Performing Arts and Technical Issues

This volume addresses multiple facets of the artistic expression of a live performance, with a particular focus on the technical issues, people, and institutions related to it. Dance, musical theatre, mime, puppetry, and other performing arts are investigated through the lens of their various components, as well as their protagonists — impresarios, companies, designers, conductors and directors. Specific sections of the book are devoted to lighting, scenography and costume design, staging, but also on circus, puppetry, dance, and entertainers. A number of articles are dedicated to single artists: Diaghilev, Massenet, Pacini, Poulenc, Verdi, and Wagner. With contributions by (in alphabetical order): Mathias Auclair, Raphaël Bortolotti, Michael Burden, Maria Birbili, Simone Ciolfi, Francesc Cortes, María Encina Cortizo, Nathalie Coutelet, Petra Dotlacilova, Catrina Flint, Federico Gon, Vesa Kurkela, Jürgen Maehder, Scott Palmer, Bertrand Porot, Manuela Rita, Ramón Sobrino, Valeriya Zharkova.

Roberto Illiano
Preface

Performing Arts: Puppetry, Circus, Dance, Entertainers

Catrina Flint de Médicis
From Provence to Montmartre: Setting the Stage for Maurice Bouchor’s Little Wooden Actors
Bertrand Porot
Les «jeux» des foires au xviiie  siècle: les spectacles d’acrobate
Nathalie Coutelet
Les pantomimes nautiques du Nouveau-Cirque ou les pouvoirs spectaculaires de l’eau
Mathias Auclair
Les «fêtes galantes 1923»: Les Biches et le «festival français» des Ballets russes
Vesa Kurkela
Miscellany and the Great Split: Itinerant Entertainers in 19th-Century Helsinki

Technical Issues: Stage Lighting

Scott Palmer
A Staging Revolution through Light and Music: Adolphe Appia, Wagner and Hugo Bähr
María Encina Cortizo – Ramón Sobrino
Luis París, director de escena en el Teatro Real de Madrid: de la escenografía iluminada a la creación de una poética de la luz escenográfica (1896-1907)
Francesc Cortès
Los proyectos para una renovación escénica del G. T. del Liceu en el cambio de siglo (xix-xx): mirando al futuro
Jürgen Maehder
The Early History of Laser Rays on the Opera Stage: Munich – London – Geneva – (Paris) – Bayreuth

Scenography and Costumes Design

Raphaël Bortolotti
Les décors et machines originaux du théâtre de Feltre: Enjeux techniques d’une scène de province dans l’Italie du xixème  siècle
Valeriya Zharkova
Principles of Creating a Scenic Image in the Opéra-Comique. Theatre in the Last Quarter of the Nineteenth Century
Federico Gon
«…I am satisfied that what is written will be done simply and exactely»: Reflections on «inventing the truth» in Rigoletto’s Staging
Petra DotlaČilová
Visible and Invisible Hands: Costume-Making Practices of Italian Music Theatre in the Early Modern Era

Staging

Simone Ciolfi
‘Verisimilitude’, ‘Simplicity’, ‘Naturalness’: Cultural Background and Performance Strategies of Eighteenth-century Cantata Recitatives
Michael Burden
«Put upon the stage as no opera I have ever seen for truth»: The London Staging of Pacini’s Saffo in 1843
Manuela Rita
Le disposizioni sceniche per Il re di Lahore ed Erodiade: La prassi della messinscena teatrale nel contesto delle relazioni Italia-Francia nella Terza Repubblica
Maria Birbili
Multimediality, Special Effects, and Precursory Film Techniques in the Staging of French grand opéra: The Composer as a Stage Director

Abstracts and Biographies
Appendix
Index of Names