Theatrical Heritage

Despite eye-opening discoveries, exhibitions, and performances, many valuable artefacts and documents of the performing arts continue to linger in oblivion. How do these sources affect our understanding and appreciation of the theatrical past? Which challenges and opportunities arise from their reuse in modern contexts, museal and non-museal? Theatrical Heritage addresses these and related issues from a broad perspective. In accessible essays written by theatre and music scholars, performers, directors, conservators, and administrators from Europe and the USA, new methods are advanced to reactivate the theatrical past.

This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

"Theatrical Heritage" was edited by Bruno Forment and Christel Stalpaert.

Bruno Forment is the principal investigator of the ‘Resounding Libraries’ research cluster at Orpheus Instituut and the Leader of the ‘Performances’ Working Group in the European COST Action EarlyMuse.

Bruno Forment is hoofdonderzoeker aan het Orpheus Instituut in Gent. Hij publiceerde talrijke boeken en essays over 18e-eeuwse opera, scenografie en artistiek onderzoek. Daarnaast is hij actief als musicus en als erfgoedspecialist.

Christel Stalpaert is senior full professor in Performing and Media Art Studies at Ghent University. She is co-director of the research centre S:PAM (Studies in Performing Arts and Media).

Preface
A Twenty-First-Century Plea for Vintage, Heritage-Friendly Theater
Bruno Forment

Part I In Light of the Theatrical Fact
Theaterfeuer or Sublime Horreur
Operatic Pyrotechnics in the Eighteenth Century
John A. Rice

Mechanical Rules versus Abnormis Gratia
Revaluing Gilbert Austin's Chironomia (1806) as a Source for Historical Acting Techniques
Jed Wentz

Playability
A Reinvention of Contemporary Lighting Practice Drawing on Fred Bentham's 1930s Light Console
Nick Hunt

Part II Reviving the Operatic Past
Divas, Arias, and Acrimony
The Revolving Door of Musical Resources for London's Italian Opera
Michael Burden

The Misadventures of Artaserse (Turin, 1760)
J. C. Bach's First Italian Opera from Production to Performance
Margaret R. Butler

The Mechanics of Magic (or Vice Versa)
Sigrid T'Hooft and the Historically Informed Performance of Opera
Bruno Forment

Affective Education and Performative Space
In Francesca Caccini's La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina (1625 and 2012)
Christine Fischer

Part III Theatrical Infrastructure Rebuilt, Endangered, and Lost Visualizing the Theatrical Past
The Virtual Reconstruction of Theatrical Heritage
Timothy De Paepe

The 'Bourla' in Antwerp
Machinery from 1834 on the Brink of Dismantling?
Jerome Maeckelbergh

O Tempora, O Mores
A Discourse of Neglect and Destruction
Frank Peeters

Part IV From Performance to Archive
An Empty Stage
Assessing the Value of Theatrical Collections
Riemer R. Knoop

The Document as Event
Assessing the Value of Digital Collections for Theatrical Heritage
Thomas Crombez

From the Conservation to the Production of Archives
The Portail des Arts de la Marionnette, Reference and Vehicle for New Ambitions in the Cultural Heritage of the Performing Arts
Raphaèle Fleury

Beyond the Archive
Safeguarding Theatrical Heritage: a Strategy for the Empowerment of Artistic Communities
Maarten De Pourcq & Staf Vos

Bibliography

Contributors' biographies

Index

Gallery with color plates