Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1981 - 7

Figure 1. The model for Lear designed by Jean-Pierre Pon-

Figure 2. Side view of Lear model.

nel/e.

This past summer the San Francisco Opera Company presented its first Summer Festival. Rather than initiate this new
venture with a traditional or technically simple production, they
chose instead to present the American premiere of Lear by
Aribert Reiman, adapted from Shakespeare by Claus H. Henneberg. Kurt Herbert Adler, the general director of the San
Francisco Opera, saw the world premiere of Lear in Munich,
Germany in 1978 and was so impressed with the production that
he felt it had to be brought to San Francisco.
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, who conceived the premiere production
at the Nationaltheater Munich, was brought to San Francisco as
director and designer. Ponnelle felt that the opera must be
performed in the native tongue of the audience, even though in
the opera "you have to forget Shakespeare and base your entire
dramaturgical and visual concept on the music." Desmond
Clay10n did the translation for this English-language premiere.The American production retained most of the flavor of
the German production, was built from the same artistic notion,
and used the same essential design. Some alterations were
required because of the vastly different physical scale of the
German theatre, and because the scenic design was quite
integral to the theatre of its original production. German theatres
contain sophisticated rigging systems which did not exist at the
War Memorial Opera House.
The original costumes of the major characters, designed by
Pet Halmen, were brought over from Germany. Only the chorus
costumes were constructed in San Francisco. The essential
bleakness of Lear's world was accented by the high contrast
costumes of the major figures onstage which stood out against
the stripped-bare theatre space. Once the theatre was denuded
of its usual black velvets and made totally empty, it took on a
"completely anonymous character ... a total emptiness, a kind
of theatrical end of the world." Ponnelle therefore gave the San
Francisco audience their first look at the bare steel, cement, and
iron of the backstage into which was built a palette for the
characters' torment.

Figure 3. Model built by
Larry Klein and Noel Uzemack
proving the lift concept workable.

The scenic design was essentially the same as in the German
prOduction, although Ponnelle points out that in reviving a work,
no matter how successful, you do not aim for exact imitation.
This production's direction was apparently similar to the original,
although this revival allowed Ponnelle to search further into the
characters while trimming details that detracted from the central
essence of the drama.
Interesting technical problems were posed in taking a scenic
concept from a well-equipped and spacious post-war German
theatre and transplanting it into an older American house. The
German theatre had a huge stage floor and was entirely rigged
with hydraulic lifts that could travel from below stage level to
approximately twelve feet above. With this equipment, the
production was put together rather simply for its world premiere.
Parallels were erected on the lift to hold framed platforms about
twelve feet above the lift table. These platforms could then be
raised considerably above stage level or lowered below the level
of the stage by simply using the stage hydraulics (Figs. 1, 2).
The lifted platform design was fundamentally three large
levels running across the stage behind the proscenium opening.
Each platform had an attached side platform offstage left and
another offstage right. These side platforms operated as variable ramps hinged to the central platform. With the central
platform up, the ramp could connect the stage level on each
end, forming a bridge. With the central platform lowered, the
side platforms could be lifted, making Lear's world a concave
depression confining the action. As the three winged platforms
were placed side by side from downstage to upstage, they could
be raised in tiered levels like stepped foothills; raised so that the
action was raised high above the general viewing level of the
audience while putting the figure in a position of high visual
impact; or the levels could even be undulated during the action.
These side platforms operated as independent variable ramps
that could either ramp down to stage level or be lifted and ramp
up into space.
What was essentially a simple production in the German

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