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- Famous names of this period include the Italians Giacomo Torelli and the Bibiena family, whose ingenious settings were unrivaled for originality. A rigid court etiquette dictated that the lines of perspective should provide a perfect stage picture from the point of view of the royal box, which directly faced the stage.
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During the Baroque period, the art and style of the theatre evolved rapidly, alongside the development of opera and of ballet. The design of newer and larger theatres, the invention the use of more elaborate machinery, the wider use of the proscenium arch , which framed the stage and hid the machinery from the audience, encouraged more scenic ...
- Baroque (Disambiguation)
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- Overview
- Baroque theatres and staging
- Court theatres
The combination of two artistic innovations—the formulation of the laws of perspective in the 15th century and the production of the first opera in 1597—provided the foundation for the Baroque theatre, which was to last until the 19th century. During this era all countries were brought into the same orbit, although Italy remained the primary inspir...
The combination of two artistic innovations—the formulation of the laws of perspective in the 15th century and the production of the first opera in 1597—provided the foundation for the Baroque theatre, which was to last until the 19th century. During this era all countries were brought into the same orbit, although Italy remained the primary inspir...
The Baroque architectural style, beginning in Italy and spreading across Europe, dominated theatre building between about 1650 and 1790. Its chief characteristics are refinement in detail of the proscenium stage and of the Renaissance horseshoe-shaped auditorium and seating plan. The innovations of the period were introduced in the private court theatres. As many as five shallow balconies were stacked vertically in the auditorium. For the first time there appeared an orchestra pit in front of the stage, sunk below ground level. The stage floor, which previously had extended only a few yards back from the proscenium arch, was now deepened to accommodate scenery, equipment, and dancing.
With the rise of grand opera and ballet, inventors and designers were called upon to provide increasingly elaborate, portable, perspective scenery and complicated stage machinery, both above and below stage, to effect scene changes (nearly always carried out in full sight of the audience). Famous names of this period include the Italians Giacomo Torelli and the Bibiena family, whose ingenious settings were unrivaled for originality. A rigid court etiquette dictated that the lines of perspective should provide a perfect stage picture from the point of view of the royal box, which directly faced the stage. Since, moreover, the building of theatres was controlled by the ducal or imperial purse, a rigid architectural formalism, varying only in detail, became the fashion, not to be broken until late in the 19th century. The auditorium was planned in tiers, a vertical stratification that reflected the ordering of society by class. A good example is the French court theatre at Versailles (1769), designed by King Louis XV’s architect, Jacques-Ange Gabriel. For a court theatre, its stage is exceptionally well equipped, mechanized in the manner of the Bibiena family, with an overhead pulley system for flying drops and borders, while the flat wings and shutters making up the elaborate scene were mounted on frames attached to carriages that ran on rails beneath the stage and so could easily be changed. Engravings of the time indicate that the court theatres were used for balls, concerts, and the like, as well as for stage performance. Though small, these costly court theatres witnessed the first productions of many operas by composers such as Haydn and Mozart, and they also played an important part in fostering the development of classical ballet.
The history of theatre charts the development of theatre over the past 2,500 years. While performative elements are present in every society, it is customary to acknowledge a distinction between theatre as an art form and entertainment, and theatrical or performative elements in other activities.
Jacques-François Blondel published one of the first attacks on Baroque theatre designs, and especially on boxes, in 1771. But by this time there already had been numerous examples of more democratic arrangements of audience spaces, ironically in court theatres, where rulers were increasingly interested in avoiding rivalries.
Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-81) One of the leading playwrights of Spain's Golden Age, known for his autos sacramentales, one-act religious plays. Pierre Corneille (1606-84) French dramatist and poet, one of the dominant figures in the evolution of seventeenth-century neoclassical drama.
Learn how Ancient Greek drama inspired a collaborative art form that reimagined theatre through song. Review a short list of pioneering composers who helped shape opera into what it is today. Experience quick “trips” to opera’s three famous homelands: Italy, France, and England.
Court Spectacle in Stuart England … 410. Theater in Golden-Age Spain … 411. The French Stage at the Beginning of the Baroque … 414. Neoclassicism in Seventeenth-Century Paris … 416. The Legacy of Corneille, Racine, and Molière … 418. Theater and Stagecraft in Italy … 422. Restoration Drama in England … 425.
