Visit of the exhibition "Corneille, du fleuve aux larmes" as part of the Temps des collections of the Réunion des musées métropolitains Rouen Normandie.
Source of life and symbolic element, water inspires both dramatic authors and contemporary directors. From antiquity to the present day, through the time of Pierre Corneille, the river, the sea and the open sea have ambiguous meanings, synonymous with desire, emotion, escape but also danger to see death. The exhibition explores the different facets of these water theaters from the work of Pierre Corneille, where it arouses actions and emotions. The exhibition will first retrace the representations of the Seine in the 16th and 17th centuries, from the RMM permanent collections, in order to better understand the context in which Corneille lived and wrote his pieces. Then, the theme of the river will be addressed in two themes: «Action!» - the river as the setting but also the engine of the plot – then "Emotion!" - the omnipresence of water in its intrigues and the symbol of tears, which will make it possible to review the great heroines of the playwright. The opera will arrive as a highlight to give to hear «the tears of Chimène», immortalized by Maria Callas in Le Cid (1885), opera by Jules Massenet: «Pleurez, pleurez mes yeux».