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Social theorizing on the operatic stage: Jean‐Pierre Ponnelle's postmodern humanist production of Verdi's La Traviata

1992; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 12; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10462939209359650

1479-5760

Alessandra Lippucci,

Visual Culture and Art Theory

The late French director Jean‐Pierre Ponnelle's postmodern humanist production of Verdi's La Traviata demonstrates that the multivocality of opera lends itself to social theorizing in ways social theory cannot equal. Not only did Ponnelle dramatize the conflict among social theories that lack foundational authority in postmodern discourse, but he also rescued them from their relativist predicament by making them serve his humanist project: expanding the limits of traditionalist and modernist habits of understanding that constrain the possibilities of theory and practice. He attempted to do this by cultivating Barthesean spectators who recognize the role he asks them to play as third observers capable of “nesting” (incorporating) the variety of oppositions he puts before them. This humanist project allowed Ponnelle to cut through the relativism and nihilism commonly attributed to postmodern theorizing and to demonstrate the value of social theories when they are put into principled practice. Like Barthes, Ponnelle believed that revisionist works should be logical, relevant, and say something new. His production actually stages the dynamics of revisionism itself exposing his own interpretive tools in the process. It provokes spectators and social theorists alike to see themselves as directors, or fabricators, of their own interpretations.