EVAN BAKER TROM THE

Jin Illustrated History of SCOR ( TO THE

Continental Opera Produdion and Staging

s 1 JL GE

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

CHICAGO AND LONDON Contents

List of Illustrations xi CHAPTER TWO Preface xv Acknowledgments xxi 17QO-175Q Overture 1 Perspectives with a New View 39

CHAPTER ONE Opera seria: Its Rules and Reforms, 41 * Pietro 1637-1700 Metastasio, Librettist and Stage Director, 42 * New Theaters and Audiences, 43 * Stage Design and The Beginnings Production Practices before Galli-Bibiena, 44 * The 11 Vanishing Point, 45 * Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena, the "Paul Veronese of the Theater," 47 * A New Competition among Theaters, 12 * Method of "Viewing Theatrical Scenes at an Angle," The First Public Opera House and Andromeda, 15 + 49 * The Spectacle Builds: Jean-Philippe Rameau, An Early Theater Technicians Handbook, 17 • A Giovanni Niccolo Servandoni, and the Paris Opera, Revolution in Opera Production: Giacomo Torelli, 52 * Lighting the Stage, 57 * Gestures and grand sorcier, 20 * A Treatise on Stage Machinery, Acting, 58 * Directing the Singers, 61 23 * The Opera Impresario: Marco Faustini and Theatrical Competition, 26 * German Lands, 29 * Lodovico Burnacini: II Porno d'oro, 30 * France: CHAPTER THREE Jean-Baptiste Lully and the Establishment of the Academie Royale de Musique, 33 1730-1800

Theater for the Greater Public

67

The Great Reform Operas of Christoph Willibald von Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste, 78 * Directing and Rehearsing the Opera, 84 * Idomeneo, re di Creta, 86 * Onstage Movements, 88 * Spectacle and New Technology 89 » Stage Lighting, 89 * Revolutionary New Light, 91 National Theater in Vienna: The Burgtheater, 91 * Private, For-Profit Theaters in Suburban Vienna: The "Freihaus" Theater, 94 VIII CONTENTS

CHAPTER FIVE 1800—1850 1800-1850

Romanticism in Germany French Grand Opera 101 121

German Romanticism, 101 * German Theaters: L'etat, e'est grand opera, 123 * The Temple of Construction, Personnel, and Production Styles, French Grand Opera, 124 + "Coup de Theatre": The 104 * Performance Conditions, 104 * Count Karl von Boulevard Theaters and Popular Entertainments Challenge Briihl and Karl Friedrich Schinkel: "Make This the Best the Opera, 129 * Aladin, ou La lampe merveilleuse: Theater in Germany!" 106 * Briihl's Designer: Schinkel The Opera and New Technology, 132 * The First True and Die Zauberflote, 108 * Publication of German Opera Stage Director: Jacques Solome, 135 * The livret Stage Designs, 108 * Schinkel's New Theater: A Lost de mise-en-scene, 138 * A Volcanic Explosion: La Muette Opportunity, no * Carl Maria von Weber: "I Won't de Portici, 140 * The Middle-Class Ascendant at the Stand for That Schnickschnackl" 113 * The Greatest Opera, 145 The Claque, 149 * Romanticism, Robert Romantic Opera: Der Freischiitz, 114 * Continuing the le Diable, and Grand Opera: "These Are Impossible Change in Theater Architecture: Gottfried Semper Things; One Has to See It to Believe It. It's Prodigious! and the Dresden Opera House, 119 It s Prodigious!" 151 * "Nonnes, m'entendez-vous?" / "Nuns, Do You Hear Me?" 153 * The Phenomenon of Robert le Diable, 157 CONTENTS IX

CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN ; 1800-1850 ]850-1900

Italy, Center of Opera Two Giants, a Devil, and a Gypsy 161 191

The Italian Operagoing Public, 161 * The The Growth of Music Publishing, 192 * Grand Opera House: Center of the Community, 164 » Music Opera Houses and New Theater Technology, 194 • Publishing in Italy, 166 * The Evolution of the Italian A New Position: The Technical Director, 199 * The Stage Director, 167 * Stage Design and Theater Search for Quality: Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Architecture: Polemics and Theory, 169 * Alessandro Verdi, 201 • Wagner and Polemics of the Theater, Sanquirico, 171 * The Impresarios: "This Infamous 201 * Staging an Opera from Afar: Lohengrin, Profession," 172 * Domenico Barbaja: "The Prince of 203 * Wagner's Ideal Theatrical Space, 210 * Impresarios," 173 * Bartolomeo Merelli: The "Napoleon" Wagner and the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, 211 * The of Impresarios, 177 * Alessandro Lanari: Dedicated to First Production in the Festspielhaus: Der Ring des Serving the Public," 181 * Lanari, Verdi, and Macbeth, Nibelungen, 217 * Icons of Opera Production: Faust 181 * "For God's Sake, We've Already Rehearsed and Carmen, 221 * Staging Act 1 of Carmen: The It a Hundred and Fifty Times!" 187 Habanera, 228 * Verdi and the Fight for Artistic Integrity 233 * The Italian Stage Director and the disposizione scenica, 238 * Verdi Stages Aida, 241 * The Grand March: "The March Is Very, Very, Very Long.... But Don't Be Terrified," 246 CONTENTS

CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE 1900-1915 1945-1976

Clearing the Stage Postwar Revolution 153 321

Theater Architecture and Technology, 254 * The Postwar Reconstruction and Politics in Opera Visionary: Adolphe Appia and the Aesthetics of Stage Production, 321 * New Figures of Influence: The Lighting, 255 * Gustav Mahler at the Vienna Hofoper: Technical Consultant and the Lighting Designer, "For God's Sake, Why Haven't the Sets Crashed?" 325 The Return of the Festivals: Salzburg and 264 * Mahler and the "Old Order": The Struggle for Bayreuth, 326 * The Stage Director as a New Star: Quality, 267 * A New Iconoclasm: The Secession and Innovation or Detriment? 327 * Operatic Acting: the Theatrical Arts, 269 * Mahler's Artistic Soul Mate: Maria Callas, 327 * Walter Felsenstein and the Alfred Roller and Tristan und Isolde, 271 • Tristan und Komische Oper, 329 * Werkstatt Bayreuth and the Isolde: Public Reaction, 273 *• A Break in the Scenic Richard Wagner Festival, 335 * The 1970s: Traditions: Don Giovanni and the "Roller Towers," The Advent of Regietheater, 351 274 * The Premiere and a Tumultuous Reception of Roller's Don Giovanni: "They Insult the Eyes," 275 * Giacomo Puccini: "Incidents Clear and Brilliant Epilogue 369 Bibliography 383 to the Eye Rather Than the Ear," 277 * The Russians Index 409 Arrive in Paris: Sergei Diaghilev and Boris Godunov, 285 * Fyodor Chaliapin: "He Communicates the Life of the Character He Portrays through Singing," 290 * Boris Godunov and Chaliapin's Techniques, 290 * "Also Rosenkavalier\ The Devil Take Him!" 292 • The Weimar Republic: A Volatile Mixture of Opera and Politics, 299 * A New Style of Production: Die neue Sachlichkeit, 300 * Wozzeck: The Staging of a Masterpiece, 303 * The Final Iconoclasms before the Deluge, 308 * "Kulturbolschevismus": The Krolloper, 308