Theatre Design & Technology - May 1972 - 18

I see two things. I see a lofty and
steep rock, and I see the moist cloud
which envelops the head of this rock.
That is to say, a place for fierce and
warlike men to inhabit, a place for
phantoms to nest in. Ultimately this
moisture will destroy the rock; ultimately these spirits will destroy the
men. Now then, you are quick in your
question as to what actually to create
for the eye. I answer as swiftly-place
there a rock! Let it mount up high.
Swiftly I tell you, convey the idea of a
mist which hugs the head of this rock.
Now, have I departed at all for one
eighth of an inch from the vision
which I saw in the mind's eye?
But you ask me what form this rock
shall take and what colour? What are
the lines which are the lofty lines, and
which are to be seen in any lofty cliff?
Go to them, glance but a moment at
them; now quickly set them down on
your paper, the lines and their direction, never mind the cliff. Do not be
afraid to let them go high; they cannot go high enough; and remember
that on a sheet of paper which is but
two inches square you can make a
line which seams to tower miles in the
air, and you can do the same on your
stage, for it is all a matter of proportion and nothing to do with actuality.
You ask about the colours? What
are the colours that Shakespeare has
indicated for us? Do not first look at
Nature, but look in the play of the
poet. Two; one for the rock, the man;
one for the mist, the spirit. Now,
quickly, take and accept this statement from me. Touch not a single
other colour, but only these two co/ours through your whole progress of
designing your scene and your costumes, yet forget not that each colour
contains many variations. If you are
timid for a moment and mistrust yourself or what I tell, when the scene is
finished you will not see with your
eye the effect you have seen with
your mind's eye, when looking at the
picture which Shakespeare has indicated.
It is this lack of courage, lack of
faith in the value which lies in limitation and in proportion which is the
undoing of all the good ideas which
are born in the minds of the scene
designers. They wish to make twenty
statements at once. They wish to tell
us not only of the lofty crag and the
mist which clings to it; they wish to
tell you of the moss of the Highlands
and of the particular rain which descends in the month of August ....14

It may be worth noting, as well,
that out of such influences came the
basic design element, not only of
both brothers' Ring productions but
of such diverse operas as Parsifal,
Der fliegende Hollander, and even-with some added architectural details-of Die Meistersinger. In essence, this element was a round
disc, though it was not always
round, sometimes being shaped like
an elongated semi-circle, doubling
as a ship's deck and a spinningroom. This was surrounded on all
sides but that of the proscenium
opening by a huge cyclorama, on
which projections of abstract patterns, and masses of changing colored light were thrown. Even with
the invitation of Czech designer
Josef Svoboda to Bayreuth, after
Wieland's death, the New Bayreuth
feeling was preserved. Wieland Wagner once called the stage-milieu he
had created, the one that has since
been so often copied, an "Empty
Space," and he did so some years
before Peter Brook had made the
phrase popular among theatre people and critics. In one reference,
from a letter to Festival colleague
Paul Eberhardt, he said: "I did not
make things easy for you. I confronted
you with something new: the empty
room, [ital. added, raum may also
be translated as space], whereas before, up to the last festivals during
the war, you had been illuminating
decorations which in form, volume
and colour filled the stage of themselves. My stage rooms could only
become the musical rooms I had envisaged for the Wagnerian music
drama through the medium of your
light-and lighting changes. [ita!.
not added] How new that concept
was .... "15
For the interest of those who have
never been to Bayreuth, for those
who do not often associate the arts
of the technical theatre with the
world of opera production, and even
for those who do go to Bayreuth and
do honor opera production as much
as dramatic production, a set of
Craig-Wagner correspondences has

been made. These are only a few of
the many possible, a wider range being prohibited by space limitations
and by the fact that a number of
relevant Craig and Wagner illustrations are either not available or no
longer survive. It is not, by any
means, argued that the Craigian influence is direct, or even conscious,
on the part of Wieland and Wolfgang Wagner, no matter how strong
the simi larities may seem. The
match ings are based on the coincidence of style, composition, technical methods, etc., although, regrettably,
color correspondences
cannot be illustrated. In the absence
of a point-by-point confirmation-impossible in the case of the now deceased Wieland, and improbable in
the case of Wolfgang-this pairing
can do nothing more than suggest
the conscious or sub-conscious influence of Edward Gordon Craig on
the New Bayreuth.

1From Craig's "Notebook T" quoted by
Edward Craig in Gordon Craig. The Story
of His Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1968), p. 209.
2 Geoffrey Skelton, Wieland Wagner: the
Positive Sceptic (New York: St. Martin's
Press, 1971), p. 45.
Jlbid., p. 109.
4E. Gordon Craig, The Theatre Advancing (London: Constable, 1921 l, pp. 13-17.
5Edward Gordon Craig, On the Art of
the Theatre (London: Heinemann, 1968,
pp. 81-82.
6Glenn Loney, "And Wagner Said! Let
There be Light-But Not Too Much," Theatre Crafts (Sept. 1969). p. 32.
7Skelton, op. cit., p. 72.
BGlenn Loney, Interview with Wieland
Wagner (July 1965).
9Glenn Loney, Interview with Wolfgang
Wagner(July27,1969l.
10 Letter, dated Jan. 1, 1971.
11Walter Erich Schiifer, Wieland Wagner
(TLibingen: RainerWunderlichVerlag, 1970),
pp. 89-92, plates 1-17.
12Walter Panosky, Wieland Wagner (Bremen: Carl SchLinemann Verlag, 1964).
lJSkelton, op. cit., p. 72.
On the Art of the Theatre, pp. 22-23.
15Skelton, op. cit., p. 102.

THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

MAY, 1972

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