@inbook{f6814d95e3544b5eb200eb72dc4689f3,
title = "Sight Meets Sound: Fifty Years of Musical Scenography at the Op{\'e}ra-Comique",
abstract = "This research identifies, presents and analyses for the first time an area of music theatre history involving and bringing together certain plot characteristics, lighting effects and (sometimes) innovative musical effects. The field is defined by the genre of op{\'e}ra-comique as seen in Paris between 1755 and 1806. An 12-page Appendix provides detailed source materials for inspection. The article first proposes a terminological discussion, since the aspect of scenography under inspection has remained unexplored. After then discussing the evidence to hand, and its implications for stage lighting technique as such, the article proposes and investigates six categories of scenography based on types of dramatic content, and discovers musical characteristics that were associated with certain of them. A six-part set of conclusions complements Roger Savage's explanation of 'a concept of opera involving a carefully monitored synthesis of theatrical arts' prevalent at the time, concerned to 'present a heightened virtual actuality'. ",
keywords = "Paris, 18th century, op{\'e}ra-comique, music, stage lighting, scenography ",
author = "David Charlton",
note = "Eight music examples are transcribed from uncommon or rare opera sources, and one is provided authorially as a music-analytical structure plan. The Appendix provides exerpted transcriptions of theatre texts (dialogue and instructions) drawn from fifty different librettos, 1755 to 1806.",
year = "2011",
language = "English",
isbn = "978-2-503-52781-9",
series = "Speculum Musicae",
publisher = "Brepols",
pages = "37--79",
editor = "Lorenzo Frass{\`a}",
booktitle = "The Op{\'e}ra-comique in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries",
}