info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
Céline Frigau Manning, « The Capital of Scenery: Time, Labor, and Logistics in the Creation and Management of Domenico Ferri's Sets at the Paris Italian Opera », HAL-SHS : histoire, ID : 10670/1.rpg89u
Born near Bologna at the very end of the 18th century, Domenico Ferri worked from 1829 until 1852 at the Paris Italian Opera. The precarious condition of his life and career between Bologna, Naples, Paris and London prevents us however from reconstructing a network of overly fluid production. As a set designer but also painter, interior decorator, theatrical agent or even trafficker of paintings, music, books and hats, Ferri developed his art through well-established theatrical circuits but also struggled against constant obstacles, difficult working conditions, various pressures and expectations. In his wanderings, the question of his status is essential, and is deeply linked with historical staging practices. Who or what in fact was a set designer at this time? Was he a craftsman who conceived and then built scenery, who thus had to remain on-site? Was he a contractor who orchestrated a team and organized the staging as a whole? Or was he an artist, responsible for the creation of ideas or images, even if this creation occurred at a distance? Thanks to a range of archival material—including a hundred letters conserved at the Bibliothèque-musée de l’Opéra (BnF)—I will investigate through this case study the process and politics of operatic spectacle, attempting to think differently about an economy of scenography founded on a capital of means, imagination, and above all, time.