Agamemnon in Performance: 458 BC to AD 2004

by Fiona Macintosh, Pantelis Michelakis, Edith Hall, Oliver Taplin

Overview

Aeschylus' Agamemnon, the first play in the Oresteia trilogy, is one of the most influential theatrical texts in the global canon. In performance, translation, adaptation, along with sung and danced interpretations, it has been familiar in the Greek world and the Roman empire, and from the Renaissance to the contemporary stage. It has been central to the aesthetic and intellectual avant-garde as well as to radical politics of all complexions and to feminist thinking. Contributors to this interdisciplinary collection of eighteen essays on its performance history include classical scholars, theatre historians, and experts in English and comparative literature. All Greek and Latin has been translated; the book is generously illustrated, and supplemented with the useful research aid of a chronological appendix of performances.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199263516
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/23/2006
Pages:	502
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Fiona Macintosh is Senior Research Fellow at the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, University of Oxford. Pantelis Michelakis is Lecturer in Classics, University of Bristol, and Honorary Fellow, Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, University of Oxford. Edith Hall is Leverhulme Professor of Greek Cultural History at the University of Durham, and Co-Director of the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, University of Oxford. Oliver Taplin is Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Oxford, and Fellow of the British Academy.

Table of Contents

Introduction1. Agamemnons in performance, Pantelis MichelakisI. In Search of the Sources2. ‘Agamemnon' for the ancients, Pat Easterling3. ‘Striking too short at Greeks': the transmission of ‘Agamemnon' to the English Renaissance stage, Inga-Stina Ewbank4. Clytemnestra versus her Senecan tradition, Edith Hall5. Clytemnestra's ghost: the Aeschylean legacy in Gluck's Iphigenia operas, Susanna PhillipoII. The Move to Modernity6. ‘Agamemnon''s influence in Germany: Goethe, Schiller, and Wagner, Michael Ewans7. Agamemnon: speaking the unspeakable, Margaret Reynolds8. Viewing ‘Agamemnon' in 19th-century Britain, Fiona Macintosh9. OTOTOTOI: Virginia Woolf and ‘the naked cry' of Cassandra, Yopie PrinsIII. The Languages of Translation10. Translation or transubstantiation, J. Michael Walton11. Staging ‘Agamemnon': the languages of translation, Lorna Hardwick12. Pasolini's ‘Agamemnon': translation, screen version, performance, Massimo Fusillo13. The Harrison version: ‘so long ago that it's become a song?', Oliver TaplinIV. The International View14. ‘Agamemnon' in Russia, Dimitry Trubotchkin15. Ariane Mnouchkine and the history of the French ‘Agamemnon', Pierre Judet de la Combe16. The chorus of Aeschylus' ‘Agamemnon' in modern stage productions: towards the ‘performative turn', Anton Bierl17. The Millennium Project: ‘Agamemnon' in the United States, Helene FoleyEpilogue18. Cassandra: the prophet unveiled, Rush RehmAppendix19. ‘Agamemnons' on the database, Amanda Wrigley