Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 1976 - 29

for ourselves to play theatre from antiquity onward,
perhaps even Chinese theatre. Because we are doing
theatre of completely different kinds, four works, a
com media divina. Why not confront it with all the
means at our disposal? Of course they will have the
same signature in terms of one director and one
designer, but why not learn from the whole history
of theatre, and why not use anything and everything
that expresses it 100% at the right moment, in the
right way?
A brief description of some of the key scenes and their
scenography will illustrate the varied operations of the
platform and supplemental elements, for the real point, as
Svoboda puts it, is not so much the symbolic value of the
platform but its function, its "play," its action.
The first thing seen in Rheingold is a gradually
evolving, proliferating laser image on the center of the
cyclorama (projected by film rather than directly projected as in Geneva), as if creation were proceeding from a
single point of litt to increasingly rich swirls and
dynamic patterns. 1 At the same time we dimly perceive
a horizontal, rotating platform slab. As the action begins,
the slab stops rotating and tilts up toward the audience
revealing its mirrored underside, which reflects the
greenish waters of the Rhine-rippling water projections
on the floor beneath the stage. The central support of the
platform is covered with reflective crumpled plastic and
spotlighted with gold light to represent a huge nugget, the
gold of the Rhine. Laser beam projections on the cyclorama bridge the scene changes, along with the rotation
and tilting of the platform. Scene two is played on the top
surface, which is moderately raked toward the audience.
The third scene, Figure 27C, representing Alberich's cave,
again occurs mainly below stage level and is reflected to us
by means of the mirrors under the platform, which
convey the impression of massive ingots being hammered
and tempered. The fourth and final scene, Figures 27A &
B, takes place on top of the platform, which is now more
sharply raked and employs its power controlled stair~,
chiefly to represent ~he means for the gods' ascent to
Valhalla at the end of the opera. Valhalla itself, first
perceived in the second scene, is represented by a
separate, smaller stair unit above and behind the main
platform. Some twenty-five narrow perpendicular mirrors
are irregularly set on this stair unit, and the total structure
is located behind the folio cyclorama, which provides a
sense of diffusion and remoteness, an effect heightened by
frontal projections of clouds on the folio. The perpendicular mirrored surfaces are perceived as vaguely modern,
monolithic structures suggesting great power and abstractness. Special effects occur when specific lights strike some
of the mirrors and reflect onto the rear of the folio at odd
angles. It is, all in all, a teasing vision of a special abode in
the process of construction. In the fourth scene, at
Donner's signal, the completed Valhalla is revealed: the
folio cyclorama sinks out of sight, thus clearly revealing
the mirror-beset stair unit. These rear stairs themselves are
now transformed into a spectrum (the rainbow bridge to
Valhalla) as a result of lights placed in their riser sections;
moreover, many of the mirrors now clearly reflect the rear

USITT

of the mirrors before them, which have been painted with
matte colors, thus providing a cubistic extension of the
spectrum of the stairs. At the same time, the gods mime
an ironic ascent to Valhalla on the stairs of the giant
platform, one step backward to every two or three taken
forward. In a broader sense the expressive blocking of this
scene is symptomatic of the fine sense of spatial composition in the production as a whole. Of central significance throughout the performance is the skillful use to
which the kinetic platform was put by Friedrich in
relation to the composition and movements of the actors.
The two elements-the action of the actors and that of the
platform-were orchestrated to create a visual embodiment of Wagner's music drama in space and movement.
The same principle was followed in Walkure, Figures
290, E,&F. but here the tone shifted from that of a
relatively austere, even medieval, abstract bare platform

Figs. 27d, 27e, 27f. Three arrangements of the platform
for the Covent Garden Walkure. Photos by Josef Svoboda.

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

SUMMER,1976

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