The Arcades Project - Operi

eform, working with only their one head and one pen, had earned merely the
proletarian wages of the isolated worker. An entire generation of theatrical geniuses
were in his debt for their training and development, their awards, and, not
infrequently, even their riches and reputation. Scribe chose the subject, sketched
out the main lines of the plot, indicated the places for special effects and brilliant
exits, and his apprentices would compose the appropriate dialogue or verses. Once
they had made some progress, their name would appear on the title page (next to
that of the firm) as a just recompense, until the best would break away and begin
turning out drama tical works of their own invention, perhaps also in their turn
recruiting new assistants. By these means, and under the protection afforded by
the French publishing laws, Scribe became a multimillionaire." Friedrieh Kreyssig,
Studien zur Jranzosischen Cultur- und Literaturgeschichte (Berlin, 1865)
. [Yl,2]
Beginnings of the revue. 'The French fairy plays1 currently in vogue are practically
all of recent origin; they derive, for the most part, from the revues which
were customarily put on during the first fortnight of the new year, ancI which were
a sort of fantastic retrospective of the year preceding. The charaeter of these
theatricals was initially quite juvenile; they were tailored specifically to schoolchildren,
whose new year's festivities would be enlivened by productions of this kind."
Rudolf Gottschall, "Das Theater unci Drama des Second Empire," Unsere Zeit:
Deutsche Revue-Monatsschrift zum Konversationslexikon (Leipzig, 1867),
p. 931. [Yl,3]
From the start, to keep this thought in view and to weigh its constructive value:
the refuse· and decay·phenomena as precursors, in some degree nlirages, of the
great syntheses that follow. These worlds of static realities are to be looked for
everywhere. Fihn, their center. 0 Historical Materialism 0 [Yl,4]
Fail'y plays: "Thus, for example, in Parisiens it Londres (1866), the English industrial
exhibition is brought to the stage and illustrated by a bevy of naked beauties,
who naturally owe their appearance to allegory and poetic invention alone."
Rudolf Gottschall, " Das Theater und Drama des Second Empire," Unsere Zeit:
Deutsche Revue-Monatsschrift zum Konversationslexikon (Leipzig, 1867)
p. 932. 0 Advertising 0 [Yla,l]
"'}i'ermenters' are catalyti(: agents which provoke or accelerate the decomposition
of relatively large quantities of other organic substances . ... These 'other organic
substances,' however, in reaction to which the fermenting agents manifest their
destructive power, are the historically transmitted stylistic forms." The fermentel'S
... are the achievements of modern technology. They . . . can be grouped
according to three great material divisions: (1) iron, (2) the art of machinery, (3)
the art of light and fire." Alfred Gotthold Meyer, Eisenbauten (Esslingen, 1907),
from the preface (unpaginated). [Yla,2]