Musicologist Evan Baker, a frequent visitor to San Francisco to give lectures on SFO productions, has published a large volume on opera production history, titled From the Score to the Stage: An Illustrated History of Continental Opera Production and Staging.
Without scenery, costumes, and stage action, an opera would be little more than a concert, says Baker, "but in the audience, we know little (and think less) about the enormous efforts of those involved in bringing an opera to life — by the stagehands who shift scenery, the scenic artists who create beautiful backdrops, the electricians who focus the spotlights, and the stage manager who calls them and the singers to their places during the performance."
From the Score is probably the first comprehensive history of the behind-the-scenes world of opera production and staging, tracing the evolution of visual style and set design in continental Europe from its birth in the seventeenth century up to today.
The book concentrates on the people — composers, librettists, designers, and technicians — as well as the theaters and events that generated developments in opera production. He also covers the functions of impresarios, and the business of music publishing.
Including some 200 color illustrations it is a revealing look at what happens before the curtain goes up on opening night at the opera house.
About the the Cajetan illustration shown here, Baker says, "Like their Italian counterparts, audiences in German-speaking countries idolized many singers and were not afraid to express their feelings. Here, perfectly coiffed, white gloved dandies prepare to hurl a large, flowered wreath from the gallery to the stage during the applause at a curtain call. At left is a shabby seat with ripped fabric in its back, and one of the dandies is viewing the stage with long binoculars, as are others in their boxes with even longer binoculars."
To be published on Nov. 15, the book will be available in numerous outlets in the West carrying University of Chicago Press publications. It is already listed on Amazon.
Besides his many lectures for the San Francisco Opera Guild, Los Angeles-based Baker also remembers SFO as the place of his first professional engagement, an associate in the rehearsal office in 1977.