NOVERRE, JEAN GEORGES(Noverre, Jean-George) (1727-1810), French artist, choreographer, ballet theorist. Born in Paris on April 29, 1727. A student of Louis Dupre, Noverre made his debut as a dancer in 1743 and worked in various theaters in France, in 1755–1757 in London. Already in these years, Noverre came to the idea of creating a dance performance independent of the opera (of which the ballet had previously been a part). He advocated introducing ballet to a serious subject, creating a performance with developing action and effective characteristics. The main expressive means of Noverre's ballets was pantomime (sometimes danced), more rarely - a developed dance, which in his eyes personified the empty divertissement that dominated the ballet scenes of the previous era. Noverre expressed his ideas for the first time in his work Letters on dance and ballets, published in 1760 in Lyon and Stuttgart. (Later this work was published in 4 volumes in St. Petersburg in 1803-1804.)
Noverre staged over 80 ballets and a large number of dances in operas. Many of his ballets had premieres in Stuttgart (since 1762), where the composer J.-J. Rodolphe wrote music, and in Vienna (in 1767–1776), where the composers K.V. , F. Aspelmeier. In 1776-1781 Noverre led the ballet troupe of the Paris Opera (then the Royal Academy of Music), but met with resistance from the conservative troupe and the regulars of the theater; in the 1780s and 1790s he worked mainly in London.
Noverre's most significant productions are Medea and Jason(music by Rodolphe, 1763), Adele de Pontier(music by Starzer, 1773), Apelles and Campaspe(music by Aspelmeier, 1774), Horatii and Curiatii(based on the play by P. Corneille, music by Starzer, 1775), Iphigenia in Aulis(music by E. Miller, 1793). Most of these performances told about dramatic events and strong passions. Following Voltaire and Diderot, Noverre carried out the idea of obedience to duty on the ballet stage. In some productions, there is also a noticeable attraction to the ideas of the human right to a natural feeling and closeness to nature proclaimed by J.-J. Rousseau ( Belton and Eliza, composer unknown, first half of the 1770s).
In the last years of his life, Noverre was mainly engaged in intellectual work, but the artist's followers staged his ballets throughout Europe (including Russia).
The reforms of Noverre as the creator of effective ballet (ballet d "action) had a decisive influence on the entire further development of world ballet, and some of his ideas have not lost their significance even today: the main ones are the requirement for the interaction of all components of a ballet performance, the logical development of action and characteristics Noverre is called the “father of modern ballet.” His birthday, April 29, is declared international dance day.
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Jean George Noverre(French Jean-Georges Noverre) (April 29, 1727, Paris - October 19, 1810, Saint-Germain-en-Laye) - a great French ballet dancer, choreographer and ballet theorist, creator of ballet reforms. He is considered the founder of modern ballet. His birthday, April 29, has been celebrated by UNESCO since 1982 as International Dance Day.
Among his teachers were the famous French ballet dancer Louis Dupré and the dancer of the Royal Academy of Music François-Robert Marcel.
The first performance took place in Fontainebleau at the court of the French king Louis XV - it was in 1742 or in 1743. After a successful debut, Noverre immediately received an invitation to Berlin from Prince Henry of Prussia. Upon his return to Paris, he was accepted into the ballet troupe at the Opéra-Comique, and soon, in 1748, he married the actress and dancer Marguerite-Louise Sauveur (Fr. Marguerite-Louise Sauveur).
In 1748, when the Opéra-Comique closed again (this was due to the financial difficulties that this theater had repeatedly experienced), Noverre went to the theaters of European cities and performed in Strasbourg and Lyon until 1752, and then left for London, where he spent two years in the troupe of the British actor David Garik, with whom he would remain a lifelong friendship and whom he would call "Shakespeare in dance". While working there, Noverre came up with the idea of creating a separate large dance performance, independent of the opera, in which ballet dance had previously been included in the form of an empty ballet fragment; he thought over serious dance themes and developed dance dramaturgy, coming to the idea of creating a complete ballet performance with developing action and character characters. In 1754 he returned to Paris, to the re-opened Opéra-Comique, and in the same year he created his first large ballet performance, Les Fêtes chinoises (Fr. Les Fêtes chinoises). Then fate again threw him to Lyon, where he lived from 1758 and 1760. There, Noverre staged several ballet performances and published his main theoretical work “Notes on Dance and Ballet” (“French: Lettres sur la danse et les ballets”) - he comprehended all previous ballet experience and covered all aspects of contemporary dance; he developed the theoretical tasks of pantomime, enriching contemporary ballet with new elements, making it possible to conduct an independent plot; he introduced a new ballet term pas d'action - effective ballet; demanding the abolition of theatrical masks from the dancers, he thereby contributed to a greater expressiveness of the dance and understanding it from the viewer; he moved away from ballet as a pretentious dance in itself, which lived in other types of theatrical art, causing sharp criticism from adherents of the old dance principles. He wrote: “The theater does not tolerate anything superfluous; therefore it is necessary to banish from the stage absolutely everything that can weaken interest, and to bring out on it exactly as many characters as are required for the performance of this drama. … Composers, for the most part, still, I repeat, adhere to the old traditions of the Opera. They compose paspiers because Mademoiselle Prevost “ran through” them with such grace, musettes, because they were once gracefully and sweetly danced by Mademoiselle Salle and M. Desmoulins, tambourines, because Mademoiselle Camargo shone in this genre. finally, chaconnes and passacailles, because they were the favorite genre of the famous Dupré, best suited to his inclination, role and noble figure. But all these excellent artists are no longer in the theater ... ". Pantomime became the main expressive means of Noverre's ballets - before him, until the middle of the 18th century. the actors of the ballet-pantomime went on stage in masks, sometimes pantomime even replaced opera arias, but never before Noverre carried its own main semantic load. In Noverre, facial expressions were subordinated to dances, which, in his opinion, should contain dramatic thought.
This great theoretical work subsequently withstood many reprints and was translated into European languages: English, German, Spanish, and then into others. Later, this work was published in 4 volumes in St. Petersburg in 1803-1804. under the title "Letters on Dance" - the book became known and published in Russia thanks to his student Charles Le Pic, invited to St. Petersburg in 1787 as the first dancer, and then a choreographer. Since then, there have been several editions in Russian in Russia, the book has been republished up to the present. The famous Russian-French ballet figure B. Kokhno said many years later about Noverre and Le Pic: “Nover transformed the dance of his era, and his pantomime ballet reached Russia thanks to his student Le Pic.”
In 1760, Noverre was invited to Stuttgart, where he spent seven years and where the outstanding dancer and choreographer, future propagandist of Noverre's creativity and ideas, Charles Le Pic, later became his student. In Stuttgart, the Duke of Charles II of Württemberg, a great connoisseur and lover of the theater, created a free creative environment for the ministers of the arts, which attracted many talented people: musicians, artists, artists. On February 11, 1763, on the birthday of the Duke of Noverre, he staged a ballet to the music of J. Rodolphe, who also lived in Stuttgart, "Jason and Medea", where he embodied his main ballet reforms. Abandoning awkward large wigs and masks that covered the face, Noverre introduced pantomime into ballet for the first time. In the premiere performance, among the main performers were: Nancy Levier (Medea), Gaetano Vestris (Jason), Angiolo Vestris (Creon), Charles Le Pic (Een), M. Guimard (Creuza). This production became revolutionary in choreography and was such a great success that the gradual development of Noverre's reforms began in Europe. Students and admirers who wanted to work with him rushed to him. By 1764, Noverre was directing a troupe of fifteen soloists and a corps de ballet of twenty-three men and twenty-one women.
Seven years later, Naverre moved to Vienna, under the patronage of the future Queen Marie Antoinette, who appointed him the royal choreographer. There, having gained great freedom in staging, he was able to realize his many ideas for reformation in ballet, composing and staging many ballet performances. He himself introduced pantomime for the first time in his ballet "Medea and Jason" ("French Medee et Jason") to the music of J.-J. Rodolphe in 1763. He then staged a large pantomime production in several acts based on the plot of Voltaire's Semiramide. He attracted various composers to cooperate, including Gluck, with whom he created several ballet compositions.
In 1775, Marie Antoinette, having become by this time the wife of the Dauphin, and then, from 1774, King Louis XVI of France, ordered Noverre to come to Paris and appointed him the first choreographer at the Opera House, which was then called the Royal Academy of Music.
Since 1778 - a member of the French Royal Academy of Dances.
In 1776-1781, Noverre headed the ballet troupe of the Paris Opera, but his plans met with resistance from the conservative troupe and theater regulars who did not want to change anything. In 1781, Noverre wrote his developments on the construction of a new hall of the Paris Opera "Comment on the construction of the hall" ("Observations sur la construction d'une nouvelle salle de l'Opéra"). The struggle with the troupe, which did not want to recognize new trends in ballet, took a lot of time and effort; busy with work, Noverre left his post at the Paris Opera (this position was taken by his student and associate Jean Dauberval) and spent the next decade mainly in London, heading the ballet troupe at the Drury Lane Theater.
All this time, wherever he was, he continued to work furiously: he not only staged ballet performances (Noverre staged over 80 ballets and a large number of dances in operas.), He paid great attention to the theory of dance art, developing and developing it. His name became widely known, and he was in correspondence with prominent people of his time, including Voltaire, some letters to which have survived to this day. Noverre began important work on the creation of a ballet dictionary. Around 1795 he arrived at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. There he prepared his dictionary for publication, which he did not have time to complete - on October 19, 1810, he died.
April 29, 1727 - October 19, 1810
great French ballet dancer, choreographer and ballet theorist, creator of ballet reforms
Biography
Among his teachers were the famous French ballet dancer Louis Dupré and the dancer of the Royal Academy of Music François-Robert Marcel.
The first performance took place in Fontainebleau at the court of the French king Louis XV - it was in 1742 or in 1743. After a successful debut, Noverre immediately received an invitation to Berlin from Prince Henry of Prussia. Upon his return to Paris, he was accepted into the ballet troupe at the Opéra-Comique, and soon, in 1748, he married the actress and dancer Marguerite-Louise Sauveur (Fr. Marguerite-Louise Sauveur).
In 1748, when the Opéra-Comique once again closed (this was due to financial difficulties that this theater had repeatedly experienced), Noverre went to the theaters of European cities and performed in Strasbourg and Lyon until 1752, and then left for London. where he spent two years in the troupe of the British actor David Garik, with whom he will remain a lifelong friendship and whom he will call "Shakespeare in dance". While working there, Noverre came up with the idea of creating a separate large dance performance, independent of the opera, in which ballet dance had previously been included in the form of an empty ballet fragment; he thought over serious dance themes and developed dance dramaturgy, coming to the idea of creating a complete ballet performance with developing action and character characters. In 1754 he returned to Paris, to the reopened Opéra-Comique, and in the same year he created his first large ballet performance, Chinese Holidays (French: Les F?tes chinoises). Then fate again threw him to Lyon, where he lived from 1758 and 1760. There, Noverre staged several ballet performances and published his main theoretical work “Notes on Dance and Ballet” (“French: Lettres sur la danse et les ballets”) - he comprehended all previous ballet experience and covered all aspects of contemporary dance; he developed the theoretical tasks of pantomime, enriching contemporary ballet with new elements, making it possible to conduct an independent plot; he introduced a new ballet term pas d'action - effective ballet; demanding the abolition of theatrical masks from the dancers, he thereby contributed to a greater expressiveness of the dance and understanding it from the viewer; he moved away from ballet as a pretentious dance in itself, which lived in other types of theatrical art, causing sharp criticism from adherents of the old dance principles. He wrote: “The theater does not tolerate anything superfluous; therefore it is necessary to banish from the stage absolutely everything that can weaken interest, and to bring out on it exactly as many characters as are required for the performance of this drama. … Composers, for the most part, still, I repeat, adhere to the old traditions of the Opera. They compose paspiers because Mademoiselle Prevost “ran through” them with such grace, musettes, because they were once gracefully and sweetly danced by Mademoiselle Salle and M. Desmoulins, tambourines, because Mademoiselle Camargo shone in this genre. finally, chaconnes and passacailles, because they were the favorite genre of the famous Dupré, best suited to his inclination, role and noble figure. But all these excellent artists are no longer in the theater ... ". Pantomime became the main expressive means of Noverre's ballets - before him, until the middle of the 18th century. the actors of the ballet-pantomime went on stage in masks, sometimes pantomime even replaced opera arias, but never before Noverre carried its own main semantic load. In Noverre, facial expressions were subordinated to dances, which, in his opinion, should contain a dramatic thought.
In order to pass for a brilliant dancer in the first half of the 18th century, only a minimal knowledge of dance technique was required, plus two or three tricks to boot. As such, ballet did not exist in those days, in any case, as an independent art form: at first, dance served as entertainment for high-ranking gentlemen at court, serving between courses, and later performed as an appendix to operatic twists and turns. In addition, ballet elements were present in performances to enhance the dramatic effect. The situation was radically changed by Jean Georges Noverre, whose entire creative life was a struggle with the remnants of the past: a dancer, and later a choreographer, he tried to expel everything superfluous from the ballet and gradually achieved his goal.
The future reformer was born near Paris in 1727, and his birthday, April 29, is today celebrated annually as International (World) Dance Day. He was predicted to have a career at the Paris Opera, but the young dancer failed to get there, and under the patronage of his teacher Louis Dupre, he made his debut at another Parisian theater - the Comic Opera. However, here, 16-year-old Noverre was refused, after which he wandered for a long time, visiting Berlin, Strasbourg, Lyon, until he returned to his hometown. And again there was a failure at the Paris Opera, but an offer was received from the Comic Opera, where he, in the end, took the place of choreographer. Noverre's work did not go unnoticed: the original "Chinese Festivals" and similar works were noted by both the public and critics. And soon the troupe went on tour to London.
The trip to England had a decisive influence on the formation of the choreographer's creative opinion, and a special merit in this belonged to the already elderly John Weaver, who was full of original ideas, but did not find any use for them in the local theater. The young Frenchman greedily absorbed new knowledge, which so corresponded to his worldview. Despite the fact that the communication between the two choreographers was short-lived - the Anglo-French war was brewing - it resulted in the birth of a new ballet, in which words and singing were replaced by "speaking" movements, designed to convey the whole essence and soul of the production.
Further there were experiments. Since Paris would not accept innovation, Noverre began to translate creative ideas into reality in a province that was much more tolerant of such innovations. Having abandoned the masks and costumes inherent in the ballet of those times, the choreographer created several original works, where events developed logically, where all the elements were interconnected, and a couple of years later he wrote the book Letters on Dance and Ballets, which played a significant role in the fate of choreography, and in the life of the author. Stuttgart, where Noverre settled, became a true Mecca for ballet masters throughout Europe, and the new art gained the right to exist.
He worked with Gluck, gave dance lessons to Marie Antoinette, became the director of the Paris Opera Ballet - those few years of his life became triumphant, but he did not have to rest on his laurels for a long time, because the public, brought up on vaudeville, did not want complex and incomprehensible productions, and Noverre left for England. Illnesses, financial difficulties, the fire that occurred in the theater could not but affect the choreographer: he retired, returned to France, and here he only watched how young choreographers put his ideas into practice, often surpassing his wildest aspirations. The one who initiated the revolution in ballet art was rarely mentioned.
Jean-Georges Noverre, who is rightly called the "father of modern ballet", died in 1810 at the age of 81, leaving behind a great creative legacy - giving ballet a ticket to an independent life.
French ballet dancer, choreographer and ballet theorist, creator of ballet reforms. He is considered the founder of modern ballet. His birthday, April 29, has been celebrated by UNESCO since 1982 as International Dance Day.
Noverre came up with the idea of creating a separate large dance performance, independent of the opera, which previously included ballet dance in the form of a ballet fragment; he thought over serious dance themes and developed dance dramaturgy, coming to the idea of creating a complete ballet performance with developing action and character characters. In 1754, he created his first large ballet performance "Chinese Holidays" ("Les Fetes chinoises").
He developed the theoretical tasks of pantomime, enriching contemporary ballet with new elements that make it possible to lead an independent plot; he abolished theatrical masks from the dancers, thereby contributing to greater expressiveness of the dance and understanding it from the viewer; he was moving away from ballet as a pretentious dance in itself, living in other types of theatrical art. He wrote: “The theater does not tolerate anything superfluous; therefore, it is necessary to expel absolutely everything from the stage that can weaken interest, and release exactly as many characters as required to perform this drama. Pantomime became the main expressive means of Noverre’s ballets - before him, Until the middle of the 18th century, the actors of the ballet-pantomime went on stage in masks, sometimes pantomime even replaced opera arias, but never before it carried the main semantic load. This great theoretical work subsequently withstood many reprints and was translated into European languages: English, German, Spanish, and then into others.
February 11, 1763 Noverre staged a ballet to the music of J. Rodolphe, "Jason and Medea", where he embodied his main ballet reforms. Abandoning awkward large wigs and masks covering the face, he introduced pantomime into ballet for the first time. This production became revolutionary in choreography and was such a great success that the gradual development of Noverre's reforms began in Europe.
Prior to Nover in France, dancing on the stage was allowed only as a purely decorative insert into the opera, as an exquisite, elegant, but little content interlude, as a divertissement. Nover argued that the dance should become effective, meaningful and emotionally expressive. The innovative choreographer takes off his masks, demands serious dramatic plots, stage truth. He contrasts entertaining performances with ballet with a sharp dramatic plot, with continuously developing action.
Nover wanted ballet to become an art in the highest sense of the word. He believed that it was possible to create choreographic productions, harmonious and meaningful, only with the interconnection and interaction of all the components of a ballet performance.
Nover took themes for his ballets from ancient literature, history and mythology. At the center of his performances were the subordination of personal aspirations and feelings to the interests of society. Nover's repertoire consisted of one-act and multi-act ballets, pastorals, divertissements. These were tragic, heroic, comedic, heroic-tragic, lyrical, lyrical-dramatic productions. Wishing to convey everything that happens on the stage as truthfully as possible, the choreographer is in charge. He chose pantomime as a means of acting. The dance in his ballets continued the action, developed the plot, and was effective.
Nover's transformations affected both scenery, costumes, and music, as a result of which ballet became an independent theatrical genre.
In the book Letters on Dance and Ballets, the choreographer asserted his aesthetics of ballet art. The book was first published in 1760 in Stuttgart. In our country, it has been translated into Russian more than once and published. The first edition of Russia was published in 1804, the last in 1965.
Nover's reforms were in the spirit of the ideas of the Enlightenment philosophers, the ideologists of the coming French revolution - Diderot, Voltaire, Rousseau. His activities in the ballet theater evoked the approval of these people and the best artists, composers, choreographers of that time.
