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Cyrano de Bergerac (play)
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Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand based on the life of the real Cyrano de Bergerac.
The entire play is written in verse, in rhyming couplets of 12 syllables per line, very close to the Alexandrine format, but the verses sometimes lack a caesura. It is also meticulously researched, down to the names of the members of the Académie française and the dames précieuses glimpsed before the performance in the first scene.
The original Cyrano was Constant Coquelin, who played it over 410 times at Porte-Saint-Martin and later toured North America in the role.
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Encyclopedia
Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand based on the life of the real Cyrano de Bergerac.
The entire play is written in verse, in rhyming couplets of 12 syllables per line, very close to the Alexandrine format, but the verses sometimes lack a caesura. It is also meticulously researched, down to the names of the members of the Académie française and the dames précieuses glimpsed before the performance in the first scene.
The original Cyrano was Constant Coquelin, who played it over 410 times at Porte-Saint-Martin and later toured North America in the role. Richard Mansfield was the first actor to play Cyrano in the United States in an English translation. The longest-running Broadway production ran 232 performances in 1923 and starred Walter Hampden, who returned to the role on the Great White Way in 1926, 1928, 1932, and 1936. He passed the torch to José Ferrer, who won a Tony Award (and a subsequent Academy Award four years later) for playing Cyrano in a 1946 Broadway staging, the highlight of which was a special benefit performance in which Ferrer played the title role for the first four acts and Hampden (then in his mid-sixties) assumed it for the fifth. Other notable English-speaking Cyranos were Ralph Richardson, DeVeren Bookwalter, Derek Jacobi, Richard Chamberlain, and Christopher Plummer, who played the part in Rostand's original play and won a Tony Award for the 1973 musical adaptation. Kevin Kline played the role in a Broadway production in 2007, with Jennifer Garner playing Roxane and Daniel Sunjata as Christian. A taped version of the production was broadcast on PBS in 2009.
The play has been translated and performed many times, and is responsible for introducing the word "panache" into the English language.
Plot summary
Hercule Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, a cadet (nobleman serving as a soldier) in the French Army, is a brash, strong-willed man of many talents. In addition to being a remarkable duelist, he is a gifted poet and is also shown to be a musician. However, he has an extremely large nose, which is a target for his own self-doubt. This doubt prevents him from expressing his love for his distant cousin, the beautiful Roxane, as he believes that his ugliness forbids him to "dream of being loved by even an ugly woman."
Act I — A Performance at the Hôtel Burgundy
The play opens in Paris, 1640, in the theatre of the Hôtel Burgundy. Members of the audience slowly arrive, representing a cross-section of Parisian society from pickpockets to nobility. Christian de Neuvillette arrives with Lignière, who he hopes will identify the young woman with whom he has fallen in love. Lignière recognizes her as Roxane, and tells Christian about her and Count De Guiche’s scheme to marry her off to the compliant Viscount Valvert. Meanwhile, Ragueneau and Le Bret are expecting Cyrano de Bergerac, who has banished the actor Montfleury from the stage for a month. After Lignière leaves, Christian learns of a plot against him and departs to try to warn him. The play “Clorise” begins with Montfleury’s entrance, and Cyrano disrupts the play, chases him off stage, and compensates the manager for the loss of admission fees. The crowd is about to disperse when Cyrano lashes out at a pesky busybody, then is confronted by Valvert and duels with him while composing a ballade, mortally wounding him as he ends the refrain (as promised : he ends each refrain with "When I end the refrain, I draw Blood.") When the crowd has cleared the theater, Cyrano and Le Bret remain behind, and Cyrano confesses his love for Roxane. Roxane’s duenna then arrives, and asks where Roxane may meet Cyrano privately. Lignière is then brought to Cyrano, having learned that one hundred hired thugs are waiting to ambush him on his way home. Cyrano, now emboldened, vows to take on the entire mob single-handed, and he leads a procession of officers, actors and musicians to the Port de Nesle.
Act II — The Poets’ Cookshop
The next morning, at Ragueneau’s bake shop. Ragueneau supervises various apprentice cooks in their preparations. Cyrano arrives, anxious about his meeting with Roxane. He is followed by a musketeer, a paramour of Ragueneau’s wife Lise, then the regular gathering of impoverished poets who take advantage of Ragueneau’s hospitality. Cyrano composes a letter to Roxane expressing his deep and unconditional love for her, warns Lise about her indiscretion with the musketeer, and when Roxane arrives he signals Ragueneau to leave them alone. Roxane and Cyrano talk privately as she bandages his hand (injured from the fracas at the Port de Nesle); she thanks him for defeating Valvert at the theater, and tells him that she is in love with Christian. Roxane fears for Christian’s safety in the predominantly Gascon company of Cadets, so she asks Cyrano to befriend and protect him. This he agrees to do. After she leaves, Cyrano’s captain arrives with the cadets to congratulate him on his victory from the night before. They are followed by a huge crowd, including De Guiche and his entourage, but Cyrano soon drives them away. Le Bret takes him aside and chastises him for his behavior, but Cyrano responds haughtily. The Cadets press him to tell the story of the fight, teasing the newcomer Christian. When Cyrano recounts the tale, Christian displays his own form of courage by interjecting several times with references to Cyrano’s nose. Eventually Cyrano explodes, the shop is cleared, and Cyrano and Christian now become fast friends. When Cyrano tells Christian that Roxane expects a letter from him, Christian is despondent, having no eloquence in such matters. Cyrano then offers his services, including his own unsigned letter to Roxane. The Cadets and others return to find the two men embracing, and are flabbergasted. The musketeer from before, thinking it was safe to do so, teases Cyrano about his nose and receives a slap in the face while the Cadets rejoice.
Act III — Roxane’s Kiss
A few days later, outside Roxane’s house. Ragueneau, having been driven bankrupt, is now Roxane’s steward, and is talking with the duenna. Cyrano arrives, with two theorbo-playing pages (as the result of winning a bet). Roxane then emerges, praising Christian’s supposed eloquence. De Guiche then meets with her alone, trying to arrange a rendezvous before he goes off to war; she refuses, but contrives to have the Cadets remain in Paris. De Guiche leaves, Cyrano returns, Roxane and the duenna then leave, and Cyrano remains to meet Christian and coach him. When Christian does arrive, he refuses Cyrano’s assistance, believing that he can woo Roxane on his own. Roxane soon returns, and Cyrano retreats, leaving a nervously tongue-tied Christian to flounder. Roxane leaves him outside, thoroughly disgusted with his loss of eloquence, and Cyrano re-emerges. Christian begs for his help, and they contrive to have Christian repeat Cyrano’s words to Roxane while she is on her balcony; this changes with Cyrano taking Christian’s place to make it easier. In the course of this, a monk arrives looking for Roxane, and Cyrano sends him in another direction. Cyrano then resumes his wooing of Roxane for Christian, winning Christian a kiss from her. The monk returns, with a note from De Guiche still trying to meet with her; she makes up a new message, that the monk should marry Roxane and Christian. While the marriage is being performed in Roxane’s house, Cyrano delays De Guiche by pretending to be a stranger with a fantastic tale of seven ways of traveling to the moon. (In fact the real-life Cyrano had written The Other World: Society and Government of the Moon, one of the earliest works of science fiction.) When Roxane and Christian emerge as husband and wife, De Guiche then releases the orders to send the Cadet company to battle. Roxane has Cyrano promise to watch over Christian, and make sure that he writes to her.
Act IV — The Gascon Cadets
The siege of Arras. The Gascon Cadets are among many French forces now cut off by the Spanish, and they are starving. Cyrano, meanwhile, has been writing in Christian’s name twice a day, smuggling letters across the enemy lines. De Guiche, whom the Cadets despise, arrives and chastises them; Cyrano responds with his usual bravura, and De Guiche then signals a spy to tell the Spanish to attack on the Cadets, informing them that they must hold the line while relief comes in. Then a coach arrives, and Roxane emerges from it. She tells how she was able to flirt her way through the Spanish lines. Cyrano tells Christian about the letters, and provides him a farewell letter to give to Roxane if he dies. After De Guiche departs, Roxane provides plenty of food and drink with the assistance of the coach’s driver, Ragueneau. She also tells Christian that, because of the letters, she has grown to love him for his soul alone, and would still love him even if he were ugly. Christian tells this to Cyrano, and then persuades Cyrano to tell Roxane the truth about the letters, saying he has to be loved for "the fool that he is" to be truly loved at all. Cyrano disbelieves what Christian claims Roxane has said, until she tells him so as well. But, before Cyrano can tell her the truth, Christian is brought back to the camp, having been fatally shot. Cyrano realizes that, in order to preserve Roxane's image of an eloquent Christian, he cannot tell her the truth. The battle ensues, a distraught Roxane collapses and is carried off by De Guiche and Ragueneau, and Cyrano rallies the Cadets to hold back the Spanish until relief arrives.Cyrano wrote to Roxane three times a day while at war.
Act V — Cyrano’s Gazette
Fifteen years later, at a convent outside Paris. Roxane now resides here, eternally mourning her beloved Christian. She is visited by De Guiche, Le Bret and Ragueneau, and she expects Cyrano to come by as he always has with news of the outside world. On this day, however, he has been mortally wounded. While he arrives to deliver his “gazette” to Roxane, it will be his last. Knowing this, he asks Roxane if he can read "Christian's" farewell letter. She gives it to him, and he reads it aloud as it grows dark. Listening to his voice, she realizes that it is Cyrano who was the author of all the letters, but Cyrano denies this to his death. Ragueneau and Le Bret return, telling Roxane of Cyrano’s injury. While Cyrano grows delirious, his friends weep and Roxane tells him that she loves him. He combats various foes, half imaginary and half symbolic, conceding that he has lost all but one important thing — his panache — as he dies in Roxane's arms.
Movies and other adaptations
Films
Jose Ferrer played the role in the 1950 film version, the first film version of the play made in English. The film, made on a low budget and none of the actors in the film were major Hollywood stars except for Ferrer. Although it was highly acclaimed, it was a box office disappointment and was nominated for only one Oscar - Best Actor - which was won by Ferrer. Mala Powers co-starred as Roxane and William Prince played Christian. This is perhaps the most famous film version of the play.
There is also a relatively unknown French-language black-and-white film version made in 1945, starring Claude Dauphin. Posters and film stills give the impression that the set designs and costumes of the 1950 José Ferrer film may have been modeled on those in the 1945 movie.
Aru kengo no shogai (literally, "Life of an Expert Swordsman"), is an 1959 samurai film by Hideyo Amamoto based on Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac. The movie airs on American TV stations as Samurai Saga.
The 1987 film Roxanne, a contemporary comedy version with a happy ending added, starred Steve Martin as C.D. Bales, Daryl Hannah as Roxanne, and Rick Rossovich as Chris.
The 1990 French movie adaptation with Gérard Depardieu in the title role won several awards.
A pornographic adaptation titled Cyrano, directed by Paul Norman, was released in 1991.
The 1996 film The Truth About Cats & Dogs has a plot reminiscent of this play, but is in no way an adaptation of it.
The Indian movie Minsaara Kanavu (1997) is loosely based on this play.
The movie Bigger Than the Sky (2005) is set around the actors performing a rendition of the play.
In 2007, a contemporary retelling of the tale was made into a movie in Venezuela, with the title Cyrano Fernández. In this case, Cyrano was disfigured and without the large nose. The movie is set in present times.
Television
The first English-language adaptation to be televised was made in 1938 by the BBC and starred Leslie Banks in one of the earliest live television broadcasts.
In 1964, The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo presented a cartoon adaptation of Cyrano.
An episode of the BBC series Blackadder the Third parodies the balcony scene of Cyrano, although the actual episode has nothing to do with the play plotwise.
The Seinfeld episode The Soul Mate appears to parody the balcony scene of Cyrano as Kramer attempts to win over Jerry's girlfriend Pam with Newman supplying the poetry.
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Nth Degree, Dr. Crusher directs a version of this play with Lt. Barclay performing the lead role.
In addition, the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places, is inspired by Cyrano, but with a completely different ending.
In an installment of "Monsterpiece Theater" on the children's show Sesame Street, there is a character named "Cyranose", who substitutes a sword with, appropriately, his exaggeratedly long nose. He has a very hot temper and goes ballistic, swinging his nose in blind rage, everytime someone says the word "nose", as he automatically believes they are ridiculing him.
In the Roseanne episode titled "Communicable Theater", Jackie, while going through a phase of appreciation to fine arts, is assigned to be Roxanne's understudy while playing a minor character in the show, and then has to play Roxanne having not studied the lines when her performer catches the flu.
The January 1995 episode of Boy Meets World entitled "Cyrano" takes the play as its plot and involves two characters winning a girl secretly for another boy.
On the PBS show Wishbone, it was the story featured in the episode "Cyranose".
In the French anime show Code Lyoko the Lyoko gang acts out part of this play at the beginning and end of the episode, Temporary Insanity.
Plays and musicals
Burgess wrote a new translation and adaptation of Cyrano in 1970, which had its world premiere at the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Paul Hecht was Cyrano. Also in the cast were Len Cariou as Christian, and Roberta Maxwell as Roxanna. A later production was the Royal Shakespeare Company's acclaimed 1983 stage production.
In 1973, a musical adaptation by Anthony Burgess, called Cyrano and starring Christopher Plummer, appeared in Boston and then on Broadway. Twenty years later, a Dutch musical stage adaptation was translated into English and produced on Broadway as Cyrano: The Musical. Both the 1973 and 1993 versions were critical and commercial
failures.
In 1973 the Azerbaijani composer Gara Garayev wrote the music The Furios Gasconian, based on a play.
A condensed version of Rostand's play, in prose, was written by the Scottish writer Tom Gallacher and performed at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre around 1977.
A new translation of the play by Ranjit Bolt opened at Bristol Old Vic in May 2007.
This is one of the two plays "performed" during Ken Ludwig's comedic play, Moon Over Buffalo, the other being Private Lives.
Sound & Fury, a Los Angeles-based comedy trio, presented their parody of the play, called Cyranose! in L.A. at Café-Club Fais Do-Do in September 2007. It was also filmed and released on DVD.
Opera
An opera in French, Cyrano de Bergerac, whose libretto by Henri Cain is based on Rostand's words, was composed by the Italian Franco Alfano and was revived by the Metropolitan Opera with Plácido Domingo in the title role.
Victor Herbert wrote an unsuccessful operetta adaptation of the play in 1899. It was one of Herbert's few failures.
Walter Damrosch wrote another operatic adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, which premiered in 1913 at the Metropolitan Opera.
The opera Cyrano by David DiChiera to a libretto by Bernard Uzan premiered at the Michigan Opera Theatre on .
Ballet
David Bintley created a ballet Cyrano for the Birmingham Royal Ballet. The world premiere was on .
There is also a filmed ballet version (in color) from the 1950s.
Books and stories
In 1930, pulp-magazine author Anatole Feldman adapted the play as a Chicago gangland tale. The story, "Serrano of the Stockyards," appeared in the May 1930 issue of Gangster Stories. Cyrano became the fearsome, but homely hood Big Nose Serrano. The plot followed the outline of the play. Serrano was in love with a "frail" named Annie (i.e. Roxanne). He supplied poetry, included in the narrative, to a young friend named Chris (i.e. Christian) who became Annie's suitor. Big Nose belongs to the gang of Charlie LeBrett. Battles are waged with Thompson submachine guns instead of rapiers. The character of Big Nose became so popular that Feldman continued to write of his adventures. Twelve tales eventually appeared in Gangster Stories, Greater Gangster Stories, and The Gang Magazine, through 1935. Feldman had worked in Broadway in the early '20s, and had written a play; this experience may be what inspired him to create Serrano when he later turned to pulp writing.
The Brazilian book A Marca de Uma Lagrima tells the story of a girl, Isabel, who writes love letters to her cousin, Cristiano, in the name of her best friend Rosana.
Music
Frank Langella created a chamber piece simply titled Cyrano.
The Police song "Roxanne" refers to the character from the play.
The Blues Traveler song "Sweet Pain" mentions this play.
The song "Sloppy Love Jingle Pt. 1" by the band Gym Class Heroes references Cyrano.
The song "Cyrano de Berger's Back" by X is based on the play.
The song "Definition" by Talib Kweli and Mos Def references Cyrano in the line "...with the lyrics like I'm Cyrano."
the song "little miss cant be wrong" by the spin doctors references cyrano.
Controversy
It is claimed that Rostand stole the idea for the play from Samuel Eberly Gross, a Chicago real estate developer.
In 1896 Gross wrote a play, The Merchant Prince of Corneville, which was published in Illinois in a limited edition of 250 copies.
In 1902 Gross sued Rostand for plagiarizing this work.
The judge, disregarding Rostand’s defence that he had never seen or heard of Gross’ play, and ignoring the dissimilarities of character, style of writing, humour and plot, found for the plaintiff and granted a permanent injunction against Rostand’s play ever appearing in the USA.
This may or may not still be in force.
Scientific studies
Prof. Stanley Milgram, a while after his famous Submission to authority experiment, made a study about what he called cyranoïds : people talking to somebody else by just repeating with their own voice what they were dictated in discrete inner earphones. This research was quoted by Omni magazine in the late seventies.
Most well-known quotations
Cyrano, talking about his own nose :
"Descriptive: Tis a rock!. . .a peak!. . .a cape!
--A cape, forsooth! 'Tis a peninsular!'"
In French :
"Descriptif : "C'est un roc ! C'est un pic ! C'est un cap !
-- Que dis-je, c'est un cap ! C'est une péninsule !"
The same, prompting to Christian, explaining to Roxane what a kiss means to him :
A kiss, when all is said,--what is it?
An oath that's ratified,--a sealed promise,
A heart's avowal claiming confirmation,--
A rose-dot on the 'i' of 'adoration,'--
A secret that to mouth, not ear, is whispered,--
In French :
Un baiser, mais à tout prendre, qu'est-ce ?
Un serment fait d'un peu plus près, une promesse
Plus précise, un aveu qui veut se confirmer,
Un point rose qu'on met sur l'i du verbe aimer ;
C'est un secret qui prend la bouche pour oreille...
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