Giacomo Torelli | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Giacomo Torelli. Unknown author of the 17th century. Work exhibited at the civic museum of Fano | |
| Born | (1608-09-01)1 September 1608 |
| Died | 17 June 1678(1678-06-17) (aged 69) Fano |
| Occupations | |
Giacomo Torelli (1 September 1608 – 17 June 1678) was an Italianstage designer, scenery painter, engineer, and architect.[1] His work in stage design, particularly his designs of machinery for creating spectacular scenery changes and other special effects, was extensively engraved and hence survives as the most complete record of mid-seventeenth-century set design.
Torelli was born inFano, where he may have first worked on amateur theatre productions at the commune'sPalazzo della Ragione,[2] and he may also have gained experience in theatre design in nearbyPesaro orUrbino. His first documented work was in January 1641 for the opening of theTeatro Novissimo in Venice, where he was involved in the design of scenery andstage machinery forFrancesco Sacrati's operaLa finta pazza. This was followed with designs for two other works by Sacrati at the same theatre,Bellerofonte in 1642 andVenere gelosa in January 1643. He may also have worked onFrancesco Cavalli'sDeidamia, staged in 1644, also at the Teatro Novissimo. Torelli's last work in Venice was for Sacrati'sL'Ulisse errante, performed during the carnival season of 1644 at theTeatro Santi Giovanni e Paolo.[3]
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When the Italian-bornCardinal Mazarin succeededCardinal Richelieu as the chief minister of France in 1642, he decided to introduce Italian opera to Paris. In June 1645 at the request of the regentAnne of Austria, theDuke of Parma sent Torelli to France to work on a production ofLa finta pazza in which Torelli largely repeated his designs for Venice. Mazarin had recruited Italian singers fromFlorence, but catering to French taste, comic ballet interludes choreographed by Giambattista Balbi replaced the choruses at the ends of the acts, and some of the recitative was spoken rather than sung. Performed in the large hall of thePetit-Bourbon beginning on 14 December 1645, the production was a great success, and the spectacular scenic effects created by Torelli were received with enthusiasm.[4]
The success ofLa finta pazza encouraged Mazarin's ambitions, and he proceeded to mount another Italian opera,Egisto. Although the composer has not been identified with certainty, it is considered likely to have been theEgisto with music by Francesco Cavalli. According to the memoirs ofMadame de Motteville the opera was given in the smaller theatre of thePalais-Royal, but it is now believed that it was presented in thelarger theatre in the east wing, and that Torelli made alterations for the installation of stage machinery.Egisto was performed in 1646, but was not as successful asLa finta pazza.[5]
Nevertheless, Mazarin proceeded with a newly composed Italian opera, Luigi Rossi'sOrfeo. Torelli worked with the French stage designerCharles Errard and his assistantsNoël Coypel and Gilbert de Sève in creating the sets and scenic effects, and more extensive alterations for the installation of the stage machinery were made to the Palais-Royal theatre where the opera was to be performed. Another group of Italian singers was brought to France, and after many delaysOrfeo finally premiered on 2 March 1647. By this time opposition to Italian opera (and Mazarin) was beginning to arise, and the work was criticised for being too Italian and too costly, but even so, Torelli's scenic effects were well received.[6]
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Although ostracised as a dependant of Mazarin during theFronde (1648–1653), Torelli managed to stay in Paris and designed the scenery for a new French play,Pierre Corneille'sAndromède (with music byDassoucy). The Troupe Royale of theHôtel de Bourgogne were to perform it, but their usual stage was unsuitable for the scene-shifting machinery and special effects of apièce à machine. Originally planned for the theatre in the Palais-Royal,Andromède was transferred sometime before the first performance to the Petit-Bourbon, which could accommodate a larger audience. Many of Torelli's set pieces created forOrfeo were moved and reused forAndromède, which premiered on 1 February 1650.François Chauveau engraved a series of six depictions of the settings of the prologue and five acts, which were published at Rouen in 1651, both separately and with the second edition of the play.[7]
AfterKing Louis XIV's return to Paris in 1653 Torelli became involved more inballet de cour than in opera, reflecting the passion of the king for dancing. He has traditionally been credited with the designs for theBallet de la Nuit, performed on 23 February 1653 at the Petit-Bourbon, although there is no definitive evidence for it.[8] In 1659 with the arrival in Paris of the Italian theatre-designing family of Gaspare Vigarani and his sonsCarlo and Lodovico, Torelli soon fell from royal favour. Torelli's career in France came to a definitive end in 1661, when he worked on sets forMolière'sLes fâcheux, presented byNicholas Fouquet as part of his grand fête atVaux-le-Vicomte in honour of the King, an overly ostentatious display which ultimately led to Fouquet's imprisonment.[9]
Torelli returned to Fano, designing a theatre, theTeatro della Fortuna, and a final stage setting forIl trionfo della continenza in 1677. He died in Fano in 1678.[9]
Torelli's most significant innovation was the Pole and Chariot system of stage machinery, consisting of sub-stage trolleys connected by ropes to a central drum, that allowed multiple flats to be changed quickly in full view of the audience in a highly co-ordinated manner by a single assistant under the stage, rather than slowly by a crew of as many as sixteen stage hands. This not only saved labour, amongst other things, but also created spectacular scenic effects, the popularity of which led to a notable increase in the number of set changes per opera. Torelli also designed machinery for flying characters around the stage, mimicking weather effects, and so on, and was nicknamed the 'grand stregone' (great magician).[9][10]
Torelli brought the one-point-perspective set to its apogee with designs that revelled in a use of perspective that drew the eye to the horizon and beyond: the theatre stage seemed to extend to infinity. Despite this apparent obsession with the infinite, however, Torelli also brought 'closed' space to the stage. Interior scenes became more common and were often quite shallow. His innovations in stage machinery allowed not only stage flats to be changed, but also the borders of the sky. This allowed an interchange between interior and exterior sets, and Torelli would often alternate between open and enclosed sets to create a new sense of rhythm in the visual aspect of opera. His experimentation with different types of stage space were not limited to the contrast between interior and exterior either. Torelli would often delimit the foreground of an exterior set with a structure such as a hill or a fountain, allowing the audience only glimpses of the background perspective.[citation needed]
When the Petit-Bourbon was demolished in 1660 for the eastward expansion of theLouvre, Vigarani managed to acquire Torelli's stage machines; he destroyed them rather than install them in his newSalle des Machines in thePalais des Tuileries, but Torelli's drawings survived and were reproduced in Diderot'sEncyclopédie under the article "Machines du Théâtre" in 1772.[11] Torelli is also thought to have been the anonymous author of a severe critique of Vigarani's theatre at the Tuileries,Reflessioni sopra la fabrica del nuovo teatro.[12]
