Main entry:

Burian, Jarka, 1927-2005.

Title & Author:

The scenography of Josef Svoboda / by Jarka Burian.

Edition:

First paperback edition.

Publication:

Middletown, Connecticut : Wesleyan University Press, 1974
©1971

Description:

xxii, 198, [4] pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Notes:
"A register of Svoboda productions" (pages 172-198).
"A register of Svoboda productions" (p. 172-198).
Includes bibliographical references (pages [201]-[202]).
Introduction -- Life and principles. Biography ; Scenography rather than design ; Experimentation and the technical ; The aesthetics of theatre performance ; Ideal theatre space -- Representative productions illustrated. An introductory survey ; The theatre of light ; Projections and color in space ; Projections and synthesis ; Several offspring of Polyekran and Laterna Magika ; Kinetics, lighting, and mirrors ; A curtain of life ; Two Hamlets (Shakespeare) ; Teatro Mundi ; The principle of collage ; Theatre in scenography -- Appendices. A. Selected group of Svoboda's production drawings ; B. Svoboda's most recent productions ; C. Register of Svoboda's productions.

Summary:

Josef Svoboda of Czechoslovakia is possibly the most innovative designer in the theatre in the 1960s and 1970s. Every year, throughout a "season" of twelve months, Svoboda totally designs - or "scenographs," as he prefers to call his work - productions for the legitimate theatre, for operas and ballets, and occasionally for films, not only in his native country, but also in England, Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, and elsewhere in Europe. In the United States, he is best known for the series of multiscreen films shown in the Czechoslovak pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal and for the stark, marvelously evocative sets for the Metropolitan Opera's opening-night production of Carmen in 1972. The major part of this study is devoted to detailed, professional considerations of some sixty key productions, described largely in Svoboda's own words, transcribed and translated from tape-recorded interviews with the author. More than two hundred black-and-white photographs visually reinforce the author's explication of the development of Svoboda's methods. Svoboda's scenography emerges as total design, a synthesis of traditional methods and technical innovations that provide a dynamic atmosphere, as well as the physical setting. -- Adapted from back cover description.

ISBN:

0819560324
9780819560322

Subject:

Svoboda, Josef, 1920-2002.
Svoboda, Josef (Dramaturg)
Bühnenbild
Theaters Stage-setting and scenery
Set designers Czech Republic.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 284868
Call No.: BIB 224100
Status: Available