ROMANTIC THEATER: ORIGIN, CHARACTERISTICS, AUTHORS AND WORKS - ART - 2024

The romantic drama was developed in Europe in the early decades of the nineteenth You century and was part of an artistic movement that rebelled against the neo-classicists (regularity, objectivity, emotion controlled by reason, and others) forms.

This artistic rebellion manifested itself through the liberation of established convention, subjectivity, emotion that dominated reason, and abrupt changes in mood and tone, without any restrictions.

Victor Hugo, representative of French Romancicism and romantic theater

Already from the previous century, European cultures gave the theater an extraordinary relevance, celebrating its social and aesthetic functions. Theaters were laboratories for the creation of new forms and genres.

In general, romantic theater valued the subjectivity of genius, elevated strong emotions above rational restraint, and often sought to embody universal conflicts within individual figures.

Initially, the Romantic theater artists shared the utopian hopes of the revolutionaries. However, especially after the fall of Napoleon in 1815, they became pessimistic and conservative.

Origin

Romanticism as a movement began in the late 18th century in Germany. This coincided with the cultural trends that characterized Europe between the years of the French Revolution and the mid-nineteenth century.

In particular, the movement challenged the exasperated rationalism of the Age of Reason, extolling freedom, the individual, and creativity.

In addition, he found in nature the ideal refuge to escape from everyday reality.

In France, it became a broad protest movement against aristocratic culture and against the neoclassical aesthetics on which that culture was based.

In this way, many writers sought to validate the claims to power of a rapidly rising mercantile middle class, with a moral self-image sustained by the Protestant ethic.

Against what they saw as an increasingly corrupt and parasitic ruling aristocratic class, these writers portrayed characters from humble but deeply sentimental and morally honest origins.

Manifesto of Romanticism

In August 1826, the French poet, novelist, and playwright Victor Hugo began writing a new drama: Cromwell. In the end, he didn't take it on stage; instead, he decided to only read the play to his friends.

However, the Preface to Cromwell was published on December 5, 1827. It contained Victor Hugo's definition of Romanticism.

Its principles revolutionized French drama and would become the manifesto of romantic theater. But also, it marked the beginning of the clash between French classicists and romantics.

In this text, he advocated the end of boring tragedies and regime-friendly poetry, the replacement of tragedy by drama, and the abolition of forced verse.

Triumph of romanticism over classicism

In 1830, the ideological battle between classicists and romantics broke out during the premiere of Victor Hugo's play Hernani. The auditorium became a battlefield between classicists and supporters of the romantic theater.

In itself, it was a struggle for artistic freedom of expression versus aesthetics. Both parties met, one ready to clap, the other to whistle. But, the romantics drowned out the whistles with vigorous applause.

As the play progressed, the classicists began throwing trash and rotten vegetables. There were also screams and even blows.

Then the tirade spread beyond the confines of the auditorium. Duels, fights and debates were fought all over France. In addition, Víctor Hugo received many threats and had to take care of his personal safety.

Nonetheless, Hemani remained on stage for two months. In the end, Romanticism emerged victorious and ruled the Parisian scene for 50 years.

The romantic theater became popular throughout Europe. In nations like Russia, Poland, Hungary, and the Scandinavian countries, the main inspiration was the Shakespearean tragedy.

Characteristics of romantic theater

Nature as inspiration

Nature provided the artists of the Romantic theater with a source of natural genius commensurate with their coherence with the universal flow.

By exploring their own depths, artists get in touch with the fundamental processes of nature. Somehow, they intuited the organic laws of nature.

Thus, romantic artists wanted their creations to mimic the natural, unplanned, and unconscious process of nature.

Searching for answers in the past

The romantics' quest for mythological meanings in the past advanced historiography of the earlier era. The Age of Reason had viewed the present as a step towards a future enlightenment.

However, without the vision of a utopian future, the romantics related all values ​​to their particular moment in history.

Therefore, the romantic theater looked for meaning and answers in the past, considering the problems of the present as only one stage in a continuous process.

Transcendental aesthetics

Romantic theater transcended the values ​​of the moment. Art embodied the ideal and showed reality as pathetic in light of the ideal.

In this context, the aesthetic experience came to represent the most satisfying moment in life and to signify the emotional experience of the ideal.

This momentous vision acquired a physical presence in art. In the presence of the infinite magnificence suggested by art, the emotion could not be contained. Thus, art should seek an emotional response.

Rejection of classical forms

Romantic theater rejected the three units of narration: time, place, and action. The authors wrote without restrictions and used different scenarios.

In addition, they divided the works into acts and used the metric measures that best suited their representations.

Changes in scenery

The stage begins to gain importance, and the decoration changes completely from one play to another, transforming the theater into a different world for each piece. Some works even had special effects.

Aided by new technical advances, theaters competed with each other, trying to outdo each other with increasingly elaborate stages and special effects.

Eloquent and rhetorical language

The language becomes eloquent and rhetorical, and verse and prose are mixed for the first time. Monologues become popular again. These are the best way to express the feelings of each character.

Authors and works

Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

Victor Hugo made vital contributions to Romanticism. His literary works explore man's dual nature of good and evil. Similarly, they address issues of political power and social inequality.

On the other hand, Victor Hugo contributed to literary theory when he defined romantic drama in the preface to his drama Cromwell.

Furthermore, his verse drama Hemani (1831) further ignited the debate between Classicism and Romanticism.

Alfred de Vigny (1797-1863)

In 1829, Alfred de Vigny translated Othello for the Comédie-Française. The romantics of Paris were amazed at the grandeur of Shakespeare's vision.

The play demonstrated the truths expressed two years earlier in Victor Hugo's war cry, the preface to his Cromwell work, which had made him a hero among young French literati.

Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870)

Dumas' first great success was his Henry III and his Court (1829). This one earned him fame and fortune overnight.

From a modern point of view, his works are crude, impetuous, and melodramatic; but they were admired in the late 1820s and early 1830s.

With his Bonaparte (1831), he contributed to making a legend of the recently dead emperor, and in Antony (1831) he brought adultery and honor to the stage.

References

1. Zarrilli, PB; McConachie, B.; Williams, GJ and Fisher Sorgenfrei, C. (2013). Theater Histories: An Introduction. Oxon: Routledge.
2. Hardison Londré, F. (1999). The History of World Theater: From the English Restoration to the Present. New York: Continuum.
3. Hamilton, P. (Editor). (2016). The Oxford Handbook of European Romanticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4. Travers, M. (Editor). (2006). European Literature from Romanticism to Postmodernism: A Reader in Aesthetic Practice. New York: Continuum.
5. Fisher, BD (Editor). (2017) Giuseppe Verdi: Ernani. Boca Raton: Opera Journeys Publishing.
6. Howard Bay, et al. (2018, January 24). Theater. Taken from britannica.com.
7. Kuritz, P. (1988). The Making of Theater History. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
8. Schneider, J. (2007). The Age of Romanticism. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group.
9. Encyclopaedia Britannica (2015, April 27). Alexandre Dumas, père. Taken from britannica.com.