The combination of two artistic innovations—the formulation of the laws of perspective in the 15th century and the production of the first opera in 1597—provided the foundation for the Baroque theatre, which was to last until the 19th century. During this era all countries were brought into the same orbit, although Italy remained the primary inspiration. The classically inspired drama of the 16th century gave way to a variety of entertainments—intermezzi, ballet, masques, and opera. The invention of new means of presenting spectacular visual effects encouraged the installation of more and more elaborate machinery in theatre buildings. The result was that spectacle dominated all other aspects of production.
Court theatres
The Baroque architectural style, beginning in Italy and spreading across Europe, dominated theatre building between about 1650 and 1790. Its chief characteristics are refinement in detail of the proscenium stage and of the Renaissance horseshoe-shaped auditorium and seating plan. The innovations of the period were introduced in the private court theatres. As many as five shallow balconies were stacked vertically in the auditorium. For the first time there appeared an orchestra pit in front of the stage, sunk below ground level. The stage floor, which previously had extended only a few yards back from the proscenium arch, was now deepened to accommodate scenery, equipment, and dancing.
With the rise of grand opera and ballet, inventors and designers were called upon to provide increasingly elaborate, portable, perspective scenery and complicated stage machinery, both above and below stage, to effect scene changes (nearly always carried out in full sight of the audience). Famous names of this period include the Italians Giacomo Torelli and the Bibiena family, whose ingenious settings were unrivaled for originality. A rigid court etiquette dictated that the lines of perspective should provide a perfect stage picture from the point of view of the royal box, which directly faced the stage. Since, moreover, the building of theatres was controlled by the ducal or imperial purse, a rigid architectural formalism, varying only in detail, became the fashion, not to be broken until late in the 19th century. The auditorium was planned in tiers, a vertical stratification that reflected the ordering of society by class. A good example is the French court theatre at Versailles (1769), designed by King Louis XV’s architect, Jacques-Ange Gabriel. For a court theatre, its stage is exceptionally well equipped, mechanized in the manner of the Bibiena family, with an overhead pulley system for flying drops and borders, while the flat wings and shutters making up the elaborate scene were mounted on frames attached to carriages that ran on rails beneath the stage and so could easily be changed. Engravings of the time indicate that the court theatres were used for balls, concerts, and the like, as well as for stage performance. Though small, these costly court theatres witnessed the first productions of many operas by composers such as Haydn and Mozart, and they also played an important part in fostering the development of classical ballet.
Public theatres
The opera house
There were two kinds of public theatre in the 18th century. One was a logical development of the earlier private court theatres, reflecting a sophisticated, urban, aristocratic demand for theatre as entertainment. The Teatro alla Scala (1776–78) in Milan is a good example of the numerous theatres erected by 18th-century nobility in the capitals of Europe. Public theatres such as La Scala differ from private court theatres only in the size of the auditorium and stage. Whereas Versailles had seated fewer than 700 in the auditorium, La Scala could accommodate more than 2,000. Opera, generally including a ballet, was by this time the most popular form of entertainment, especially in Italy.
The Restoration playhouse
The other kind of public theatre, peculiar to England, was the Restoration playhouse. The Baroque horseshoe-shaped auditorium, with its deep stage and orchestra pit, was generally in favour all over western Europe, fixing the design and style of opera houses in particular. In it the actor played in front of elaborately painted scenery and behind the proscenium arch. The Restoration playhouse, however, while borrowing the fully rigged stage of the Baroque theatre, provided, in addition, a deep apron stage thrusting out from the proscenium, upon which most of the action took place. Thus, the actor played, as it were, in the auditorium and away from the scenic backing; the English, with their Shakespearean tradition, were loath to abandon the intimate contact between actor and audience that the Elizabethan theatre had allowed. At either side of the forestage were doors by which actors entered; above these doors were additional boxes, for spectators, stacked one above the other in the Baroque manner.
