Adolphe Appia: Theatre Artist - Couverture rigide

Beacham, Richard C.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0521237688 ISBN 13 : 9780521237680

Editeur : Cambridge University Press, 1987

Synopsis

This is a critical evaluation of the work of the Swiss theatre designer and theorist, Adolphe Appia (1862-1928). Appia has long been revered as the most important innovator in the concept and use of stage lighting, but his imagination and work extended far beyond that to embrace fundamental reform of scenic design, the use of theatrical space, and a greatly expanded conception of the nature and limits of theatrical art. Many of his ideas, which were extremely advanced for his time, have now been widely accepted and put into practice, but frequently Appia has not received the credit and attention which he deserves, and much of his most important work remains unpublished, and largely unexplored.

In preparing this book, Richard Beacham has had access to unpublished essays, scenarios and letters, as well as to many relatively unknown designs, here reprinted. He documents the collaboration between Appia and Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, the founder of eurhythmics, which culminated just prior to the First World War in extraordinarily innovative and influential work at the experimental theatre of Hellerau, and marked, in the opinion of many theatre historians, the 'birth of the modern stage'. In addition, Appia's staging of "Tristan und Isolde" at La Scala, and his tumultuous production of Wagner's "Ring" at Basel, are described and analysed in detail to reveal the manner in which Appia meticulously coordinated the diverse elements of theatrical production in order to realise Wagner's dream of a 'total work of art'.

As the most complete account in English of Appia's work, this book will enable students and teachers to have a fuller and more balanced knowledge of one of the major figures in the history of the twentieth-century stage, whose work even Gordon Craig (with whom Appia is often compared) considered to be 'the very noblest expression of the modern theatre''.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Cambridge University Press
• Date d'édition: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0521237688
• ISBN 13: 9780521237680
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 190