Reconnecting the Romantic Opera Repertoire: The Forgotten Stage Photographs of the Grand Théâtre de Gand
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Reconnecting the Romantic Opera Repertoire: The Forgotten
Stage Photographs of the Grand Théâtre de Gand
Bruno Forment
Fontes Artis Musicae, Volume 66, Number 4, October-December 2019, pp.
336-352 (Article)
Published by International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation
Centres
For additional information about this article
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/743955
[ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ]RECONNECTING THE ROMANTIC OPERA
REPERTOIRE: THE FORGOTTEN STAGE
PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE GRAND THÉÂTRE
DE GAND
Bruno Forment
INTRODUCTION
The desire to capture and relive the ephemeral is timeless, yet arguably few eras were
as preoccupied with and successful in launching new technologies for audio and image
recording as the nineteenth century. Between Nicéphore Niépce’s héliographies of the
1820s and the Lumière Brothers’ first film screenings in the 1890s, via the phonautograph,
phonograph, and gramophone, there lies a period of intense experimentation that pro-
duced one technological innovation after the other. The time-based performing arts ben-
efited significantly from each advance in this field, with many an artist distributing audio-
visual simulacra of her- or himself, if not becoming a captain of industry 1.
Evidently, each recording technology had its limitations. For example, the low sensi-
tivity and long exposure times of the earliest photographic sheets and emulsions impelled
posers to sit or stand frozen before the camera for tens of seconds, if not minutes, helped
by neck braces and arm rests2. Even shots of purportedly “authentic” operatic scenes
were as a rule composed on a small studio surface against miniature scenery, lit by day-
light and reflecting panels3. Photoshopping avant-la-lettre, in the guise of trimming and
Bruno Forment holds degrees in music theory, musicology and theatre studies (Ph.D., University of Gent,
2007). Thanks to BAEF and Fulbright grants, he was a visiting fellow at the University of Southern California.
He is the author and editor of (Dis)embodying Myths in Ancien Régime Opera (2012), Theatrical Heritage:
Challenges and Opportunities (2015), and Swansong of an Illusion: The Historical Stage Sets of the Municipal
Theater of Kortrijk (2016). He has also published essays in, among others, Cambridge Opera Journal, Eighteenth-
Century Music, Staging Verdi and Wagner (Brepols, 2015), and Carmen Abroad (forthcoming). His work has been
awarded by the Schweizerische Musikforschende Gesellschaft and the Province of Western Flanders (Heritage
Prize for Research, 2017). He is currently a Research Fellow at the Orpheus Institute, where he investigates the
artistic potential of libraries, while teaching at the Royal Conservatoire of Ghent and the Catholic University of
Leuven. An earlier version of this essay was read at the 20th Biennial International Conference on Nineteenth-
Century Music, Huddersfield, 3 July 2018. The author wishes to thank Bruce Alan Brown for his helpful com-
ments, as well as Hendrik Defoort and the staff at the Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent for their always helpful
assistance. Digitisation of the photograph collection discussed in this article was financed with a grant from the
Research Fund Flanders (FWO).
1. An example here is Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, whose enhancement of Niépce’s photographic tech-
nique, the daguerréotype, postdates Daguerre’s activity as stage designer and creator of dioramas.
2. See Laurence Senelick, “Theatricality Before the Camera: The Earliest Photographs of Actors”, in Euro-
pean Theatre Iconography, ed. Christopher Balme, Robert Erenstein and Cesare Molinari (Rome: Bulzoni, 2002),
317–30.
3. See Rémy Campos and Aurélien Poidevin, La scène lyrique autour de 1900 (Paris: L’Œil d’or, 2011), 29–36..
Curious instances are the stereographs of clay figurines in mock sets as discussed in Evan Baker, “Photographic
Images of French Grand Opéra: Documentation of Nineteenth-Century Theatrical Production”, in Meyerbeer and
Grand Opéra from the July Monarchy to the Present, ed. Mark Everist (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016), 251–66.
336RECONNECTING THE ROMANTIC OPERA REPER TOIRE 337
retouching, was often applied to obtain artful, idealised compositions which now demand
utmost caution from those in search of “faithful” iconographic documents.
Indoor performance photography was long considered unfeasible due to the limited
brightness of gaslight and the extreme flammability and explosiveness of available mag-
nesium flash powders, but also because of a lack of any moments of complete standstill on
stage. Around 1850, the Swiss banker and amateur photographer Jean-Gabriel Eynard
(1775–1863) came the closest to photographing theatrical art when making four daguer-
réotypes of backdrops by the Milanese artist Alessandro Sanquirico at his private theatre
in Geneva4.
It must have been no little enthusiasm, then, that welcomed Georges Mareschal and
Georges Balagny’s successful photography of a full-blown theatrical spectacle at night: La
chatte blanche at the Parisian Théâtre du Châtelet, around Christmas 1887 5. In divulging
the results of the experiment in the popular science periodical La nature, Mareschal ex-
plained how a combination of electric arclights and flexible, gelatin-coated pellicle paper
had pushed exposure times below two seconds, resulting in clear images of 24 cm x 18 cm
(see Figure 1)6. Since the audience could not be disturbed with camera flashes, Mareschal
had picked apotheoses from La chatte blanche, at which actors and dancers stood frozen
for a relatively long time while receiving applause. However, Mareschal and Balagny had
no access to a photomechanical technique with which visual evidence of the test shoot
could be printed directly in the article; readers of La nature had to put their trust in an en-
graved facsimile, with the original photographs appearing only in 1906 7.
Judging from the spate of photo-illustrated journals, programs, and postcards that
emerged from the 1890s onwards, the potential of Mareschal and Balagny’s pioneering
work did not go unnoticed8. Besides providing welcome new sources of income to the the-
atrical and publishing industry, indoor photography also filled a practical need on the pro-
ducer’s behalf, as Mareschal suggested:
The results obtained at the [Théâtre du] Châtelet are of interest, not merely from a photographic
point of view, but all the more so from the theatre’s perspective, enabling one to preserve a faith-
ful reproduction of the ensembles of a piece’s principal tableaux in the director’s archives9.
4. The photographs can be consulted online at https://www.europeana.eu (accessed 17 August 2019).
5. Georges Mareschal, “La photographie au théâtre”, La nature 16 (1888): 93–94. La chatte blanche is a féerie
in three acts and twenty-two tableaux by Théodore and Hippolyte Cogniard that premiered at the Théâtre-
National (formerly Cirque) of Paris on 12 August 1852. The Théâtre du Châtelet’s new production premiered on
2 April 1887.
6. The pellicle paper in question had been invented by Balagny, the author of a Traité de photographie par les
procédés pelliculaires (1890) and future pioneer of colour (autochrome) photography. The paper was manufac-
tured by the Lumière Brothers under the brand name Étiquette bleue extra rapide. Georges Mareschal, “La
première photographie au théâtre”, La revue théâtrale 5 (1906): 1388, adds further details on the experiment, re-
porting that both the footlights (rampe) and the overheads (herses) had Jablochkow arclights installed to provide
sufficient illumination.
7. Mareschal, “La première photographie”.
8. For example, 1895 saw the appearance of Le photo-programme, which boasted “la reproduction pho-
tographique des scènes remarquables de l’Ouvrage représenté”. This Parisian periodical was quickly supplanted
by Le théâtre (1898), L’art du théâtre (1901), and Comœdia (1907).
9. See Mareschal, “La photographie au théâtre”, 94: “Les résultats obtenus au Châtelet présentent de l’in-
térêt, non seulement au point de vue photographique, mais encore au point de vue du théâtre ; ils permettent en
effet de conserver dans les archives de la Direction la reproduction fidèle des ensembles des principaux tableaux
d’une pièce”.338 FONTES AR TIS MUSICAE 66/4
Fig. 1. One of Mareschal and Balagny’s photographs of La chatte blanche (Paris, 1887) as repro-
duced in La revue théâtrale (1906). Note the six arclights complementing the footlights.
Documenting performance had become a pressing issue by that time. The previous
decades had witnessed the arrival of “mise en scène” as a driving force of theatrical
art 10. The discourses of couleur locale, archeological realism, and social naturalism had
prompted a shift from generic productions, demanding multi-purpose costume and stage
sets, to dedicated stagings using more idiosyncratic materials. As Émile Zola put it in his
seminal essay Le naturalisme au théâtre (Naturalism in the Theatre, 1881), “exact” set-
tings helped actors embody their roles and spectators suspend their disbelief:
An exact decor, for instance a salon together with its furniture, garden plants and ornaments, im-
mediately posits a situation, tells the world where one is located and what the characters’ habits
are. How actors are at ease in it, as if living the life they should live! It’s an intimate place, a nat-
ural and charming corner. I know that, for one to be able to appreciate all of that, one must love
to see the actors live, rather than play, the piece11.
10. This development is dealt with extensively in Evan Baker, From the Score to the Stage: An Illustrated
History of Continental Opera Production and Staging (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013); Roxane
Martin, L’émergence de la notion de mise en scène dans le paysage théâtral français (1789–1914) : études sur le
théâtre et les arts de la scène (Paris: Garnier, 2014).
11. Émile Zola, Le naturalisme au théâtre (Paris: Charpentier, 1881), 86: “Un décor exact, un salon par ex-
emple avec ses meubles, ses jardinières, ses bibelots, pose tout de suite une situation, dit le monde où l’on est,
raconte les habitudes des personnages. Et comme les acteurs y sont à l’aise, comme ils y vivent bien de la vie
qu’ils doivent vivre ! C’est une intimité, un coin naturel et charmant. Je sais que, pour goûter cela, il faut aimer
voir les acteurs vivre la pièce, au lieu de les voir la jouer”.RECONNECTING THE ROMANTIC OPERA REPER TOIRE 339
If stock sets had done the trick until the early nineteenth century, the decades following
the 1820s witnessed a profusion of exteriors and interiors in every imaginable period style
or geographical variant, as inflating scenic directions testify. The arrival of a more stable
repertoire, authorial authority, and coercive instruments such as copyright and staging
manuals, furthermore, urged impresarios to present picture-perfect replicas of acclaimed
stagings12.
The move towards more idiosyncratic productions contributed to the growth of the-
atrical stocks, at least in those venues that could afford to keep up with the trend. Even
so, flexibility and modularity continued to be the norm in stage matters: sets were disas-
sembled after each show into rollable drops, framed set pieces, and three-dimensional
props that could, whenever necessary, serve newly combined ensembles. This complex
practice sparked demand for mnemonic aids with which stage managers could keep track
of growing collections of scenery and combinations thereof. What they needed was an
easy and yet reliable method with which the appearance and composition of a stage set
could be captured and retrieved. Which method could answer this need better than a pho-
tograph, taken inside the auditorium?
Would this have been the rationale for the Belgian city of Ghent (Gent) in commis-
sioning, in 1900, the local photographer Bernard Jacobs to photograph the scenery be-
longing to the city’s (mostly) Francophone opera house, the Grand Théâtre de Gand?
Completing the task in 1911, Jacobs produced 144 unique snapshots, glued into six al-
bums that resurfaced only recently. The photographs offer vital documentation of roman-
tic opera, representing operatic sets designed between 1840 and 1911 by major decorators
from Paris, Bayreuth, Milan, and elsewhere.
Besides publicising this fascinating collection, this article aims to provide interpretative
keys to future investigations of early stage photographs. From a productive point of view,
I will argue that Jacobs’ shots sharpen our view of romantic opera in a material sense,
documenting scenic routines that were common all over the globe and that thus defined
the “image” of the genre before the arrival of modernist staging. On the other hand, I will
show how comparative iconographic analysis, supported by archival research, advances
our understanding of a vital development in nineteenth-century music and theatre—the
formation of a canon of regularly performed works13. By capturing “the repertoire” at a
certain venue within a specific timeframe, historical stage photographs document operatic
reception in ways insufficiently recognised by modern opera scholars. For Jacobs’ pho-
tographs demonstrate how nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century operas were, in spite
of naturalism, conceived of as pieces of an organically growing puzzle, shaped by substi-
tutable works, roles (emplois) and scenic elements that contradict today’s production
standards.
12. See Giuseppina Carutti, “Duncano muore: un pensiero sulle disposizioni sceniche da Verdi a Puccini”, in
Museo teatrale alla Scala 1880–1930: momenti della messa in scena, ed. Giuseppina Carutti et al. (Milan: Ghezzi,
1977), 3–19; H. Robert Cohen and Marie-Odile Gigou, “La conservation de la tradition scénique sur la scène
lyrique en France au dix-neuvième siècle : les livrets de mise en scène et la Bibliothèque de l’Association de la
régie théâtrale”, Revue de musicologie 64 (1978): 256–67; Michaela Peterseil, “Die ‘Disposizioni sceniche’ des
Verlags Ricordi: ihre Publikation und ihr Zielpublikum”, Studi verdiani 12 (1997): 133–55; Stefano Baia Curioni,
Mercanti dell’opera: storie di Casa Ricordi (Milan: il Saggiatore, 2011), 116.
13. See Emmanuel Pedler, “L’invention du “grand répertoire”. Processus d’institutionnalisation et construc-
tion des canon lyriques contemporains : le cas de Aïda”, Le mouvement social 208 (2004): 166–79.340 FONTES AR TIS MUSICAE 66/4
The Quandaries of Stage Photography
The Ghent City Council had contacted Bernard Jacobs already in the autumn of 1889
with a view to photographing the Grand Théâtre’s sets. Two years earlier, the city had
printed a sixty-two-page (exclusively textual) register of all sets, stage furniture, and props
available at the Grand Théâtre; it must have wished to complement that booklet visually14.
Jacobs held a test shooting towards the end of 1889, a mere two years after Mareschal’s
experiment. As Henriette Marion’s German troupe was playing the venue that season
(31 September 1889 to 31 March 1890), the very first photography session at the Grand
Théâtre involved German scenery designed by Friedrich Lütkemeyer (1842–1912) for
a German opera, Viktor Nessler’s Der Trompeter von Säkkingen (The Trumpeter of
Säkkingen)15. Things did not go so smoothly as regards the photographic experiment, for
although electric stage light had been recently introduced at the Grand Théâtre16, Jacobs
failed to produce satisfactory shots. In a letter accompanying his (lost) proofs (see
Appendix 1), the photographer mentions exposure times of up to thirty-five seconds, un-
less the auditorium lights could be dimmed, arclights installed on a balcony, closer to the
stage, and the darkroom set up on the first balcony, near the camera. Quite understand-
ably, Ghent refused to grant these conditions, paid Jacobs’ bill and postponed the project17.
A new opportunity for stage photography in Ghent arose in 1898, as Jan Blockx enjoyed
a huge success with his Herbergprinses (Princess of the Inn, originally for Antwerp, 1896)
in French translation (La princesse d’auberge). Display photos of the sets for Blockx’ opera,
in particular of the “Grande Place de Bruxelles” (Grand Square of Brussels) used in the
second act, were seen as especially desirable if Blockx and his Parisian publisher, Heugel,
hoped to see future stagings retain the opera’s Flemish couleur locale18. Alas, the plan to
hold a shoot of La princesse d’auberge was called off due to the composer’s inability to
cover the expenses for moving the scenery in and out of the theatre19.
The plan to photograph inside the Grand Théâtre only came to fruition in October 1900.
That month, the city requested a quotation from Jacobs for pictures in the format used by
14. Administration communale de Gand, Inventaire des décors, meubles de scène etc. du Grand Théâtre (Ghent:
Annoot-Braeckman and Hoste, 1887), henceforth referred to as Inventaire. A copy of the booklet survives at the
Ghent University Library, shelf mark BIB.G.020120.
15. Prosper Claeys, Histoire du théâtre à Gand (Ghent: Vuylsteke, 1892), 412: “L’un des décorateurs les plus
renommés d’Allemagne, Lüttkemeyer de Cobourg, peignit pour le Trompette de Säkkingen un magnifique dé-
cor représentant un panorama du Rhin. Il peignit pour les Maîtres chanteurs une splendide vue de ville ainsi
qu’un charmant intérieur, et pour la Walkyrie un rideau de nuage transparent d’un effet entièrement nouveau”.
Lütkemeyer was a rival of the Coburg decorators that furnished scenery to the Bayreuth Festspielhaus and
Meiningen ensemble, Max and Gotthold Brückner. The acquisition of his scenery is documented in Ghent,
Stadsarchief, Archief Gentse Opera [henceforth referred to as AGO], 816. His Rhine view was eventually pho-
tographed, albeit after 1900 (see Appendix 2).
16. The Grand Théâtre’s auditorium was only electrified in 1905.
17. AGO 816, letter dated 18 November 1889: “Monsieur [Jacobs], Nous avons l’honneur de vous informer
que le Collège [of Aldermen] a décidé de ne pas donner suite provisoirement à ton projet de faire prendre les
photographies des décors du Grand Théâtre. Nous vous prions de nous faire parvenir, en double, dûment ap-
prouvé, le compte du travail fait”[.]
18. On 11 January 1898, the Walloon city of Verviers sent Ghent a letter requesting rental of the iconic set..
Ghent reacted negatively because its backdrop was too large to be transported, measuring 14 m x 10 m, with the
remainder of the set consisting of regularly used flats.
19. Blockx’ letter mentioning the operational costs of moving the scenery is dated 22 July 1898: “Je com-
prends fort bien que les frais de placement de décors en ce moment seraient à ma charge, mais je vais deman-
der à mon éditeur s’il ne peut attendre pour faire photographier le décor de « Princesse d’auberge » jusqu’à la
saison d’ hiver”. (AGO 928) Two sets for La princesse d’auberge were photographed after 1900 (see Appendix 2).RECONNECTING THE ROMANTIC OPERA REPER TOIRE 341
Mareschal, 24 cm x 18 cm20. Jacobs followed up in the following eleven years, working at
a flat rate of five Belgian francs per set of two prints (roughly i35 or £30 today)21. His re-
sulting 144 scene photos must have been used intensively in the early decades of the twen-
tieth century; after the 1950s, however, the pictures lost their practical use together with
the scenery they represented. Jacobs’ legacy, as a result, has escaped the attention of his-
toriographers22. In 2014, however, an emeritus professor in theatre history donated six
uniformly bound volumes, entitled Décors du théâtre – ville de Gand, to the Ghent Univer-
sity Library, upon which the author of this article began research on the photographs23.
Each of the six tomes contains twenty-four sepia photographs, numbered and mounted on
thick cardboard bearing the dry stamp of Jacobs’ company. Wear on the covers and bind-
ings suggests intense use of the registers, as do various traces inside. A typed, Dutch-
language index was added to each cover in the 1940s or ‘50s24, while the albums contain
occasional annotations in ink, pencil, or ballpoint, sometimes on the photographs them-
selves. Further testifying to the volumes’ regular use, 130 production shots from the 1940s
and ‘50s have been pasted over Jacobs’ photographs with adhesive tape25.
In the absence of the scenery itself 26, Jacobs’ surviving photographs constitute a rare
primary resource for the study of operatic performance, and not just in early-twentieth-
century Ghent. In fact, closer analysis of the images in corroboration with archival
sources, such as Ghent’s scenic inventory from 1887 and administrative documents held
at the Ghent City Archives, reveals that the sets photographed by Jacobs cover a time span
of seventy-one years (1840–1911), with a major number of them happening to be the work
of the most sought-after set designers of the nineteenth century.
Romantic Opera on Camera
The 1887 inventory of the Grand Théâtre’s scenery indicates several items as origi-
nating from “l’ancien théâtre”, i.e., the Sint-Sebastiaansschouwburg, in which the Grand
Théâtre operated until 1836 27. The most conspicuous rubric in this respect pertains to
Giacomo Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable (Robert the Devil), which enjoyed its Ghent premiere
20. AGO 829, letter dated 19 October 1900.
21. Ibid., letter dated 22 October 1900. Five days later, a rival of Jacobs, the Établissement Photographique
Constant D’Hoy fils, sought to hijack the order, claiming “[c]e genre de travaux” to constitute one of the com-
pany’s specialties.
22. None of them appears in the illustrated literature on the Ghent opera: Guy Verriest, Het lyrisch toneel te
Gent: van de oorsprong af tot op heden (Ghent: Kommissie voor Kulturele Aangelegenheden, 1966); Ibid., Het
lyrisch toneel te Gent 1965–1980 (Ghent: Provinciebestuur Oost-Vlaanderen, 1981); Luc Demeester and Birgit
Waeterloos, eds., De Opera van Gent: het “Grand Théâtre” van Roelandt, Philastre en Cambon. Architectuur-
interieurs-restauratie (Tielt: Lannoo, 1993); Evelien Jonckheere, Aandacht! Aandacht! Aandacht en verstrooiing in
het Gentse Grand Théâtre, café-concert en variététheater, 1880–1914 (Leuven: Universitaire Pers Leuven, 2017).
23. Personal e-mail communication by Veerle Van Conkelberge, 25 September 2014.
24. Dutch (Flemish) became the official administrative language of the Grand Théâtre in 1940.
25. The reader is invited to leaf through the albums at https://lib.ugent.be/en/catalog?q=décors+du+théâtre
+-+ville+de+gand, accessed 17 August 2019. The most recent production shots date from Vina Bovy’s director-
ship of the Ghent Opera (1947–55).
26. Some of Ghent’s painted sets were destroyed as late as 1979–80, as stated in Verriest, Het lyrisch toneel
te Gent 1965–1980, 44, and confirmed in a personal e-mail communication by Alain de Coster, 18 June 2009.
27. Inventaire, 4 (no. 12: “Quatre châssis obliques dont deux cabinets” and “Trois plafonds” of the “Chambre
rustique”), 7 (no. 21: “Quatre châssis d’église”, “Un petit rideau de fond d’église”, “Deux châssis de terrain de
l’église”, and “Trente lampes antiques” for the “Fond d’église” in Robert le diable, Act 5), 13 (no. 28bis: “Palais à
Colonnades dorées”), 15 (no. 36: Le Comte Ory, Act 1), 17 (no. 43: Robin des Bois [Der Freischütz], Act 2), 18 (no.
47: Le dieu et la bayadère), and 19 (no. 55: Fernand Cortez).342 FONTES AR TIS MUSICAE 66/4
in 1835, in sets furnished by the opera’s original decorator, Pierre-Luc-Charles Ciceri.
Ghent’s director at that time, Mézeray (first name unknown), had arranged with Vieillard
Duverger, publisher of the mise en scène of Robert, to duplicate the Parisian staging from
183128. As had happened at the Parisian Opéra, however 29, Ciceri’s sets for Ghent had been
destroyed and substituted with newer exemplars by 1900—save for one portion, which
was transferred from the old to the new Grand Théâtre and still reported as being in ex-
istence in 1892: the Act 5 interior of the Cathedral of Palermo, consisting of four flats,
a drop, two ground rows, and thirty old lamps 30. Yet, since the popularity of Robert le dia-
ble had waned by 1900, Jacobs did not care to photograph one of the most influential op-
eratic productions of the romantic era. The same unfortunate conclusion applies to other
staging materials from the 1820s and 1830s, which had continued to exist until 1887 at
the least, but were no longer considered sufficiently relevant for photography: Gaspare
Spontini’s Fernand Cortez (staged 1823–24), Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz (1826)
and Gioachino Rossini’s Le Comte Ory (1828–29).
What Jacobs did capture on camera, by contrast, is part of the Grand Théâtre’s first-
generation scenery as painted by two of the most important decorators of the July
Monarchy—Humanité-René Philastre (1794–after 1853) and Charles-Antoine Cambon
(1802–1875)31. Philastre and Cambon had begun to conquer the Belgian scene in 1834 with
the decoration and (still preserved) equipment of Antwerp’s Théâtre Royal32, as well as
with the scenery for Daniel François Esprit Auber’s Gustave III at the Grand Théâtre de
Gand. Four years later, the duo beat their former master, Ciceri, by grabbing the com-
mission for the Grand Théâtre’s decoration and scenic equipment 33. As part of this presti-
gious order, Philastre and Cambon furnished sixteen stock sets or “décors de repertoire”,
which would survive the nineteenth century through regular repair and retouching 34.
28. AGO 753. In 1832, Ciceri had already repainted two of his sets for Robert le diable for the Théâtre Royal
of Liège; see Jules Martiny, Histoire du théâtre de Liège depuis son origine jusqu’à nos jours (Liège: Vaillant-
Carmanne, 1887), 204.
29. Three new stagings had replaced the original Robert in the course of the nineteenth century, see Nicole
Wild, Décors et costumes du XIXe siècle. Tome I: Opéra de Paris (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France –
Département de la musique, 1987), 230–32; Rebecca Wilberg, The Mise en Scène at the Paris Opéra-Salle Le
Peletier (1821–1873) and the Staging of the First French Grand Opéra: Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable (Ph.D. diss.,
Brigham Young University, 1990), 292.
30. Inventaire, 7 (no. 21); Claeys, Histoire du théâtre à Gand, 2:382–83: “Le rideau du fond du dernier tableau
(l’Église) a été conservé et sert aujourd’hui encore”.
31. On Philastre and Cambon, see among others Sylvie Chevalley, “L’atelier Philastre et Cambon et la
Comédie-Française”, in Anatomy of an Illusion: Studies in Nineteenth-Century Scene Design (Amsterdam:
Scheltema & Holkema, 1969), 13–18; Pierre Lootens, “Humanité-René Philastre (1794–1848) en Charles-Antoine
Cambon (1802–1875): levensschets”, in De Opera van Gent, 50–51; Nicole Wild, “De decors van Philastre en
Cambon”, in De Opera van Gent, 68–75.
32. Jerome Maeckelbergh, “The ‘Bourla’ in Antwerp: Machinery from 1834 on the Brink of Dismantling?”,
in Theatrical Heritage: Challenges and Opportunities, ed. Bruno Forment and Christel Stalpaert (Leuven: Leuven
University Press, 2015), 149–64.
33. The activity of Philastre and Cambon in Ghent is documented in AGO 754 (Gustave III ) and 764 (stock
sets, 1837–38).
34. They are: “Salon riche ouvert [dit Louis XV]”, “Salon riche fermé [dit Renaissance]” (restored by Devis,
Lynen and Fontaine, 1882), “Salon fermé simple [jaune, autrefois bleu]”, “Chambre de Molière”, “Chambre rus-
tique” (restored by Beernaert-Léonard and Peeters, 1879), “Grande mansarde fermée” (original design in Paris,
Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra [hereafter BMO], Esq. Cambon 135), “Palais romain riche” (restored by Jean-
Baptiste Lavastre, 1879), “Place publique” (restored by Devis and Lynen, 1887), “Prison”, “Campagne” (restoredRECONNECTING THE ROMANTIC OPERA REPER TOIRE 343
Fig. 2. The ‘Chambre de Molière’ (1840) is one of the eleven stock sets by Philastre and Cambon
that Jacobs photographed between 1900 and 1911. It represents the décor ouvert, a set built
up from pairs of frontal flats in grooves, oblique flats posed in between the wings, horizontal
borders, and a two-part shutter. The box set (décor fermé ) would soon render this setup
obsolete for the depiction of interiors.
No fewer than eleven of Philastre and Cambon’s generic sets can now be identified in
Jacobs’ photographs on the basis of morphological details mentioned in invoices and the
1887 inventory of Ghent’s scenery, and of stylistic similarities with surviving designs by
the two artists preserved at the Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra in Paris. The shots reveal
intensely used and slightly outdated scenery, relying on combinations of frontal and
oblique wings (châssis géométraux and obliques), two-part shutters ( fermes) and painted
furniture (see Figure 2) for its optical illusion. By the early-twentieth century, irregularly
placed “book flats” (bipartite frames, one part of which was positioned frontally, another
in an obtuse angle) had replaced symmetrical, frontally placed wings, with three-
dimensional practicables and props affording more acting possibilities.
While, in the early-1900s, several spectators balked at the sight of “antiquated” sets35,
present-day opera historians relish photographs of fifty-one stagings from the heyday of
by Lavastre, 1879), “Forêt couverte”, “Jardin” (restored by Lavastre, 1879), “Hameau”, “Site sauvage”, “Effet de
neige”, and “Palais gothique de la Renaissance” (restored by Beernaert-Léonard and Peeters, 1879; by Devis and
Lynen, 1895). Documentation on the restoration of these sets is held at AGO 801, 803–805 and 824.
35. See for that matter Géronte (real name Jules Guéquier-Dutry), Le Grand Théâtre de Gand de 1891 à 1904
(Ghent: Van Goethem, 1905), 209: “Notre théâtre a été doté par Philastre et Cambon de décors magnifiques,
mais ces décors ont subi des ans l’irréparable outrage : les uns sont usés, troués, d’autres ont été gâtés par de
maladroits restaurateurs. Leur mode de plantation d’ailleurs est souvent incompatible avec la façon dont se règle
la mise en scène contemporaine”.344 FONTES AR TIS MUSICAE 66/4
Fig. 3a. Jean-Baptiste Lavastre’s Act 2 set for Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette (1872) represents an
advanced stage of romantic scenography, characterised by practicable (usable) surfaces
and a picturesque, asymmetrical disposition of flats. Comparison with Lavastre’s drawing
at the Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra (Fig. 3b) shows the photographed setting to be
configured slightly incorrectly: the flat depicting the Capulet’s house on the viewer’s
left was to be placed in an angle, rather than frontally.
grand opéra and opéra-comique (see Appendix 2), in particular since the fires of the
Parisian Opéra (Salle Le Peletier, 1873) and its storage facilities (1861 and 1894), as well
as of the Opéra-Comique (second Salle Favart, 1887), prevented many of them from being
captured on camera. The photographed stagings include several whose premieres had
been decorated by Philastre and Cambon, Ciceri, and fellow artists: Guillaume Tell (Paris,
1829–Ghent, 1840), Lucie de Lammermoor (1835–1840), La juive (1835–1841; see Figure
4), and Les Huguenots (1836–1841)36. The Jacobs albums also cover later stagings that
followed closely upon the heels of Parisian premieres: a Faust painted in 1860, one year
after Gounod’s first version for the Théâtre-Lyrique; a Roméo et Juliette (1872; see Figures
3a and 3b), and Hamlet (1873) by the master decorator Jean-Baptiste Lavastre (1834–
1891), sketches for which survive at the Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra in Paris37; and one
36. Philastre and Cambon’s scenery for Paris would probably not have survived the age of stage photogra-
phy anyway, since all productions for the Salle Le Peletier were replaced after the 1870s by larger versions for
the Palais Garnier. A notable exception is Desplechin and Lavastre’s “Salle du festin” for Don Juan (1866), Act 5,
scene 1, which was photographed by Roger Pic as late as 1959.
37. The Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra holds Lavastre’s designs for Roméo et Juliette, Act 2 (Esq. Despléchin
43) and Act 5 (Maq. A 223), see Nicole Wild, Décors et costumes du XIXe siècle. Tome II: Théâtres et décorateurs
(Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1993), 263.RECONNECTING THE ROMANTIC OPERA REPER TOIRE 345
Fig. 3b. Jean-Baptiste Lavastre’s original design for the “Pavillon à balcon sur le jardin” depicted
in Fig. 3a. ©Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
of the oldest Carmens caught on camera. Additional photographs cover the repertoire of
the fin de siècle and pre-war era: operas by Verdi, Wagner, Massenet, Delibes, and other
composers, designed by artists of both local and international renown, such as Antonio
Rovescalli from Milan and the brothers Max and Gotthold Brückner from Coburg. The
latter photographs illustrate significant advances in illusionistic scenography.
Not all that Jacobs’ lens captured is perfect, of course. The sepia pictures obviously mis-
represent couleur locale in the most literal sense of the term. They show empty spaces, de-
void of singing actors and dancers, as well as of the furniture and props that defined the
locus of each individual scene. A second disadvantage is that each photographed set was
lighted uniformly by electric lamps and presented frontally, from an “ideal” vantage point,
the centre of the first balcony; we can only guess what each set looked like for viewers in
different seats under atmospheric, unevenly distributed gaslight. Thirdly, it must be ac-
knowledged that the world premieres of the depicted operas took place on a larger stage
than the Grand Théâtre’s: while that of the Opéra-Comique (third Salle Favart) was com-
parable in size (16.3 m behind a portal of 10.1 m), the Opéra-Salle Le Peletier’s had a total
depth of 24 m behind a proscenium opening of 13.20, against 16 m in Ghent behind a
portal of 11.40 m.
Yet, even if the depth of each photographed set needs to be imaginarily inflated, these
images still yield candid insights about romantic opera in its prime. Jacobs’ photos diverge
from oft-reproduced artists’ impressions in presenting grand opéra on a more human—
and perhaps realistic—scale. Electric light can also work as an advantage, in exposing for-
mal and technical details that viewers were not supposed to see in their time, but which
become meaningful from a scholarly perspective (see Figures 4a and b). Photographed346 FONTES AR TIS MUSICAE 66/4
Fig. 4a. Philastre and Cambon’s Act 5 set for Halévy’s La juive (1841). The electric lighting of
1900 reveals salient, optically disturbing features, such as the partition of the background
into multiple, twofold shutters ( fermes, distinguishable through vertical lines) and the
masking of the flies by strips of painted sky cloths ( frises d’air).
digitally by the Ghent University Library in fifty megapixels 38, the images reveal the
division of the perspective picture into the various layers of scenic units and allow one
to re-evaluate the blocking schemes of the singers as transmitted by staging manuals. By
focusing on gaps, joints, and hinges one can determine the mechanical contraptions with
which units were manoeuvered in their time, while the worn paint, creases, folds, and wa-
termarks, endemic to fragile, constantly reused scenery, confront us with the quotidian
reality of romantic opera performance.
The Economic Exuberance of the Repertoire
In light of present-day concerns about sustainability and budgetary deficits, it may
come as a surprise to discover photographs of exuberant spectacles, consisting of numer-
ous sets per opera, though composed in large part out of materials that could remain in
use for decades on end and in different productions (see Figure 5). When connected with
the paper archives of the Grand Théâtre, the Décors du théâtre – ville de Gand albums in-
deed illustrate the widespread habit on the producer’s part to consider scenic acquisitions
economically: each new flat or drop was commissioned with a view toward a potential
“return on investment”, whether as a component of a current—and hopefully successful,
revivable—production, or whether as a module for future stagings. This practice could
only function so well due to a universally accepted system of recombinable and expand-
38. See note 25.RECONNECTING THE ROMANTIC OPERA REPER TOIRE 347
Fig. 4b. The Act 5 set for Halévy’s La juive (Opéra, Paris, 1835) as depicted in the livret de mise
en scène distributed by Vieillard Duverger after designs by Charles Séchan and company.
©Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
able building blocks. In keeping with the music-dramatic conventions of the time—the
solita forma as it is called in the Italian context—a core of generic, recurrent elements was
combined with more idiosyncratic elements to transport spectators one night to the late-
sixteenth-century garden of the Castle of Chenonceau, where Queen Marguerite was
singing the praises of la Touraine (Les Huguenots, Act 2; see Figure 5, fourth row, fourth
image), moving them the other night to the corner of a late-eighteenth-century park,
where Mignon grows jealous at hearing certain sounds come from a greenhouse (Mig-
non, Act 2, scene 2; see Figure 5, fourth row, third image).
Thus illustrating a practice that constituted the norm, rather than exception, all over
Europe, Jacobs’ stage photographs hold keys to a better understanding of the formation
and reception of nineteenth-century operatic repertoire. In cinematographic terms, the
pictures represent the “establishing shots” of romantic opera: the settings that initiated
the illusion of each work, act, or tableau, helping spectators become familiar with and im-
mersed in the fiction of musical drama. They constitute topoi or loci in the plainest sense
of the word: the places in which every operatic scene was put and assumed its iconicity—
either or not consciously so by librettists, composers, and directors—through its inscrip-
tion in a network of audio-visual interconnections39. No matter which era, period style, or
39. This idea was originally proposed in Marvin A. Carlson, The Haunted Stage: The Theatre as Memory
Machine (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001), 122.348 FONTES AR TIS MUSICAE 66/4
Fig. 5. A collage by the author of sixteen photographs by Jacobs, all involving the flats of Philastre
and Cambon’s stock “Forêt” (1840), combined with different drops and set pieces to thus
represent idiosyncratic settings for operas mounted between 1840 and ca. 1900.
locale defined the stage set at hand, a garden remained a garden, a public square a public
square, a bedroom a bedroom, each endowed semiotically with a distinct range of dra-
matic, musical, and cultural proprieties40. The greatest importance of Jacobs’ albums may
therefore lie in presenting “repertoire” according to the etymological roots of the word,
allowing us to instantly retrieve the near-complete horizon of expectations of regular
operagoers in the nineteenth and early-twentieth century.
40. See Mercedes Viale Ferrero, “Stage and Set”, in Opera on Stage, ed. Lorenzo Bianconi and Giorgio
Pestelli (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), 1–124.RECONNECTING THE ROMANTIC OPERA REPER TOIRE 349
APPENDIX 1
Letter by Bernard Jacobs to the City Administration of Ghent, 5 November 1889
(Ghent, Stadsarchief, Archief Gentse Opera, 819)
Messieurs,
J’ai l’honneur de vous adresser ci-joint[es] les épreuves photographiques des décors du
Trompetter von Sakingen [sic].
Des essais de reproduction par la photographie des décors du Grand Théâtre de Gand,
il résulte :
1°) Que le temps de pose nécessaire avec l’éclairage actuel de la scène est de 0,30 à
0,35 minutes [i.e., 30-35 seconds] par décor [;]
2°) Que la photographie des décors pendant les représentations ou répétitions – ce a
quoi Madme la Directrice [Henriette Marion] déclare au surplus [sic] d’opposer – est quasi
impossible. Les personnages ne sont nettement reproduits ;
3°) La chambre noire devrait pouvoir être placée à la hauteur de la premi[è]r[e] ran-
gée des fauteuils du balcon, ce qui n’a pu de faire [sic] pendant le spectacle à cause du
public[.]
[D]e toutes ces remarques je crois pouvoir déduire que pour obtenir des clichés satis-
faisants il faudrait fixer un jour spécial. Il y aurait alors lieu de modifier l’éclairage du
théâtre [;] le lustre et les girandoles ne devraient pas être allumés de la salle ; les lampes
à arc voltaïque pourraient être placées aux extrémités du balcon d’où leurs rayons lumi-
neux contribueraient avantageusement à l’éclairage de la scène.
De ces divers[es] modifications il résulterait une diminution considérable du temps de
pose nécessaire [;] celle-ci se réduirait de 0,10 à 0,12 minutes [10 to 12 seconds] – Ce ré-
sultat est d’autant plus à rechercher que les divers décors devrai[en]t être, conformément
à Vos désirs[,] photographiés des deux côtés de la salle[.] [C]e travail, dans les conditions
actuelles d’éclairage[,] prendrait presque le triple du temps nécessaire avec le mode pré-
conisé ci-dessus.
Les épreuves soumises à Votre appréciation ont été obtenues au moyen d’un appareil
13 x 18[.] [I]l convient d’ajouter que lorsque celui-ci pourra être placé à l’endroit propice,
la plaque sensible sera entièrement couverte par la scène et les décors : il en résulte que
la réproduction de ces derniers sera beaucoup agrandie.
En attendant l’honneur de Vous lire, je vous prie, Messieurs, d’agréer l’assurance de
mes civilités respectueuses et empressées,
B. Jacobs et Cie350 FONTES AR TIS MUSICAE 66/4
APPENDIX 2
List of productions and sets featured in Décors du théâtre–ville de GandRECONNECTING THE ROMANTIC OPERA REPER TOIRE 351
APPENDIX 2 continued
English Abstract
On 7 January 1888, La nature announced a new technique for the indoor photography of theatrical
spectacles. Combining electric light with magnesium flash powder and flexible film, the method re-
duced exposure times to less than a second, thus enabling the photography of performances inside
the auditorium. A welcome by-product of this innovation was the arrival of illustrated registers, with
which venues could keep track of their growing collections of scenery. One such inventory, the six-
volume Décors du théâtre – ville de Gand at the Ghent University Library, records the stage decora-
tions used by Ghent’s francophone opera house, the Grand Théâtre, in the years 1900–1912.
When compared with engravings and studio shots of the Parisian operas in question, the stage
photographs of Ghent’s Grand Théâtre do not merely constitute a haunting, uncannily direct icono-
graphic resource for the study of local performance practices at one particular moment. Analysis
of the 144 photographs in corroboration with archival sources shows that the pictured sets cover a
time span of eighty years (ca. 1835–1912), representing the works of Ciceri, Philastre, Cambon,
Desplechin, and other renowned decorators after (unphotographed) originals at the Opéra-Salle Le
Peletier. Moreover, since the sets reveal intriguing permutations of flats and drops which are now
generic (e.g., forêt), then idiosyncratic (e.g., Château the Chenonceau), the photographs provide a
valuable tool to understand the formation and interconnectedness of the Romantic opera repertoire
as seen from the auditorium.
French Abstract
Le 7 janvier 1888, La nature annonça une nouvelle technique pour photographier en intérieur les
spectacles de théâtre. En combinant la lumière électrique avec un flash en poudre de magnésium et
un film flexible, la méthode réduisait le temps d’exposition à moins d’une seconde, permettant ainsi
de photographier à l’intérieur de l’auditorium. Arriva ensuite un produit annexe bienvenu: les reg-
istres illustrés, grâce auxquels on pouvait garder la trace d’un lieu avec la collection croissante de
décors. L’un de ces inventaires, en six volumes, Décors du théâtre – Ville de Gand à la bibliothèque
de l’Université de Gand, enregistre les décors de scène utilisés par l’opéra francophone de Gand, le
Grand Théâtre, dans les années 1900 à 1912.
En comparaison avec les gravures et les clichés en studio des opéras parisiens en question, les
photographies de scène du Grand Théâtre de Gand constitue une ressource iconographique
étrangement troublante pour l’étude des représentations de théâtre locales à un moment donné.
L’analyse des 144 photographies corrobore les sources d’archives et montre que les éléments pho-
tographiés couvrent une période de quatre-vingt années (env. 1835 à 1912), représentant les oeuvres
de Ciceri, Philastre, Cambon, Desplechin, ainsi que d’autres décorateurs de théâtre de renom,352 FONTES AR TIS MUSICAE 66/4 d’après des originaux (non photographiés) de l’Opéra-Salle Le Peletier. De plus, les séries révèlent des permutations surprenantes de décors plats et de reliefs, qui vont du générique (ex: forêt), au particulier (ex: Château de Chenonceau). Les photos représentent un outil de valeur pour com- prendre la formation et l’interconnectivité du répertoire d’opéra romantique du point de vue de l’au- ditorium. German Abstract Am 7. Januar 1888 vermeldete La Nature eine neuartige Technik für die Fotografie von Theater- aufführungen in Innenräumen. Durch die Kombination von elektrischem Licht mit durch Magnesiumpulver erzeugtem Blitz sowie flexiblem Filmmaterial wurde die Belichtungszeit auf unter einer Sekunde reduziert, was das Fotografieren von Aufführungen innerhalb des Zuschauerraumes ermöglichte. Ein willkommener Nebeneffekt dieser Neuheit war die Einführung illustrierter Inventare. Mit diesen konnten die Theater die Inhalte ihrer wachsenden Sammlungen von Bühnenbildern nachhalten. Ein solches Inventar, die Décors du théâtre – ville de Gand in sechs Bänden in der Universitätsbibliothek Gent, dokumentiert die Bühnenbilder des französisch- sprachigen Genter Opernhauses, des Grand Théâtre, aus den Jahren 1900-1912. Im Vergleich zu den Stichen und Studioaufnahmen von den Pariser Opernhäusern bieten die Bühnenfotografien des Genter Grand Théâtre nicht weniger als eine fesselnde, frappierend direkte ikonografische Quelle für das Studium der örtlichen Aufführungspraxis zu einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt. Die Analyse der 144 Fotografien im Abgleich mit Archivquellen bringt zutage, dass die dargestellten Bühnenbilder eine Zeitspanne von achtzig Jahren abdecken (ca. 1835–1912) und die Werke von Ciceri, Philastre, Cambon, Desplechin und anderen bekannten Ausstattern nach (unfotografierten) Originalen der Opéra-Salle Le Peletier wiedergeben. Da sie verblüffende Varianten von Ebenen und Abgründen aufzeigen, die entweder allgemein sind (wie z.B. ein Wald) oder auch spezifisch (wie z.B. das Schloss Chenonceau), sind sie zudem ein wertvolles Werkzeug für das Verständnis von Entstehung und Vernetzung des Repertoires der romantischen Opern aus Zuschauerperspektive.
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