Pierrot
The Pierrot (French translation of the Italian name in the diminutive Pedrolino, German: "Peterchen" or "Peterle") is a male stage character that the pantomime Jean-Gaspard Deburau in Paris since 1816 from the Pedrolino or the Pagliaccio of the Commedia dell 'arte and the Gilles of the Parisian fairground theater . The feminine form of the Pierrot is Pierrette .
history
Figures called Pierrot have existed in French theater since the second half of the 16th century and come from similar masks of the Italian street and fair theater and the commedia dell'arte of the 15th century, which came to France through their groups . Like Brighella , they are rivals of Arlecchino, the later Harlequin . Molière names a rural minor character Pierrot in his comedy Dom Juan ou le Festin de pierre (1665). In the Opéra comique Le Tableau parlant (1769) by André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry , a Pierrot appears as a servant. The older Pierrot as an intriguer and spoiler was still around in the 19th century (see, for example, the Viennese pantomime Der victorious Cupid from 1814). His bossy, sometimes unsympathetic side has been preserved in the white clown of the circus.
Deburau's performances at the Théâtre des Funambules on the Boulevard du Temple in Paris, and above all her reflex in the literature of the time, made his figure world-famous and the modern epitome of Pierrot. Deburaus Pierrot was no longer malicious, but rather pitiful, extremely personable and suitable for amateur roles. He was consciously naive and melancholy, with white make-up and dressed in flowing white robes. He was mute because the theater did not have a license for speaking pieces. Deburau bequeathed his character to his son Charles. The photo of Nadar , taken in 1854 and showing Charles Deburau with a camera, became famous .
In Marcel Carné's film Children of Olympus ( 1945 ), Jean-Louis Barrault plays Deburau (in the film as “Baptiste Debureau” [sic!]) And his Pierrot. Barrault's colleague Marcel Marceau also based his character Bip on Deburau's Pierrot.
The Russian singer Aleksandr Wertinski invented a black Pierrot. Richard Hirzel from Circus Roncalli took the Pierrot as a model for his character Pic .
literature
- Robert F. Storey: Pierrot. A Critical History of a Mask. Princeton University Press, 2nd Edition 1987, ISBN 0-691-10235-X .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Oskar Ludwig Bernhard Wolff: New most elegant conversation lexicon for educated people from all states, Verlag CE Kollmann 1836, 3rd volume, page 482 , at Google Books, last accessed on April 12, 2013.