Platée

Rehearsals from November 28th, 2009

What shared rules dictate the scenography of a baroque opera and a classical garden? How do we interpret them anew with our 21st century culture of motion pictures? What lessons can we draw from a landscape scene’s staging in the conception of a topological area designed for people to discover as they walk?

This educational experience was addressed to 3rd and 4th year landscape gardener students as well as motivated 1st year students taking the “History and philosophy of gardens” subject, (20 students), from Versailles’ Ecole national Supérieur du Paysage.

Stage 1

A visit to the Paris Opera’s sets workshops and discovery of the process of making the landscape sets on the afternoon of Tuesday 17th November 2009 at the Bastille Opera.

   

A work session and discussion with the director Laurent Pellyduring a stage rehearsal of Platée on Saturday November 28th 2009. The students drew analytical sketches of the stage – the sets and interaction of the actors – each from a different viewpoint. The aim was to understand how the director had conceived a microcosm, which the spectator would experience from a fixed point and how the the actors move about in such a space.

Stage 2

Transposition of the same exercise into a garden – the country garden of the Petit Trianon in Versailles Park – comparison between the garden’s and the opera’s scenographies in order to pick out potential similarities.

Stage 3

The drafting of a collective project illustrated with in situ drawings, which presents both the experience and the interviews with the different guest participants, for the magazine “Projet de paysage” as well as the making of a documentary about the course followed by the students.