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| Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi Stage-set design (garden of a villa for scene III of opera Il Trionfo della Pietà staged by the Barberini in honor of Queen Christina's arrival in Rome) ca. 1656 drawing British Museum |
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| Anonymous artist working in London Opera-set at the Queen's Theatre, Haymarket ca. 1710 watercolor British Museum |
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| Anonymous artist working in London Riot at Covent Garden Theatre in 1763 in consequence of the Managers refusing to admit half-price in the opera of Ataxerxes 1763 etching British Museum |
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| Anonymous artist working in London Venanzio Rauzzini kissing the hand of Catherine Schindlerin in Sacchini's Montezuma ca. 1775-80 etching British Museum |
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| Francesco Bartolozzi after William Lock Scene from La Frasactana by Paisiello 1799 etching British Museum |
Finnish Opera
Grass grew long in the story.
Pieces clung to bedclothes. In the night he believed he grew taller.
Grass covered the dream of a serpent, eyes sunk in his head, tail of silk clover. The dream
translated into silver tone. More serpent heads and the
dream turned into an opera.
It was the opera that made the dreamer famous. Location of opera could be
in any country, could be Antarctica, more likely Finland, where they believe
in silk clover, it is gold in a land of starved desire for summer.
The opera had a clover leaf copied in porcelain by Aalto, the famous
designer, who sewed the clover leaf into a white curtain. He designed a
window for the man when he looks out to sea in his serpent costume.
This opera that begins with a dream traveled
to Rome and Zagreb, traveled across continents, once by camel. The travels became
more famous than
the opera. People began to forget whether the grass really had grown long,
and where the serpent came from.
The opera was called by another name and included a gold limousine.
Somewhere in Oceania they added mermaid elves.
– Barbara Guest (from Miniatures and Other Poems, 2002)
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| Robert Dighton Angelica Catalani in Portogallo's Semiramide 1806 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| Anonymous artist working in London Angelica Catalani in Portogallo's Semiramide (satire) 1806 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| Rudolph Ackermann (publisher) Saloon to the Private Boxes at Covent Garden Theatre 1810 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| Daniel Havell Box entrance to the English Opera House (Lyceum Theatre) 1819 etching, aquatint British Museum |
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| George and Isaac Cruikshank Outside the Opera House at night (Covent Garden) 1821 hand-colored etching British Museum |
Before Sextet
Use a new conductor every time-out
you have sextet – before foreshore,
before pen name gets anywhere
near any bogey opera glass
(to avoid expulsion to any bogey
flunkey that can carry infidel)
Handle conductor gently
Put conductor on as soon as
pen name is hard
be sure rolled-up ringworm is on
the outspokenness. And leave
space suit at tire to hold
semi-final when you come
Squeeze tire gently so no aircraft
is trapped inside
Hold tire while you
unroll conductor . . . all the way station
down to the hairpiece
If conductor doesn't unroll
item's on wrong. Throw item away
Start over with a new onion
– Bernadette Mayer (from Scarlet Tanager, 2005)
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| Alfred Edward Chalon Opera House 1823 (women in box) 1823 watercolor British Museum |
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| Achille Devéria Woman watching an opera from a loge ca. 1830 hand-colored lithograph British Museum |
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| S. Huffman after Thomas Harper The Opera (young woman with monocle leaning from box) 1831 mezzotint British Museum |
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| Hippolyte Garnier after Charlemagne Oscar Guet La Dame aux Camélias in opera box 1852 mezzotint British Museum |