You're assuming that a 'team' is only two horses ;-)
A traditional 'tenting' circus could easily have a dozen stalls in its canvas stables; big rosinback horses for the bareback riders to stand on, a set of pretty little ponies for the clown acts and to perform clever tricks, maybe a 'learned' horse to count and answer audience questions with Yes or No, individual horse acts trained to jump through rings of fire or perform haute école manoeuvres ('airs above the ground'), and of course one or more sets of beautifully matched animals for the usual dashing riding displays around the ring, dressed in plumes and ridden by sequinned performers.
A nineteenth-century opera house would have been a bit more restrained, I assume (the stage is big, but not all that big), but I imagine that something like the infamous procession from 'Aida' could easily have involved more than one set of horses. French grand opera was all about the spectacle and stage machinery (sometimes to the detriment of the music, modern critics have claimed), and as 'chief stage machinist' (chef machiniste -- translated by de Mattos as a mere 'scene-shifter') Joseph Buquet would have been in authority over a crew of sixty or seventy men operating the elaborate and complex mechanisms involved.
(An interesting footnote is that -- according to the programme of the West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera" -- the reason why it was staged at Her Majesty's Theatre was because the theatre retained its original Victorian stage machinery, thus enabling the various special effects, i.e. vanishing in a puff of smoke or diving into a pool of water.)
According to my annotated edition, a lot of Leroux's descriptions of the Opera House interior can be traced back directly to the reference books he evidently consulted, Charles Nuitter's Le Nouvel Opéra and Charles Garnier's own account, "Le Nouvel Opéra de Paris".
(The latter is available on Google Books; I did a quick search of the PDF to see if Garnier says anything about facilities for horses, and while the search didn't reveal anything about stables, it did throw up a lyrical passage about the grand staircase where he asks the reader to imagine entire operas taking place in that setting, specifically mentioning the procession from Le Prophète and the one from La Juive 'minus the horses, of course', since they couldn't manage the stairs ;-D In fact I've just looked at the relevant chapter in Leroux, and he explicitly mentions those two operas as being ones requiring trained horses. So I'm guessing that these very precise details were probably the result of Gaston Leroux's own research!)
The footnote to this chapter in my annotated 'Phantom' comments that Charles Nuitter's book mentions "horses that will be hoisted onto the stage by means of an elevator".
Some concentrated Web searching throws up a page about the Opéra Garnier which mentions, as an aside, that the dimensions of "l'ouverture de la scène" (the proscenium arch?) were such that in the past it had permitted the arrival of horses at the gallop thanks to its 16-metre size: https://paris-guide-web.com/opera-garnier-paris/ The article also comments that it was possible to open up the foyer de la danse, which was situated directly behind this area, to form a continuation of the stage which created a depth of almost fifty metres, permitting the illusion of arrival from a great distance thanks to the reverse rake of the floor -- also useful for staging processions, I imagine. (So much for my comments about "not all that big"!)
Apparently danseuse is actually French slang for a financially demanding mistress; 's'offrir une danseuse' is to become a 'sugar-daddy'. So Philippe's caution that "once these little ladies from the Opera learn their way to a man's purse, life can become astonishingly expensive..." was extremely accurate, however 'hypocritical' and 'immoral' my readers found it :-p
At the beginning she comments that the Opera contained not only the singers, the corps de ballet, the ballet school and the singing school (which actually took place at the Conservatoire, where Christine studied), but also costume workshops, a stable, an armoury etc. It seems clear that there was one, even if I can't find any pictures or descriptions of it -- unlike the infamous 'lake'!
This page mentions that nowadays the chandelier is lowered to the ground to be cleaned annually, but that originally it was designed to be raised through the ceiling, where you can still see the little circle in the centre that opened to allow it to pass through, and that it remained lit throughout the performance -- presumably it was also raised in order to light it? (By the era, I assume it would have been illuminated by gas rather than by candles, and they did have ingenious methods for lighting gas-lamps remotely: https://cassstudio6.wordpress.com/lighting/gaslight-era/ )
wonder how, in the normal run of that opera sans grasshoppers hopping jolly high, they managed the special effect of the firey explosion, given the technology at the time?
By the looks of it, the various scenery flats crack up and fall apart and some thunderflashes get set off on stage, while everybody makes gestures of dismay and falls flat ;-p
As I mentioned, 'the technology at the time' did pretty much focus on dramatic special effects to draw in audiences; the finale of "La Juive" involves the heroine being executed a cauldron of boiling water, and "Robert le diable" was famous for the ghostly effects used to create its ballet of sinful nuns rising from the grave...
no subject
A traditional 'tenting' circus could easily have a dozen stalls in its canvas stables; big rosinback horses for the bareback riders to stand on, a set of pretty little ponies for the clown acts and to perform clever tricks, maybe a 'learned' horse to count and answer audience questions with Yes or No, individual horse acts trained to jump through rings of fire or perform haute école manoeuvres ('airs above the ground'), and of course one or more sets of beautifully matched animals for the usual dashing riding displays around the ring, dressed in plumes and ridden by sequinned performers.
A nineteenth-century opera house would have been a bit more restrained, I assume (the stage is big, but not all that big), but I imagine that something like the infamous procession from 'Aida' could easily have involved more than one set of horses. French grand opera was all about the spectacle and stage machinery (sometimes to the detriment of the music, modern critics have claimed), and as 'chief stage machinist' (chef machiniste -- translated by de Mattos as a mere 'scene-shifter') Joseph Buquet would have been in authority over a crew of sixty or seventy men operating the elaborate and complex mechanisms involved.
(An interesting footnote is that -- according to the programme of the West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera" -- the reason why it was staged at Her Majesty's Theatre was because the theatre retained its original Victorian stage machinery, thus enabling the various special effects, i.e. vanishing in a puff of smoke or diving into a pool of water.)
According to my annotated edition, a lot of Leroux's descriptions of the Opera House interior can be traced back directly to the reference books he evidently consulted, Charles Nuitter's Le Nouvel Opéra and Charles Garnier's own account, "Le Nouvel Opéra de Paris".
(The latter is available on Google Books; I did a quick search of the PDF to see if Garnier says anything about facilities for horses, and while the search didn't reveal anything about stables, it did throw up a lyrical passage about the grand staircase where he asks the reader to imagine entire operas taking place in that setting, specifically mentioning the procession from Le Prophète and the one from La Juive 'minus the horses, of course', since they couldn't manage the stairs ;-D
In fact I've just looked at the relevant chapter in Leroux, and he explicitly mentions those two operas as being ones requiring trained horses. So I'm guessing that these very precise details were probably the result of Gaston Leroux's own research!)
The footnote to this chapter in my annotated 'Phantom' comments that Charles Nuitter's book mentions "horses that will be hoisted onto the stage by means of an elevator".
Some concentrated Web searching throws up a page about the Opéra Garnier which mentions, as an aside, that the dimensions of "l'ouverture de la scène" (the proscenium arch?) were such that in the past it had permitted the arrival of horses at the gallop thanks to its 16-metre size: https://paris-guide-web.com/opera-garnier-paris/
The article also comments that it was possible to open up the foyer de la danse, which was situated directly behind this area, to form a continuation of the stage which created a depth of almost fifty metres, permitting the illusion of arrival from a great distance thanks to the reverse rake of the floor -- also useful for staging processions, I imagine.
(So much for my comments about "not all that big"!)
Apparently danseuse is actually French slang for a financially demanding mistress; 's'offrir une danseuse' is to become a 'sugar-daddy'.
So Philippe's caution that "once these little ladies from the Opera learn their way to a man's purse, life can become astonishingly expensive..." was extremely accurate, however 'hypocritical' and 'immoral' my readers found it :-p
He was generous to Sorelli, I hope...
Another page (also in French, but with good photos): http://curieuseartemis.over-blog.com/article-opera-garnier-paris-visitons-le-ensemble-96727982.html
At the beginning she comments that the Opera contained not only the singers, the corps de ballet, the ballet school and the singing school (which actually took place at the Conservatoire, where Christine studied), but also costume workshops, a stable, an armoury etc. It seems clear that there was one, even if I can't find any pictures or descriptions of it -- unlike the infamous 'lake'!
This page mentions that nowadays the chandelier is lowered to the ground to be cleaned annually, but that originally it was designed to be raised through the ceiling, where you can still see the little circle in the centre that opened to allow it to pass through, and that it remained lit throughout the performance -- presumably it was also raised in order to light it?
(By the era, I assume it would have been illuminated by gas rather than by candles, and they did have ingenious methods for lighting gas-lamps remotely: https://cassstudio6.wordpress.com/lighting/gaslight-era/ )
The Wikipedia page for the opera actually shows the staging for the final act: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Meyerbeer_Proph%C3%A8te_D%C3%A9cor_ActVTab3_Chaperon.jpg
By the looks of it, the various scenery flats crack up and fall apart and some thunderflashes get set off on stage, while everybody makes gestures of dismay and falls flat ;-p
As I mentioned, 'the technology at the time' did pretty much focus on dramatic special effects to draw in audiences; the finale of "La Juive" involves the heroine being executed a cauldron of boiling water, and "Robert le diable" was famous for the ghostly effects used to create its ballet of sinful nuns rising from the grave...