THÉÂTRE ET OPÉRA : UN DIALOGUE INCESSANT
THEATER AND OPERA: A DIALOGUE ENDLESS

Summary/Abstract: This article aims at retracing a brief history of the permanent intersection of the scenic art of theatre and opera from the latter’s beginnings to nowadays performances. The rediscovering of Aristotle’s Poetics at the beginning of the 17th century gave birth to the classic tragedy in France on the one hand and to the Italian Opera on the other. That was also the starting point of a century-long competition between these two scenic arts, trying to find the best alliance of words, music and gesture, so as to transmit human emotions in the best possible way. Becoming more and more expressive and aiming at the highest idea of Beauty an Ideal, during the baroque age, Opera turned into a complex visual art, combining richness of expression and power of fantasy. This evolution also implied the participation of complicated scenic machinery, soon adopted by theatrical performances too. Theatre and Opera shared throughout centuries strict rules concerning the building of actio, leading today to a growing interest of famous theatre stage directors in the artistic conception of opera performances.

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