Preservation as an Intertextual Practice: Addressing the Documentation of Scenic-Visual Elements in Music Theatre Performances

The act of composing, performing and listening to music has been understood as intertextual. Further expanding the scope of this notion, this article aims to reflect on the preservation of music theatre performances as a practice that encompasses intertextuality in terms of performance documentation. This includes the production of an ekphrastic icono/phono-text, which embraces intertextuality by means of allusion, paraphrase and quotation of different texts such as scores, musicological writings, programmes, audio-visual records, among others, all assuming equal status. The intrinsic nature of music theatre works requires a preservation approach that crosses all areas involved in this performative genre, whether it is music, theatre and dance or movement, which are in themselves scenic-visual elements. The practices of preserving scenic-visual elements transcend musical preservation practices, therefore it is necessary to reflect on them. To illustrate this theoretical assumption, the work Libera me (concert version, 1979) by Constança Capdeville will be analysed, as this work raises discussions on how intertextuality and preservation in the context of music theatre can be related through the notion of ekphrastic icono/phono-text, enabling a connection between past, present and future.