The Opera House.

Universal creative processes

Susana Villafuerte1

The creativity process of scenic works in Opera Houses includes an interdisciplinary

and intercultural dimension due to its history. The opera was born in the renaissance of
a dialogue between the artists and the intellectuals of different disciplines of this period,
and the Greco-Roman culture. The noble and bourgeois elites of the fortunate cities
dedicated to the commerce had started to like the newness, the originalities of others
geographical and cultural horizons and experimentation. They had a competition to
show the magnificence of their cities with their art and science. In this context they
developed a strong and productive artistic activity of the scenic arts, whose consolidate
a strong network whose renewal the collective activity of creation.

The dynamics of cultural exchanges passing through time and space remained as one of
the inherent characteristics to the creativity and production process of performance in
the theaters of opera. The plays subjects change, the professionalization of theatre work
follows the labor market development; experiments are made with the arrangement of
the theater (Ledoux, Wagner); however, the basic conventions on the way of presenting
the show and the network international dynamics remain. Today, a recent study
confirms: "the circulation of the artists is the most visible part of the Opera Houses
globalization. The productions, the professionals of any countries circulate nowadays
from Opera House to Opera House. "»2 (Agid et al. 2011, p.22.) All the participants in
the creativity and production process coming from different times, geographical spaces
and cultures, take part in the creation of a single play which remains ephemeral
(Hennion on 1993).

This paper exposes a part of the results of the ethnographical research I lead on the
technician’s backstage work during the Opera Houses creativity and production process.
My main fields are the Theater of the Capitol in Toulouse, France, and the Palacio de
Bellas Artes in Mexico.

The spatial and temporal dimensions of the world of Opera

1
Doctorante en sociologie, LISST-CERS, Université de Toulouse 2-Le Mirail.
2
: « La circulation des artistes forme la partie la plus visible de la mondialisation des maisons d’opéra.
Les productions, les professionnels de tous pays circulent de nos jours de maison en maison. »
The opera is an invention made to provoke the senses and the reason, constituted by a
sung drama or dramatized singing where the visual arts play an important part. It is a
hybrid art that involves several artistic and technical disciplines, and includes all the
elements that contribute to build the theatricality of the play. This world (Becker, 1988)
is a vast domain which crosses time and space and includes objects and people who
collaborate and evolve during the practice of this art, following the rhythm of the
technological breakthroughs. We find, among others, the old and new scores, the
librettos, the composers, the play writers, the musical directors, the set designers, the
costume designers, the singers, the musicians, the dancers, the extras, the instruments,
the decoration, the managers who organize the tours of the troops or the coproduction,
financiers, the stage machines, the audience, etc.

The scenic space represents the conventions

In older times, in order to facilitate the scenic effects work, it was imperative to build a
fixed space. As from old conventions, the architects and engineers of Renaissance
cathedrals have developed their ideas until conceiving the theater called the “Italian-
style theater:” a space which divides the public from the performance space with
equipment that prepares and conditions the audience’s perception. This building
representing the technical and aesthetic conventions proposes a frame of reference to the
creative practice. Under this scenario, we add the social and political symbolism,
constructed around this building to transform it into an emblem of cities, representing
the high culture. The whole building is full of sense, which surrounds as well the
experience of the audience as the creativity and production scenic work, all the word
expecting an excellent work. All Opera Houses built in Europe and America are full of
those symbolisms.

The scenic work production process and the circulation of knowledge

I found, by observing the process of creation-production of scenic work, that at least in

the Mexican and French Operas Houses, this process corresponds to a series of
negotiations and decisions, a roundtrip between the dreams and the potential of the real
manufacturing conditions. It is a knowledge process where all the participants learn
from the others’ ideas, express their reasons, look for similarities and differences,
formulate the problems which may represent the ideas of the others, imagine its
construction, analyze them, negotiate the solutions of all the points of view to finally
decide on the creation of a new established idea which settles until a new meeting. This
cycle is repeated in a spiral towards the execution until the performance is in front of the
audience. There is a circulation of knowledge and practices.

The theater of opera world works by project. The teams are formed following the needs
of every artwork and economic or political factors. In almost all the theaters, there are
permanent personnel (chorus, ballet, technical, administrative and artistic team), as well
as workers whose arrive to complete the project team. The tendency to produce in
international co-productions strengthens the intercultural contacts. The artwork ideas are
the result from all the cultural experiences of all the actors. Participants' mobility and
intercultural interactions remain a creative source of the process inherent to the daily
work of Operas Houses.

Circulation of knowledge and practices. Palacio de Bellas Artes of Mexico (1900-1934)

The circulation of the theatrical technique conventions is ensured thanks to the

translation and printing of technical manuals3, but traveling and sharing the knowledge
and practices are the most productive social acts4.

The opera arrived in the New Spain in the XVII century participating in the construction
of the new social and cultural order. Noble Spanish recruited European opera teams for
their parties and European architects to build their theaters. After the Mexican
Independence (1810-1821), the newest elites continued to support the opera and some
other theaters were built for it. The celebration of the 1910independence centenary gave
the opportunity to Mexico’s President to open an international competition to build a
new national theater which would show the world the stability of the country and the
splendor of the Mexican culture.

3
De l’architecture (vers 23-27 av.JC) M. Vitruve Pollion ; Pratique pour fabriquer scènes et machines de
théâtre (1638) de Nicola Sabbattini ; Traité de Scénographie de Pierre Sonrel (1984), etc.
4
The intellectuals and the artists of America were educated in European schools. At the end of the XIX
century, the Mexican government offered scholarships to the artists and the intellectuals to go and study
in Paris; they also had the mission of coming back with the most recent scientific and technical books. We
find technical manuals on the perspective, detailed plans of the Palace Garnier, among others. A great part
of these books can be found at the historic Archive of Palacio de Mineria, Mexico.
http://www.palaciomineria.unam.mx/recorrido/archivo_historico.php
In 1898, the project of the Italian engineer and architect Adamo Boari (who had worked
in Brazil in 1889) is selected. After having studied the most important operas of the
United States and Europe, Boari uses a new constructive technique5 to build the new
theater. He requested the cementation to the Miliken Brothers company (United States),
the machinery to the Nuremberg companies, the Iron Curtain (metal shutter) to Tiffanny
(New York), the gates of iron to Alessandro Mazzucotrelli (Milan), uses Carrara marble
for the outside, and choses to work with the sculptors Géza Maroti (Hungarian),
Leonardo Bistolfi (Italian), Agustin Querol (Spanish), and Fiorenzo Gianetti (Italian)
who was inspired by the pre-hispanic art for its art nouveau sculptures. After the
Mexican Revolution, the construction of the theater is resumed by the new government,
who decides to build a theater for the people. This project was finished by the Mexican
architect Francisco Mariscal, who employs Mexican craftmen to finish the inside with
magnificent marble of the country and Mexican decoration in art deco style. The
Palacio de Bellas Artes of Mexico opens its doors in 1934 with Mexicans artwork, and
therefrom, it continuous with its international theatrical activity. The most visible and
famous participants are: Enrico Caruso, Maria Callas, Flavio Labo, Alfredo Di Steffano,
Teresa Berganza, Placido Domingo. And, inside the stage, the Italian master Raymundo
Frola, who arrived with the German machinery, continues in the theater training the
technical Mexican team.

International creative processes in opera theaters

Today, the activity of the opera world strengthens its international dimension with the
use of the new information and communication technologies. The spirit of the universal
creative process in theaters remains. And even the discussions are globalized; for
example, there is a strong discussion on the way of integrating the digitalization and
motorization into the theatrical technique or where we find a strong discussion on the
criteria to be followed for the future of the "historic theaters" of the XVIII and XIX
centuries, which are in the process of being preserved6 or renewed7. The world of opera
remains globalized.

5
Some examples of the buildings built with the new technology of this period : le Palais Garnier (1875),
la Tour Eiffel (1889), le Grand Palais (1900) à Paris, le Home Insurance Building (1884) à Chicago et
autres « skycrapers » à New York.
6
Théâtre royal Drottningholm (Suède), Opéra Royal Versailles (France), etc.
Bibliography

Archivo Histórico del Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. Mexico.

Archivo Histórico del Palacio de Mineria. Mexico.

Agid, P., Tarondeau, J.-C. & Beffa, J.-L., 2011. Le management des opéras comparaisons
internationales, Paris: Descartes & Cie.

Bieber Margaret, 1961. The history of the Greek and Roman theater.Princeton University Press.

Becker, H.S., Menger, P.-M. & Bouniort, J., 1988. Les mondes de l’art, Paris: Flammarion.

Hennion, A., 1993. La passion musicale une sociologie de la médiation, Paris: Ed. Métailié.

Pareyon Gabriel, 1995, diccionario enciclopédico de música en México. Mexico, Secretaria de

Cultura de Jalisco.

Recchia Giovanna, 1993. Espacio Teatral en la ciudad de México siglos XVI-XVII. Mexico. INBA-
CITRU-Conaculta.

Sauvageot Anne, 1994. Voirs et savoirs:Esquisse d’une sociologie du regard, Paris, PUF.

Sugers,Anne, 2005. Scénographies du theater occidental, Paris, Colin.

Moysen, Xavier, 1993 Palacio de Bellas Artes. Milan, Franco Maria Ricci-Aeroméxico.

7
Palacio de Bellas Artes (2009-2011) Mexico, Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), etc.