The
SALZBURG MARIONETTE THEATER: A Laboratory for Schneider-Siemssen's Stage
of the Future
He
has a special association with Salzburg's famous Marionette Theater, having
been its Stage Designer from 1951 to 1991, during which he sometimes accompanied
the marionettes on their many tours around the world. Indeed, it was with
the Marionettes that he saw New York City for the first time in his life.
His own productions have seen numerous performances at the theater and many
continue to be staged today, among them his 1952 production of Mozart's
enchanting opera,The Magic Flute, an epitome of charm, splendor and
mechanical perfection, no small thanks to Schneider-Siemssen's artistic
and technical genius.
The
Theater served for decades as a laboratory for many of his new ideas: "I did some pioneering work in the most literal
sense: I increased the height of the stage, raising the bridge for
the puppeteers, so that one could work beneath it. As a result, the
marionette strings became longer, which to the puppeteers was a revolution!
The marionettes' movements became softer, and they now could operate
with smaller puppets in the background and larger ones in the foreground
- which gave the stage greater depth. We built a turntable that could
fit into an airplane so it could then go on tour....
I experimented a great deal with the marionettes, to find out what
would translate to the "real" stage. Many of my ideas originated in
the Marionette Theater. The turntable, for example, was tested in
the Marionette Theater, long before I ever used it in the largest
theaters in the world. It was my secret laboratory, where I could
experiment to my heart's desire." *
The
Theater continues to serve as his laboratory for the "stage of the
future" in which holography, he believes, will play an important role.
Adapted to the stage, holography can create stunning visual effects that
are not possible with conventional lighting and projection technologies.
The creation of holograms for the stage, particularly three-dimensional
images that are life-size or bigger, is presently a complicated and very
expensive process. But Günther Schneider-Siemssen, always ahead of
his time, demonstrated at the Marionette Theater years ago that it can be
done. Working with a physicist, he incorporated holograms into the opera
Tales of Hoffmann, with fabulous results (see color photos in slide
show at left). Not one to easily give up, he more recently overcame the
problem of size and was able to produce in the laboratory a hologram 12
by 7 meters in size. If it can be done, he does it!
Indeed,
he seems never to run out of new ideas - which he is eager to share with
the twenty or so students who come each year from all over the world to
attend his International Summer Academy for Stage Design in Salzburg, where
for five weeks they learn from the master himself - not only about the theory
and practice of stage art, decoration and costuming but also about the application
of holography and other exciting new technologies to the stage of the future.
Is it any wonder that he is now known as the "Father of Stage Holography?"
Imagine, he says, what holography could do for the devil in Dr. Faust's
study... or for the witches in Macbeth... or for the Flying Dutchman's ghost
ship... or for Loge as he strikes to form his ring of fire....
Now, if only someone would help him crack the "money problem"....
together they could create the theater of the future - which holography
will have completely transformed - for both the characters on stage and
the audience in their seats - into an enchanted "three-dimensional
light-space through which people can step in and out," and truly revolutionize
Schneider-Siemssen's cosmic space!
* [From
G. Schneider-Siemssen in conversation with K. Pahlen: Die
Bühne, mein Leben
, Selke Verlag 1996;
(The Stage, My Life
- English translation by James Mulder, in press)]
He
has a special association with Salzburg's famous Marionette Theater, having
been its Stage Designer from 1951 to 1991, during which he sometimes accompanied
the marionettes on their many tours around the world. Indeed, it was with
the Marionettes that he saw New York City for the first time in his life.
