Staging The Performance – Painting the Stage
14 January 2026 - 4 March 2026
10.45 – 12.45 Wednesdays
£83.00 – £552.00
Description
Performance of all kinds – from opera and dance to the spoken-word and many other manifestations in between – has been a site of fascination for artists. With the advent of the ‘stage reform movement’ in the late-nineteenth century and the emergence of significant European empresarios, the drive to make theatre anew became ever more intense. Capturing the essence of certain pivotal events, we cross boundaries between the arts, artists and their collaborators focusing on well-and lesser-known figures – including Schinkel (and indirectly Mozart), Wagner and his stage-craft legacy, the mythical figure of Salome, Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe; modernist performance at the Bauhaus, and recent contribution of art museums to the performative.
“Your last course was inspirational and I feel that my Wednesdays have been surreal! I’ve been transported to a dramatic world which teeters on the edge of reality. I’ve learned a lot but over all you’ve shown me to how to appreciate the “marvellous”. And as Andre Breton would say, “the marvellous is beautiful, anything beautiful is marvellous!” A fabulous few weeks!”
Course Outline
14 Jan 2026 – Karl Friedrich Schinkel, The Classical Revival And ‘The Magic Flute’
Schinkel was an important architect of early nineteenth-century Berlin. His neo-classical defined the grand scale of Berlin’s boulevards, spaces of performance in all senses of the word. His emblematic designs for Mozart’s The Magic Flute established a precedent for the staging of this well-loved work.
21 Jan 2026 – From ‘The Mystic Gulf’ to the World
The most written-about cultural figure of the last two hundred years, Wagner’s ambitions as stage designer have been underplayed. Focusing on his virtually unstageable work, the transcendent ‘Tristan and Isolde’, we trace his theories from Bayreuth’s ‘mystic gulf’ to Wagnerian stagecraft into the twenty-first century.
28 Jan 2026 – Performing ‘Salome’ – The Enduring Power of The Femme Fatale
The figure of Salome has exercised an enduring fascination as the ultimate femme fatale and Symbolist icon – notably in the paintings of Gustave Moreau, Wilde’s play and Strauss opera. What has the world of art contributed to the persona of Salome and Salome to the arts?
04 Feb 2026 – Diaghilev and The Ballet Russe: Fashioning the New Style
Impresario Sergei Diaghilev caused a ferment in European culture, bringing together the world’s most influential dance company with the super-talents of emerging composers, choreographers, artists, designers and the spectacular Nijinsky in a unique union. We will consider its wide-ranging, transformative effects.
11 Feb 2026 – Painting the Stage – Artists and The Siren Call of Theatre
Is it the seductive appeal to paint on a bigger canvas which has attracted so many artists to ‘paint the stage’, their contribution often prompting a re-evaluation of the work itself. We will survey the work of just some of the artists who responded to this call, from the rococo François Boucher to twentieth-century stage designs of Kokoschka, Chagal and Hockney and Kentridge.
18 Feb 2026 – Earth-Shattering! Scandalous! Stravinsky And ‘The Rite of Spring’
It is May 1913, and ‘tout Paris’ is in the audience to see another new performance of Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe, choreographed by the great Nijinsky, with music by the young Igor Stravinsky. Shortly after the curtain rose, a near-riot ensues. What happened to make this the most ‘shocking’ event of the twentieth century?
25 Feb 2026 – The Bauhaus Celebrates – The Modern ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’
This famous School was founded by Walter Gropius in 1920 with aspirations to create a unified approach to the built environment, crafts and the fine arts. Yet theatre and dance as well as extraordinary Bauhaus ‘parties’, orchestrated by students and Bauhaus Masters, acted as the centrifugal force which drove much of its creativity through the 1920s.
04 Mar 2026 – Exhibiting Performance: The Art Museum As Performance Space
Music, dance and indefinable genres of performance have been introduced into mainstream art museums and public galleries, often hospitable venues to new artforms. We will review some of the most exciting – notably at Tate Modern and also the exceptional 2012 ‘Metamorphosis’ at the National Gallery.