Mise en scène (MES)

Musicologists and stage directors are now familiar with the staging manuals (disposizioni sceniche) for Verdi’s later operas, which resulted directly from the composer’s contact with French practice. Yet the French livrets de mise en scène, intended “to provide theatre directors wishing to produce a work […] with its complete mise en scène”, are still little known. The publication – with annotations and illustrations – of a series of stage manuals for important works in the French operatic repertoire, from Auber’s La Muette de Portici (Paris Opéra, 1828) to more modern works – Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande and Ravel’s L’Heure espagnole – will provide researchers and directors alike with a very useful tool, giving access to the original visual, dramatic and decorative elements of Parisian productions (often thought out by the librettist and the composer himself ). Knowing how works were originally staged can be both enlightening and inspiring. These manuals, providing faithful accounts, by men of the profession, of contemporary theatrical works, have much to offer theatre historians and those working in opera.