USD $152.00
Browse results
Rooted in a range of approaches to the reception of classical drama, the chapters in this book reflect, in one way or another, that Greek and Roman drama in performance is an ongoing dialogue between the culture(s) of the original and the target culture of its translation/adaptation/performance. The individual case studies highlight the various ways in which the tradition of Greek and Roman plays in performance has been extremely productive, but also the ways in which it has engaged, at times dangerously, in political and social discourse.
Series:
Metaforms, Volume: 27
Rooted in a range of approaches to the reception of classical drama, the chapters in this book reflect, in one way or another, that Greek and Roman drama in performance is an ongoing dialogue between the culture(s) of the original and the target culture of its translation/adaptation/performance. The individual case studies highlight the various ways in which the tradition of Greek and Roman plays in performance has been extremely productive, but also the ways in which it has engaged, at times dangerously, in political and social discourse.
Cosmology, Music, Medicine, and Architecture from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century
Plato’s Timaeus inspired a uniquely enduring interest across disciplines. In the centuries between its composition and the seventeenth century, scholars looked to this dialogue for answers to questions about the structure of the universe and how to live a healthy and happy life. They saw cosmology as vital to medicine and ethics; and, for them, harmony in music and architecture facilitated balance in the human soul. The Legacy of Plato’s Timaeus explores how the dialogue transformed the disciplines of cosmology, music, medicine, and architecture, and how new intellectual and cultural developments in turn shaped and re-contextualized interpretations of Plato’s ideas.
Cosmology, Music, Medicine, and Architecture from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century
Plato’s Timaeus inspired a uniquely enduring interest across disciplines. In the centuries between its composition and the seventeenth century, scholars looked to this dialogue for answers to questions about the structure of the universe and how to live a healthy and happy life. They saw cosmology as vital to medicine and ethics; and, for them, harmony in music and architecture facilitated balance in the human soul. The Legacy of Plato’s Timaeus explores how the dialogue transformed the disciplines of cosmology, music, medicine, and architecture, and how new intellectual and cultural developments in turn shaped and re-contextualized interpretations of Plato’s ideas.
The Myth of Hercules and Omphale in the Visual Arts, 1500–1800
Series:
Intersections, Volume: 91
Author:
The book examines the myth of Hercules and Omphale/Iole which became an important topic in the visual arts, 1500–1800. It offers an analysis of the iconography from the perspective of the history of emotions, classical and Neo-Latin philology, reception and gender studies. The early modern inventions of the myth excel in a skilful display of mixed and compound emotions, such as the male character's psychopathology, and of the theatrical performance of emotions by the female character.
The Myth of Hercules and Omphale in the Visual Arts, 1500–1800
Series:
Intersections, Volume: 91
Author:
The book examines the myth of Hercules and Omphale/Iole which became an important topic in the visual arts, 1500–1800. It offers an analysis of the iconography from the perspective of the history of emotions, classical and Neo-Latin philology, reception and gender studies. The early modern inventions of the myth excel in a skilful display of mixed and compound emotions, such as the male character's psychopathology, and of the theatrical performance of emotions by the female character.
The Hero on Stage from the Enlightenment to the Early Twenty-First Century
Series:
Metaforms, Volume: 25
Volume Editor:
Hercules Performed explores the reception of the ancient Greek hero Herakles – the Roman Hercules – on the western stage from the sixteenth century to the present day, focusing on live theatre, including tragedy, comedy and musical drama. Each chapter considers a particular work or theme in detail, exploring the interplay between classical models and a wide variety of modern performance contexts. The volume is one of four to be published in the Metaforms series examining the extraordinarily persistent figuring of Herakles-Hercules in western culture, drawing together scholars from a range of disciplines to offer a unique insight into the hero’s perennial appeal.
The Hero on Stage from the Enlightenment to the Early Twenty-First Century
Series:
Metaforms, Volume: 25
Volume Editor:
Hercules Performed explores the reception of the ancient Greek hero Herakles – the Roman Hercules – on the western stage from the sixteenth century to the present day, focusing on live theatre, including tragedy, comedy and musical drama. Each chapter considers a particular work or theme in detail, exploring the interplay between classical models and a wide variety of modern performance contexts. The volume is one of four to be published in the Metaforms series examining the extraordinarily persistent figuring of Herakles-Hercules in western culture, drawing together scholars from a range of disciplines to offer a unique insight into the hero’s perennial appeal.
Author:
Abstract
In Euripides’ Heracles the chorus has a fundamental role in defending Hercules’ status as a demi-god, yet the old men of Thebes are strangely a lot closer to Amphitryon than to the hero and cannot bear the violence of the madness and retreat in the second half of the play. In this modern version, the violence of the madness is moderated, but the problems related to the status of the hero are no less important. And once again the chorus has a fundamental role, not only by describing the new scenarios of each labour, much like the original chorus, but by poking around and questioning the identity of the hero time and again. As true celebrity journalists the chorus are not by anyone’s side, Hercules ignores them, yet they will have their role until the very end. And, as easily as they were ready to destroy the hero, they will be the ones to announce his true nature. This chapter examines how the chorus is fundamental to the dramatic structure and how it helps the audience to focus on the essential question (both of this play and the Euripides’ original): what is the true nature of the hero?
Author:
Abstract
This chapter focuses on Luigi Riccoboni’s Ercole/Hercule, first staged in Paris in 1717. A peculiar tragicomical rewriting of the events surrounding the death and apotheosis of Hercules, the play stands at the crossroads between different theatrical genres and traditions. The article examines the redevelopment and combining of Classical models (the Senecan tragedies Hercules Furens and Hercules Oetaeus, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Heroides) and the blending of themes, characters and dramaturgical solutions inspired by the tradition of commedia dell’arte.
Author:
Abstract
This chapter will explore Rodosthenous’ 2010 adaptation of Women of Trachis called The Wife of Heracles which was performed at stage@leeds, University of Leeds. Heracles was reimagined as an international footballer superstar while Dianeira was re-envisioned as a hairdressing salon owner. The production took direct inspiration from the 2010 footballer sex scandals which were then contextualised and presented on stage as part of the updated action. Crimp’s Cruel and Tender also shaped some of the language and style of the adaptation. The author will discuss his directorial and adaptation techniques to explore how he used musicalisation, symmetries and improvisation to create a modern world for a contemporary audience.
Author:
Author:
Abstract
Euripides’ use of space has, in many different ways, long been a focus of scholarship on his surviving plays. In recent years, the spatial elements of his Herakles have received some excellent treatments that have been keen to emphasise the variety of spatial forms expressed in and around the city and the eponymous hero. The plural spaces of the play are expressed through the travels of Herakles and his dramatic and gruesome return to his family and to his city, with the communal and domestic spaces of Thebes playing a central role. Two of the most recent anglophone adaptations of the play, Archibald MacLeish’s Herakles (1965) and Simon Armitage’s Mr Heracles (2002), both enjoy playing with the spaces which Herakles inhabits and represents, but they have in common a deliberate programme of replacing or disguising the city, and a distinctive Theban space in some way.
This chapter examines the interplay of space across these three versions and ask what the focus on space in Euripides’ Herakles in recent scholarship can add to the way in which we understand the modern adaptations. And when we have asked these questions, how can the use of space in these two modern adaptations allow us to more keenly appreciate the ways in which Euripides uses a variety of space within this, one of the most troubling and difficult presentations of Herakles in any genre.