Dear all,

I have now worked my way through the suggested secondary sources, but not through RIPM. On the basis of these readings, I concluded that financial constraints, composer-centeredness and the use of dancers to supply the element of 'spectacle' in the operas of the time can help to explain the lack of a 'Spielberg' (or less anachronistically, an Etienne-Gaspard Robertson) in the world of early-nineteenth-century opera. Even when and where money was less of a problem, there were alternative 'spectacular' strategies; for example I think I recall reading that one of Weber's contemporaries used an elephant in one opera.

There is a big debate amongst lanternist historians regarding just how 'believable' magic lantern images were at this time; mostly to do with the so-called 'phantasmagoria' ghost-shows. L. Mannoni, 'The Great Art of Light and Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema' (R. Crangle translation), Exeter, 2000 is a good starting point. However, the NewDNB article on Henry Langdon Childe does stress the sophistication of some lantern effects in this period and so it's still not entirely clear why the 'dissolving view', or the somewhat later 'Pepper's Ghost' effect, weren't taken up in musical drama at a later date.

By the way, limelight (or Drummond light) first appeared in the 1840s; Mike made some refence to this.

My own researches have turned up some other material as well. One particularly interesting reference to a post-1821 staging of 'Der Freischütz' can be found in a letter from Jenny von Westphalen to her fiancee, Karl Marx, which was written in 1841.

It reads 'Commodore Napier has just passed by in his white cloak. One's poor senses fail one at the sight. It strikes me as just like the wolves' ravine in the Freischuz, when suddenly the wild army and all the curious fantastic forms pass through it. Only on the miserable little stage of our theatre one always saw the wires to which the eagles and owls and crocodiles were fastened -- in this case the mechanism is merely of a somewhat different kind.'

The full text is at http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/letters/jenny/1841-jl1.htm

'Our theatre' almost certainly refers to Trier in the Rhineland. The spelling error (Freischuz) appears in the printed English and German sources and may well have disguised the reference from anyone researching the topic of 'Marx and Opera'. But in this context it does reinforce Mike's point that canvasses and models were far more typical as props in the period under consideration.

I rather like Jenny's joke at the expense of the British naval hero, which calls to mind the humour in 'bad' technology that goes back at least as far as the dung-beetle episode in Aristophanes! This in turn reminds me that Karl Marx attended some lectures at Berlin University during this period which were given by the eminent classicist, Carl Eduard Geppert, who published an intriguing book called 'The Ancient Greek Stage' in 1843.

This convoluted chain of allusions now leads me to inquire of the group if there is any evidence that the famous nineteenth-century historical debate about Greek theatre had any impact on the staging of operas? My guess is that the names of Nietzsche and Wagner will come forward at this point, but any other suggestions will be gratefully received.

With best wishes,

Clive

Dr. Clive E. Hill,
Dept. of History,
RHUL

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of developments in opera scholarship [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Rosen
Sent: 15 August 2006 15:31
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Staging 19th Century Opera


Dear Clive,

        E. Douglas Bomberger has a chapter about the staging of _Der Freischuetz_ in the volume edited by Mark Radice, _Opera in Context: Essays on Historical Staging from the Late Renaissance to the Time of Puccini_ (Portland, Oregon, Amadeus Press: 1998).  Malcolm Cole's chapter in the same book touches on the staging of _Die Zauberfloete_.  

Best wishes,

David 

David Rosen
Graduate School Professor of Music
Cornell University