris opera were far from static representations of the notes on the page, but rather an exciting synthesis of word, music and gesture that strongly stirred the hearts of the listeners.
Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. mr. P.F. van der Heijden, volgens besluit van het College voor promoties te verdedigen op 9 december 2010.