Les rapports entre le theatre et la musique dans l'esthetique de Jean Cocteau: Etude de 'Parade' et des 'Maries de la tour Eiffel'

Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), dramatist, cinematographer, poet, artist and novelist, has had an enormous influence on twentieth-century art due to his original creations and his artistic leadership. One of his most important artistic innovations is his multidisciplinary theatre, in which Cocteau invites artists of all domains to join together in the creation of an art form which is poetic, theatrical, musical and choreographic. In these works, Cocteau values the poetic function of each artistic medium, a principle which comes to define a new aesthetic, his "poesie de theatre".;The different arts in the two ballets conjure up very modern themes such as the popular and the everyday, the spirit of the music-hall and of buffoonery, as well as the stereotypical. There are also some major differences between Parade and Les Maries de la tour Eiffel, especially in regards to the works' respective texts and musical scores. These differences embody the various ways used by Cocteau to demonstrate the same innovative theatrical aesthetic.;This interdisciplinary study is based on a parallel examination of critical, literary, theatrical and musical sources, including musical examples, all of which have contributed to the analysis.;This thesis studies the artistic collaboration in two of Cocteau's interdisciplinary works: the "ballet realiste", Parade (1917), danced by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes with choreography by Leonide Massine, music by Erik Satie and set designs by Pablo Picasso, and the "ballet satirique", Les Maries de la tour Eiffel (1921), danced by Rolf de Mare's Ballets Suedois with choreography by Jean Borlin, set design and costumes by Irene Lagut and Jean Hugo and music by Les Six. The relationship between the arts will be examined, with a focus on the role of music, which holds an important place in Cocteau's works, in spite of the fact that he was not a musician. With help of the composers, Cocteau was able to demonstrate the aesthetic vision he recommends in his critical work Le Coq et l'Arlequin. Notes autour de la musique (1918), that of a modern French art, simple and direct, which would be a reaction against the music of Richard Wagner, and the impressionism of Claude Debussy.