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To Grigoris Vaslamatzis
Shortly before New Year's Day, 1897, Edmond Rostand's five-act romantic comedy in verse premiered in the Parisian Theatre de la Porte Saint-Martin; the hero was a somewhat unsung poet of the Louis XIII period called Hercule-Savinien de Cyrano, better known as Cyrano de Bergerac. No one could have anticipated the play's huge success. Yet belle époque audiences were moved and fascinated by it. The following day saw the Parisian press accord a glowing reception to the twenty-nine year-old playwright whose Alexandrines had revived France's glorious heroic past, twenty-seven years after defeat by the Prussians and with the country riven by the Dreyfus Affair (Williams, 1974). Following his subsequent triumph with L'Aiglon, Rostand's status as national poet was confirmed, and he was elected to the Academie Francaise at age thirty-three. But Cyrano de Bergerac transcended the glory and fame of its time and place; it gained worldwide recognition and was staged in various performances. The play's remarkable afterlife continues to this day, almost a century after the playwright's early death on December 2, 1918 (Lloyd, 2002).