Cyrano de Bergerac

This series contains drafts of Burgess's translation and adaptation of Rostand's play, dated 1970-1971 and 1983; two galley proofs for the 1971 edition of Burgess's text, published by Alfred A. Knopf; a copy of Jean-Paul Rappeneau and Jean-Claude Carriere's adaptation of the play, dated 1989; draft subtitles (by Burgess) for the 1990 film of Cyrano de Bergerac, directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau; and two theatre programmes for productions of the play by the Manitboa Theatre Centre and the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1975 and 1998 respectively.

For publicity shots from performances of Cyrano de Bergerac at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, see AB/ARCH/F: Photographic collection.

See also AB/ARCH/A/CYR, Cyrano, the musical.

For his inaugural season as Artistic Director of the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Michael Langham commissioned a new translation of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac from Burgess. Burgess began work on the translation in early 1970 and, by the final weeks of rehearsal in summer 1971, he had also composed incidental music for the play, which opened on 22 July 1971.

Burgess's adaptation was revived by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1985 with Derek Jacobi as Cyrano, and again in 1998 by Antony Sher and Gregory Doran.

In 1990 the first theatrical film version of Rostand's original play in colour was released, adapted by Jean-Claude Carrière and Jean-Paul Rappeneau and starring Gérard Depardieu, Anne Brochet and Vincent Pérez. (Rappeneau also directed the film.) The film was made in French, with subtitles. The English-language subtitles use Burgess's translation of the text.

Open

Records described as being in a fair or poor condition are available to researchers in consultation with the Archivist.

The majority of records within this series are in a good condition, with the exception of one item.