The Evolution of Opera Performance from Scenographic Miracles to the Opera Productions of the Nineteenth Century

"The presentation of the book The Evolution of Opera Performance, from Scenographic Miracles to the Opera Productions of the 19th Century, offers a synthesis of our work as a musical theatre director. Our aim is to stimulate the public’s interest in the opera genre and opera staging, by revealing aspects in the history of opera performance(s), as they have been shaped, century after century, by following the gradual effort and the tireless passion of its creators. Our aims are also to illustrate the original charm and the infinite resources of this genre, which continues to delight the public at large and the knowledgeable even today. Keywords: opera performance, opera staging, liturgical drama, vernacular drama, secular drama, dramatic madrigal, intermedi, the Florentine Camerata, Claudio Monteverdi, comédies-ballets, tragédie en musique, semi-opera, opera seria, the comic opera, opera buffa, ópera comique, ballad opera, Singspiel, tonadilla, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart "

Beyond the libretto

Nowadays both intra- and interlingual surtitles are an inherent element of almost all opera produc­tions and, partly thanks to this technology, opera is now going through a renaissance. The trend of staging operas in a modernised fashion is especially popular these days, but it represents a particu­lar challenge for surtitlers. It is argued in this article that while surtitles accompanying traditional opera productions are usually intrasemiotic, as their source text is just the libretto, modernised productions often have intersemiotic surtitles. The article analyses fragments of surtitles prepared for four different operas staged in the Metropolitan Opera House, Bayerische Staatsoper and Royal Opera House. The result show that while traditionally surtitles provide the viewers with the mean­ing of the libretto, the role of intersemiotic surtitles is much more extended, as they provide the audience with more comprehensive information about the whole opera production.

OPERA DIRECTOR ACHIM FREYER: FRAGMENTS ON METHOD

This article discusses the creative method of the German painter, set designer and operatic director Achim Freyer. The paper deals with structural and hermeneutic analysis of several scenographic and directorial techniques in his opera productions “Don Giovanni” and “Die Zauberflöte” by Mozart, “Parsifal” and the tetralogy “Der Ring des Nibelungen” by Wagner, “Freischütz” by Weber, “Ariodant” by Handel. It explores the questions of corporeality and representation of gender, the embodiment of the unconscious, the use of hyperboles and fragmentation, the citation of cultural signs and aesthetic codes of different genesis. Freyer’s creative method refers to Brecht’s theoretical views on theatre. In these productions the principle of gestus and idea of the dialectical spiral as a basis of drama are realized. The main approach of the article is the investigation of the stage metaphors in Freyer’s productions as the way to accentuate the concepts of the libretto.

Operatic Productions in the Netherlands, 1886–1995: from Printed Annals to Searchable Performance Data

This data paper accompanies the database Operatic productions in the Netherlands, an open dataset containing details on over five thousand opera productions in the Netherlands between 1885 and 1995 extracted from the Annalen van de Nederlandse Opera-gezelschappen (Annals of the Opera Companies in the Netherlands), which appeared in book form in 1996. These data give an extremely rich account of the performance history of operatic works and the personnel involved in their production. Since the original publication lacks a critical introduction, the authors have attempted to reconstruct the origins and systematics of the collection. They also discuss the attributes of the data and the basic data structure in order to give users relevant information to use and restructure the data for their interests. The data structure and metadata classifications are based on an inventory of the classifications used in existing performing arts databases across Europe. This facilitates future connections to other relevant performing arts datasets. The transfer of the Annals into a relational database finally brings out their full research potential.

Flat Bayreuth: A Genealogy of Opera as Screened

Gundula Kreuzer challenges common assumptions about the ‘screenification’ of contemporary opera productions by reconsidering historical screening techniques within staged opera. Beginning with the Baroque picture-frame stage, she highlights how a desire for visual illusion on stage came into conflict with the increasingly complicated array of equipment, scenery, and props required to produce such elaborate scenes. Retracing strategies tested out at Wagner’s Festspielhaus at Bayreuth, she argues that the theatre’s curtain line came to imply an invisible screen with the capacity to organize the various media on the deep stage into a unified whole, a perception fostered by the visual and acoustic environment of the auditorium. Rather than a part of the telos of modernist painting, she highlights this flattened planar format as the outcome of technical and aesthetic conflict, whose legacy proves highly relevant to contemporary experiments with operatic staging.

Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s Work and the Theatre Culture of the 18th Century

The article, for the first time, exami­nes the work of the master of the 18th century Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732—1806) within the context of the theatre culture of that time. Being a student of François Boucher (1703—1770), who was working as a theater decorator for a long time, Fra­gonard from his youth had the opportunity to join the world of theater. The painter’s passion for the stage greatly influenced the thema­tic and figu­rative composition of his works. Early histo­rical pain­tings of Fragonard, such as “Jeroboam Sacrifi­cing to Idols” (1752, School of Fine Arts, Paris), were crea­ted under the influence of Baroque thea­ter and decorative art and opera productions. Undoubtedly, Fragonard’s familiarity with theatre was promoted by his long stay in Italy, where the famous families of theater decorators Bibiena and Galliari was wor­king at that time. The article pays special attention to the process of planning and execution of the painting “The High Priest Coresus Sacrificing Himself to Save Callirhoe” (1765, Louvre), made not without regard to the opera “Callirhoe”, popular in Paris in the 18th century. It was theater that inspired the master to create his famous costume series of “Fantasy Portraits”, one of which depicted Marie-Madeleine Guimard (1743—1816), who not only had posed for the artist, but also ordered him to design her own mansion conceived as a temple of Terpsichore, the Muse of dance. In addition, Fragonard was the author of several panoramic genre paintings conveying the atmosphere of the then popular street theater. Works of this brilliant master exem­plify the relationship of arts that determined the nature of the cultural environment of that era and requires constant attention from modern researchers.

Realism Redux: Staging ‘Billy Budd’ in the Age of Television

Although the term ‘realism’ is frequently deployed in discussing opera productions, its meanings are far from self-evident. Examining four stage and screen productions of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd (1951–66), this article traces how this mode was reworked through television in the mid-twentieth century. Linking theatrical and televisual developments in the UK and the USA, I demonstrate how television’s concerns for intimacy and immediacy guided both the 1951 premiere and the condensed 1952 NBC television version. I then show how challenges to the status quo, particularly the ‘angry young men’ of British theatre and the backlash against naturalism on television, spurred the development of a revamped ‘realistic’ style in the 1964 stage and 1966 BBC productions of Billy Budd. Beyond Billy Budd, this article explores how the meanings of realism changed during the 1950s and 1960s, and how they continue to influence our study of opera performance history.

1935–1936

This chapter details the activities of the American Ballet during their first year at the Metropolitan Opera as well as the start of Balanchine’s career as a Broadway choreographer. The American Ballet met with mixed success in opera productions but also had the chance to present their own ballets. At this time Balanchine took on work for the Broadway stage, including dances for the 1936 Ziegfeld Follies. Soon after he signed on as choreographer for Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart’s new musical On Your Toes. For this musical he created several substantial dance numbers that blended ballet and tap dancing. This work was far more popular than the American Ballet’s controversial production of the opera Orpheus and Eurydice, premiered around the same time. A short-lived “Bach Ballet” inspired by On Your Toes reveals the close connections among these projects and was likely an early inspiration for Balanchine’s ballet Concerto Barocco.