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Multimedia conference brings Cocteau originals to Penn State By Celena E. Kusch
Self-portrait of Jean Cocteau on display at Penn State’s Zoller Gallery as part of Cocteau’s World: A Symposium. Carole Weisweiller, author of two books on Jean Cocteau, speaks at the Palmer Museum about her life with the artist during Cocteau’s World: A Symposium. Weisweiller met Cocteau when she was 8 years old and grew up in the house where he spent the last 15 years of his life. During the conference, she shared many personal anecdotes that offer insight into the artist’s life and work. Dave Shelly—University Photo/Graphics A scholar attending the Cocteau’s World symposium at Penn State views photographs of Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso and their families and friends taken at a bullfighting arena. The photos are from the personal collection of Carole Weisweiller, author of two books on the artist and a Cocteau family friend. According to Weisweiller, Picasso was Cocteau’s best friend, and they spent most of his last years together. Curt Krebs—University Photo/Graphics Dr. Maureen Carr, professor of music, and Dr. George Mauner, Cocteau project director and distinguished professor emeritus of art history, meet at the Jean Cocteau exhibit in the Zoller Gallery. Both professors spoke at the interdisciplinary Cocteau’s World: A Symposium, which sponsored the exhibit. Carr’s presentation offered an analysis of the correspondence, notes, manuscripts and scores from the collaboration between Igor Stravinsky and Jean Cocteau on Oedipus Rex. Cocteau wrote the libretto in French, and a Jesuit seminarian translated that text into Latin. During her discussion of Stravinsky’s poetic license with the Latin translation of Cocteau’s text, scholars in attendance discovered in the manuscript excerpts what might be a significant misprint in decades of published versions of the opera. Curt Krebs—University Photo/Graphics Dr. Robert Edwards is director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies at Penn State, which sponsored Cocteau’s World: A Symposium. Dave Shelly—University Photo/Graphics	The atmosphere at this spring’s Cocteau’s World: A Symposium was appropriately international, reflecting the global influence of artist Jean Cocteau, the subject of the three-day event. Cocteau (1889–1963) was a central figure in French and international artistic circles in literature, film, dance, music, drama and the visual arts; his “world” encompassed the creative life of much of the early 20th-century’s avant garde.   In his welcome address, Cocteau Project Director Dr. George Mauner noted that the symposium covered most aspects of Cocteau’s work, a major accomplishment for an academic conference. Mauner pointed to common threads in Cocteau’s versatile artistry, saying, “given Cocteau’s extraordinary range, his efforts are always inspiring. Cocteau considered himself a poet first and foremost, but he maintained considerable cross-media consistency in his stress on the pure line in music, visual art and film, as well,” Mauner explained.   In fact, Cocteau is perhaps most famous today for his achievements in film, especially La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast, 1946). By showcasing Cocteau’s achievements in many media, the conference offered scholars, participants and members of the community a unique opportunity to appreciate a wide variety of his original works and to make new cross-genre analysis of his art.   According to Dr. Robert Edwards, director of the University’s Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies, celebrating and studying the breadth of Cocteau’s work through this conference has important research implications.   “The Cocteau project is, in many respects, a demonstration project for interdisciplinary work in the arts and humanities,” Edwards explained. “Here we have an artist — Cocteau called himself a ‘poet’ in the broadest sense — whose work and influence reach beyond the boundaries of media and genres and beyond the interpretive disciplines that explain them. By bringing experts in various fields together, we can map convergences and significant differences among forms of expression.”   From experts to community members, students and local artists, more than 400 people attended at least one of the conference-sponsored events, including a gallery exhibition of Cocteau’s art and documentary photographs; an archival exhibition of Cocteau first editions and drawings in the University Libraries’ Rare Books Room; public screenings of three of the artist’s films; a program of audio and video recordings of Cocteau interviews, poetry readings and musical presentations; a recital of music by Les Six, composers who saw Cocteau as their spokesperson; video of a Cocteau operatic collaboration; and a number of scholarly lectures. In addition, the conference featured a world-premiere performance of Paul and Virginie, an opéra comique written by Cocteau and Raymond Radiguet.   Edwards praised the program’s wide range of offerings, saying, “This is the kind of program the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies is always eager to put together, because it brings together visual arts, music, literature, languages and a number of other disciplines. It is a collaboration with the institute, several academic colleges, a number of departments, the community of artists and outside foundations, agencies and the special patronage of the French Embassy.   “We owe a great debt to George Mauner who first had the idea to explore the wide range of work of Jean Cocteau,” Edwards added. “George made a number of connections that have made this project exciting, including securing the support of not one but two academic provosts, John Brighton and Rod Erickson, who have been great friends of this project. The project also enjoyed the support of Associate Vice President for Outreach and Executive Director of Continuing Education Pat Book.”   Much of the excitement of the symposium seemed to come from the constant exposure to primary materials, new sources and original works by and about the artist.   “An artist like Cocteau is notoriously hard to inventory,” Edwards remarked, “and so is his reception across many artistic domains. The opportunity to show work never seen in this country (like Carole Weisweiller’s prints and drawings) or to look at other private collections (like Richard Macksey’s bibliographic materials) shows us how much primary scholarly work remains to be done for Cocteau and other modernist figures. And of course, sharing such materials prompts us to reconsider the interpretive structures through which we understand him and his art.”   One of the most important originals presented in conjunction with the symposium was Paul and Virginie. Its production serves as a prime example of scholarship in action.   The libretto for Paul and Virginie was written in 1920 by Cocteau and Radiguet. The music was to have been composed by Erik Satie. Unfortunately, Satie died in 1925, without producing the score, and the work was lost. Fifty years later, a Penn State graduate student introduced the play to Mauner. When he began planning this symposium, Mauner recalled the manuscript and decided to produce an English version of the play. After securing international permissions, he commissioned composer Charles Kalman to write the score and collaborated with him on an English translation. Dr. Helen Manfull, professor emerita in theatre arts, directed the play, and Penn State music and theatre faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, staff and local residents filled the cast.   The play’s world premiere was presented at the Schwaub Auditorium at Penn State under the patronage of His Excellency François Bujon de l’Estang, Ambassador of France to the United States. The Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies and the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State, French Institute/Alliance Française and La Maison Française at the French Embassy sponsored the performances both on campus and at the Théatre Paul Claudel in the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., and in the Florence Gould Hall of the French Institute/Alliance Française in New York City.   “The out-of-town performances of Paul and Virginie and the recital of music by Les Six gave our students, faculty and community members a chance to showcase the high level of talent in the University and the Centre Region,” Edwards commented. “Their work was well received in Washington and New York. They showed not only that they belong in metropolitan venues, but that they have something special to bring to them — flair, ingenuity, freshness and energy. I was particularly pleased by how well Penn State alumni supported our performances in these venues.” An outreach program of the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies
© 2002 Outreach Communications,   Outreach & Cooperative Extension,   The Pennsylvania State University phone: (814) 865-8108,   fax: (814) 863-2765,   e-mail: outreachnews@outreach.psu.edu