From the Score to the Stage
An Illustrated History of Continental Opera Production and Staging
- Contents
- Review Quotes
- Awards

Preface
Acknowledgments
Overture
Competition among Theaters
The First Public Opera House and Andromeda
An Early Theater Technician’s Handbook
A Revolution in Opera Production: Giacomo Torelli, grand sorcier
A Treatise on Stage Machinery
The Opera Impresario: Marco Faustini and Theatrical Competition
German Lands
Lodovico Burnacini: Il Pomo d’oro
France: Jean-Baptiste Lully and the Establishment of the Académie royale de musique
Opera seria: Its Rules and Reforms
Pietro Metastasio, Librettist and Stage Director
New Theaters and Audiences
Stage Design and Production Practices before Galli-Bibiena
The Vanishing Point
Ferdinando Galli-Bibiena, the “Paul Veronese of the Theater”
A New Method of “Viewing Theatrical Scenes at an Angle”
The Spectacle Builds: Jean-Philippe Rameau, Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni, and the Paris Opéra
Lighting the Stage
Gestures and Acting
Directing the Singers
The Great Reform Operas of Christoph Willibald von Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste
Directing and Rehearsing the Opera
Idomeneo, re di Creta
Onstage Movements
Spectacle and New Technology
Stage Lighting
Revolutionary New Light
National Theater in Vienna: The Burgtheater
Private, For-Profit Theaters in Suburban Vienna: The “Freihaus” Theater
German Romanticism
German Theaters: Construction, Personnel, and Production Styles
Performance Conditions
Count Karl von Brühl and Karl Friedrich Schinkel: “Make This the Best Theater in Germany!”
Brühl’s Designer: Schinkel and Die Zauberflöte
Publication of German Stage Designs
Schinkel’s New Theater: A Lost Opportunity
Carl Maria von Weber: “I Won’t Stand for That Schnickschnack!”
The Greatest Romantic Opera: Der Freischütz
Continuing the Change in Theater Architecture: Gottfried Semper and the Dresden Opera House
Chapter Five / 1800–1850: French Grand Opera
L’état, C’est Grand Opéra
The Temple of French Grand Opera
“Coup de Théâtre”: The Boulevard Theaters and Popular Entertainments Challenge the Opéra
Aladin, ou la Lampe merveilleuse: The Opéra and New Technology
The First True Opera Stage Director: Jacques Solomé
The livret de mise-en-scène
A Volcanic Explosion: La Muette de Portici
The Middle-Class Ascendant at the Opéra
The Claque
Romanticism, Robert le Diable, and Grand Opera: “These Are Impossible Things; One Has to See It to Believe It. It’s Prodigious! It’s Prodigious!”
“Nonnes, M’entendez-Vous?” / “Nuns, Do You Hear Me?”
The Phenomenon of Robert le Diable
The Italian Operagoing Public
The Opera House: Center of the Community
Music Publishing in Italy
The Evolution of the Italian Stage Director
Stage Design and Theater Architecture: Polemics and Theory
Alessandro Sanquirico
The Impresarios: “This Infamous Profession”
Domenico Barbaja: “The Prince of Impresarios”
Bartolomeo Merelli: The “Napoleon” of Impresarios
Alessandro Lanari: “Dedicated to Serving the Public”
Lanari, Verdi, and Macbeth
“For God’s Sake, We’ve Already Rehearsed It a Hundred and Fifty Times!”
The Growth of Music Publishing
Grand Opera Houses and New Theater Technology
A New Position: The Technical Director
The Search for Quality: Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi
Wagner and Polemics of the Theater
Staging an Opera from Afar: Lohengrin
Wagner’s Ideal Theatrical Space
Wagner and the Bayreuth Festspielhaus
The First Production in the Festspielhaus: Der Ring des Nibelungen
Icons of Opera Production: Faust and Carmen
Staging Act 1 of Carmen: The Habañera
Verdi and the Fight for Artistic Integrity
The Italian Stage Director and the disposizione scenica
Verdi Stages Aida
The Grand March: “The March Is Very, Very, Very Long. . . . But Don’t Be Terrified”
Theater Architecture and Technology
The Visionary: Adolphe Appia and the Aesthetics of Stage Lighting
Gustav Mahler at the Vienna Hofoper: “For God’s Sake, Why Haven’t the Sets Crashed?”
Mahler and the “Old Order”: The Struggle for Quality
A New Iconoclasm: The Secession and the Theatrical Arts
Mahler’s Artistic Soul Mate: Alfred Roller and Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde: Public Reaction
A Break in the Scenic Traditions: Don Giovanni and the “Roller Towers”
The Premiere and a Tumultuous Reception of Roller’s Don Giovanni: “They Insult the Eyes”
Giacomo Puccini: “Incidents Clear and Brilliant to the Eye Rather Than the Ear”
The Russians Arrive in Paris: Sergei Diaghilev and Boris Godunov
Fyodor Chaliapin: “He Communicates the Life of the Character He Portrays through Singing”
Boris Godunov and Chaliapin’s Techniques
“Also Rosenkavalier! The Devil Take Him!”
The Weimar Republic: A Volatile Mixture of Opera and Politics
A New Style of Production: Die neue Sachlichkeit
Wozzeck: The Staging of a Masterpiece
The Final Iconoclasms before the Deluge
“Kulturbolschevismus”: The Krolloper
Postwar Reconstruction and Politics in Opera Production
New Figures of Influence: The Technical Consultant and the Lighting Designer
The Return of the Festivals: Salzburg and Bayreuth
The Stage Director as a New Star: Innovation or Detriment?
Operatic Acting: Maria Callas
Walter Felsenstein and the Komische Oper
Werkstatt Bayreuth and the Richard Wagner Festival
The 1970s: The Advent of Regietheater
Supertitles: A Better Understanding
New Ideas, New Challenges: Innovative Regietheater, or Eurotrash?
Whither the Future?
Index
Choice Magazine: CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Awards
Won
Association of American Publishers: PROSE Book Award
Won
You may purchase this title at these fine bookstores. Outside the USA, see our international sales information.