Theater Festivals, Total Works of Art, and the Revival of Greek Tragedy on the Modern Stage

Abstract

In the last century and a half, the performance reception of Greek tragedy has been more widespread and varied than in any other similar period since the Wfth century BC. One could argue that, despite all its popularity in previous centuries, the revival of Greek drama on the modern stage was established as a cultural practice only with the consolidation of the modern nation-states in the second half of the nineteenth century. Greek tragedy was reinvented within institutional frameworks that today we can easily recognize as mod- ern, namely schools and universities, and professional and avant- garde theater. It is therefore hardly surprising that the study of the reception of Greek drama on the modern stage is usually based on categorical—and hierarchical—distinctions between such frameworks. For instance, scholars often privilege the reception of Greek tragedy in avant-garde theater for its critical approach to contemporary cul- ture. 1 Nor is it surprising that the performance history of Greek tragedy remains largely a history of national traditions. 2 The aim of this chap- ter is to explore some of the aesthetic and ideological forces that informed the reinvention of ancient drama in an institutional frame- work that does not quite Wt into the dominant categories of contem- porary theater practice and historiography. Theater festivals, and more speciWcally the festivals that emerged in the last two decades of the nineteenth century and up until the outbreak of the Second World War, have a historical signiWcance that has escaped the attention of scholars working within rather than across national and generic bound- aries. In their large-scale revival of Greek tragedy, theater festivals proved to be an international as well as national phenomenon. To de - velop a comparative perspective on this dramatic phenomenon, it is