Adolphe Appia

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Adolphe Appia around 1882

Adolphe François Appia (born September 1, 1862 in Geneva , † February 29, 1928 in Nyon ) was a Swiss set designer and theorist . He is a son of Louis Appia , a co-founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross .

Life

First encounter with the theater

Adolphe Appia was fascinated by the theater from an early age, but was only able to attend a performance at the age of 16 due to his strict Calvinist parents who had a very negative attitude towards theater. This was a production of Charles Gounod's Faust , which he was allowed to visit as part of his music studies (reluctantly allowed by his parents) in the great theater of Geneva, which was considered the most beautiful of its time. But in contrast to the young Ludwig von Bayern , his disillusionment was limitless. Appia was disappointed with the performance, especially the threadbare nature of the perspective, illusionistic set design that was common at the time. This suggested a three-dimensionality that was broken as soon as an actor took the stage. (The actor ultimately plays in a real, three-dimensional space, which, due to the shift in perspective, creates a discrepancy between the actor and the stage design.)

Encounter with the works of Richard Wagner

Appia studied music in Geneva, Paris, Leipzig and Dresden and was particularly impressed by the works of Richard Wagner , who with his later operas created a new art form, musical drama. In addition, Wagner also renewed the theater building with his festival hall in Bayreuth.

The first Wagner performance that Appia saw - while Wagner was still alive - was a production by Parsifal in Bayreuth in 1882. A biographer described this experience as follows:

«He is carried away by the dramatic music, he sees Wagner's musical drama as the drama of the future; he admires the hidden orchestra, the amphitheatrical auditorium and its darkening during the performance. However, the stage appears to him as a huge keyhole through which one discreetly learns secrets that are not meant for one; the Bayreuth decorations, costumes and lighting effects are just as conventional as those in Geneva, despite the greater luxury. "

So it is once again an implementation that was dominated by the perspective set design. That is why Appia felt a stark discrepancy between Wagner's extraordinary work and the rather conventional staging. From then on, he worked intensively on the implementation of Wagner's works. This preoccupation was mainly promoted by his friendship with Houston Stewart Chamberlain , a staunch Wagnerian, who through his contacts gave him access "behind the scenes" of the theater. From 1889 to 1890 Appia was an apprentice in Dresden to Hugo Bähr, the "father of light", who was known for his lighting experiments in German theaters and whose innovations were also used in Bayreuth.

First writings and sketches

In 1891/1892 Appia made director's books and sketches for Wagner's Ring des Nibelungen , the Mastersingers and Tristan and Isolde . On the basis of these sketches, he finally began to formulate theories on stage practice: in 1895 he wrote his first reformist La mise en scène du drame wagnérien , which was followed in 1899 by his main work The Music and the Staging , in which he explored the interplay between the movement of the actor, of space and light. The stage space should appear and be perceptible just as three-dimensional as the body of the actor himself.

Appia claimed that perspective set design dominated theater practice. The actor must always subordinate his movements to the set in order to maintain the illusion it creates, and is thereby essentially restricted. For Appia, the solution to this problem was the establishment of a strict hierarchy: composer - music - actor - stage design. Appia claims that in the work of the composer - playwright (he was mainly referring to Wagner's works) every element of the staging was already preserved. Its music dictates the rhythm "of the staging, while at the same time the libretto dictates the actions required by the actor".

«The actions that are subordinate to the music take place in a certain space (as well as in a certain time), and this space in turn provides the actor with the terrain and the objects that he needs for his movements and gestures . In this way - says Appia - the music, which already controls the time of the performance, also controls the space: through the mediation of the actor, it is transported into the space, as it were, and takes on physical form. "

The space no longer submits to the stage design, but to the intentions of the composer or playwright himself, in that the actor opens it up through the actions required by the libretto. In this hierarchy, the stage design is based on the staging and not the staging according to the stage design. The set itself should consist of three-dimensional objects that can then also be used. Appia, however, did not demand naturalistic sets. The place in the theater should not be a representation of a real place, but rather "the suggestion of an artistically appropriate place created with the simplest means". Appia also made some considerations about the stage lighting. He distinguished between:

  • Diffuse or distributed light: This is a primer and is neutral. Its function is to illuminate the stage area.
  • Formative or creative light: This consists of different, also mobile rays and has the ability to make objects appear on the stage and then disappear again.

In the theater of Appia’s time, the stage was so illuminated by the spotlight that the light no longer had a creative effect, since ultimately no shadows could arise. Instead, the only shadows that were present were those painted on the set. Appia went to Bayreuth with his designs based on such considerations. His friend Chamberlain was able to organize a conversation with Cosima Wagner , but Appia's ideas were rejected.

First staging

In the course of his acquaintance with Countess Renée de Bearn , Appia had the opportunity to put his theories into practice for the first time in 1903. In Paris, in the Countess's private theater, he realized parts of Robert Schumann's Manfred and Georges Bizet's Carmen . The productions, in which Appia mainly worked with a room consisting exclusively of three-dimensional objects and "creative" light, aroused great interest and was a complete success. However, due to a rivalry with the Spanish painter and lighting expert Mariano Fortuny , who also worked in the area around the Countess , there were no further performances. Again Appia was denied access to practical work with theater.

Meeting with Dalcroze

In 1906 Appia met Émile Jaques-Dalcroze . Appia was impressed by his system of rhythmic exercises and saw great potential for the theater in his rhythmic gymnastics . «Appia sensed [...] that rhythmic gymnastics could offer him the solution to a problem he had dealt with earlier: how the temporal can be systematically converted into physicality, musical time and the body movement based on it into three-dimensional Space can be transferred. " Appia was still learning rhythmic gymnastics herself and was able to persuade Dalcroze to expand the flat area in which the exercises took place with stairs and platforms. Finally, Appia designed contrapuntal architectures for the method of rhythmic education, the "Espaces rythmiques" (rhythmic spaces), which with their sharp lines and rigidity contrasted the subtleties of the actors' bodies. Dalcroze understood rhythmic gymnastics, in contrast to Appia, but not “technique or acting” and could only gradually be convinced by Appia of the artistic relevance of his exercises. In 1910 Dalcroze was given the opportunity to found a school for rhythmic gymnastics in the newly founded garden city of Hellerau . Appia was brought in by him as a visual art advisor and was thus able to influence the planning of the festival hall. He also persuaded Dalcroze to create a space instead of the usual peep-show stage, "in which the audience area and the playing area merge and can only be separated from one another by a lowerable orchestra pit". The removal of the separation between the playing area and the auditorium was also a social gesture for Appia. It put the viewer in a new position in which he was no longer a passive consumer, but actively participated in the play - "Theater was no longer an illusion that you looked at, but a real event that you experienced."

Further work

Appia realized performances with Dalcroze in Hellerau near Dresden until 1914 and there designed the large hall of the Jaques-Dalcroze educational institution (today: Festspielhaus Hellerau ). In 1912 he staged the opera Orpheus and Eurydice by Christoph Willibald Gluck in Hellerau. With Arturo Toscanini he brought Tristan and Isolde onto the stage at La Scala in Milan in 1923 and then created sets for Wagner's Rheingold und Walküre .

Quotes

"We no longer want to see things on stage as we know they are, but as we perceive them."

- Adolphe Appia

“Appia gave me the courage to do what I do. It's very important to all of us in modern theater. His theater is architecturally constructed, with an undisguised dynamic and beautiful proportions. Its light for the stage is conceived in terms of architecture, with strong, powerful lines. He has developed a complete vocabulary for the theater. "

- Robert Wilson

«Appia has opened up new avenues for us. He brought us back to greatness and to eternal principles. He was a musician and architect and taught us that the musical duration that envelops, determines and regulates the dramatic plot, simultaneously creates the space in which the plot takes place. "

- Jacques Copeau

In 2006 the first German-language monograph on the stage revolutionary was published.

“Instead of an 'illusion stage' glued together from cardboard, fabric and wire and lit antediluvian, Appia demanded 'rhythmic spaces' in which the music must be the source of the staging; instead of pseudo-reality, he wanted to create a stage space that expanded perception. The effects of these reforms, from Emil Preetorius to Wieland Wagner to Robert Wilson , are better known than Appia's writings themselves. […] It is fascinating to understand that Appia was half a century ahead of its time. Even in the twenties he had to put up with the accusation that the 'Tristan' scene he designed for Toscanini was 'ridiculous, shameful, pretentious and depressing to the eye'. "

- Kurt Mulisch, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, October 10, 2006

Fonts

  • La mise en scène du Drame Wagnerien. Paris 1895
  • The music and the staging. Munich 1899
  • About the Bayreuth Festival Theater. (1902) In: Herbert Barth: Richard Wagner's work in Bayreuth. 1876-1976. Munich 1976 (pp. 99–103)

literature

  • Joël Aguet: Adolphe Appia . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz - Dictionnaire du théâtre en Suisse. Volume 1, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 59 f. (French)
  • Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space . Alexander, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-89581-152-1 .
  • Gabriele Brandstetter / Birgit Wiens (ed.): Theater without vanishing point. Adolphe Appia's legacy: scenography and choreography in contemporary theater. Alexander, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-89581-227-9 .
  • Martin Dreier: Appia, Adolphe. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Nina Sonntag: Space theater. Adolphe Appia's theater aesthetic conception in Hellerau. Klartext, Essen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8375-0627-3 .
  • Edmund Stadler : Adolphe Appia and Bayreuth. In: The case of Bayreuth ( Theater of our time. Vol. 2). Basilius Presse, Basel / Stuttgart 1962, pp. 41–85.
  • Walther R. Volbach : Adolphe Appia Prophet of the Modern Theater: A Profile. Wesleyan University Press, Middletown 1968.
  • Birgit Wiens: Modular Settings and "Creative Light": The Legacy of Adolphe Appia in the Digital Age. In: International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media. Vol. 6 (2010), Ed. 1, pp. 25-40.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space. , P. 22 f.
  2. ↑ Cf. Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: Artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space , p. 23.
  3. ^ Edmund Stadler: Adolphe Appia and Bayreuth. In: Der Fall Bayreuth (Theater of our Time. Vol. 2), p. 41 ff.
  4. ↑ Cf. Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space. , P. 30 f.
  5. ↑ Cf. Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space. , P. 31.
  6. ^ Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space. , P. 43.
  7. ↑ a b c d Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space.
  8. ↑ Cf. Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space. , P. 47.
  9. ↑ Cf. Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space. , P. 63.
  10. ↑ Cf. Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space. , P. 110.
  11. ↑ Cf. Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space. , P. 111 f.
  12. ↑ Cf. Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space. , P. 113.
  13. ^ Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space. , P. 117.
  14. ↑ Cf. Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space. , P. 119.
  15. ↑ Cf. Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space. , P. 120.
  16. ^ Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space. , P. 124.
  17. ↑ Peter Simhandl: Image Theater. Fine artists of the 20th century as theater reformers. Gadegast 1993, p. 16.
  18. ^ Richard C. Beacham: Adolphe Appia: artist and visionary of modern theater: light - stage - space. , P. 128.
personal data
SURNAME Appia, Adolphe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Appia, Adolphe François (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss architect
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Geneva
DATE OF DEATH February 29, 1928
Place of death Nyon