Abstract
I wanted to examine Les Noces d'Herodiade: Mystere (The Nuptials of Herodiade: A Mystery Play; published posthumously in 1957), an unfinished work by Stephane Mallarme, a symbolist poet who lived in Paris at the end of the 19th century, and consider the possibility of its performance. It is probably the assertion by Mallarme that Herodiade, which he started work on when he was 22, "is more a collection of poems than a tragedy" that has often caused people to lose sight of the fundamental connection that the work has with theatrical performance. From a reconstruction of the composition process of more than 30 years based on letters and other materials, the poet's own discourses on drama, and an interpretation of the text itself, in a multifaceted way, I show that this work is, in a sense, a musical score for the "festival" that Mallarme envisioned in his final years, and by considering its suitability to the theater, I offer a vision of the stage performance that may one day be realized.
