Production Aesthetics and Materials

Enhanced attention has been paid in recent decades to opera production history. As staging and design practices evolved from the use of stock sets at the end of the seventeenth century to more detailed, elaborate, and individualistic production plans for Parisian grand opera and other nineteenth-century repertoire—especially Verdi and Wagner—the need to document the mise en scène, in the form of staging manuals and other records, naturally increased. This study examines some of the historical conditions and records of the visual aspects of opera over four centuries, including lighting, scenography, choreography, and stage direction.