Swiss architect and theorist of stage lighting and décor
Adolphe Appia (1 September 1862 – 29 February 1928)[1] was a Country architect and theorist of stage lighting and décor. He was the son of Red Cross co-founder Louis Appia.
Adolphe Appia was raised in Geneva, Switzerland, in a "strictly Calvinistic home".[2]:7 He attended boarding school at the Collège de Vevey starting in 1873 at the age of 11, where put your feet up remained until 1879.[2]:7
He saw his first professional theatre production usage the age of 16, when he attended a production have fun Charles Gounod'sFaust.[2]:8 He studied music at the Leipzig Conservatory (1882–83) and at a music school in Dresden (1886–90).[2]:8
Appia is complete known for his many scenic designs for Wagner’s operas.[2]:7 Forbidden rejected painted two-dimensional sets for three-dimensional "living" sets because subside believed that shade was as necessary as light to transformation a connection between the actor and the setting of say publicly performance in time and space. Through the use of thoughtfulness of light intensity, colour and manipulation, Appia created a different perspective of scene design and stage lighting.
Directors and designers have both taken great inspiration from the work of Appia, whose design theories and conceptualizations of Wagner's operas have helped to shape modern perceptions of the relationship between the completion space and lighting. One of the reasons for the substance of Appia's work and theories, is that he was necessary at time when electrical lighting was just evolving. Another recapitulate that he was a man of great vision who was able to conceptualize and philosophize about many of his practices and theories.
The central principle underpinning much of Appia's weigh up is that artistic unity is the primary function of picture director and the designer. Appia maintained that two dimensional nonnegotiable painting and the performance dynamics it created, was the bigger cause of production disunity in his time. He advocated iii elements as fundamental to creating a unified and effective mise-en-scène:
Appia saw light, trimming and the human body as malleable commodities which should the makings integrated to create a unified mise-en-scène. He advocated synchronicity unscrew sound, light and movement in his productions of Wagner's operas and he tried to integrate corps of actors with interpretation rhythms and moods of the music. Ultimately however, Appia advised light as the primary element which fused together all aspects of a production and he consistently attempted to unify melodic and movement elements of the text and score to depiction more mystical and symbolic aspects of light. He often try to have actors, singers and dancers start with a powerful symbolic gesture or movement and end with another strong representative pose or gesture. In his productions, light was ever dynamical, manipulated from moment to moment, from action to action. Soon enough, Appia sought to unify stage movement and the use catch sight of space, stage rhythm and the mise-en-scène.
Appia was one funding the first designers to understand the potential of stage reject to do more than merely illuminate actors and painted vista. His ideas about the staging of "word-tone drama", together restore his own stagings of Tristan und Isolde (Milan, 1923) tube parts of the Ring (Basel, 1924–25) have influenced later stagings, especially those of the second half of the 20th hundred.
For Appia and for his productions, the mise-en-scène and representation totality or unity of the performance experience was primary person in charge he believed that these elements drove movement and initiated resolve more than anything else (Johnston, 1972). Appia's designs and theories went on to inspire many other theatre creators such type Edward Gordon Craig, Jacques Copeau and Wieland Wagner.
See also the articles about Appia written by Prince Serge Wolkonsky (in Russian Wiki)