ABSTRACT
This has not stopped historians marking 1876 as the start of the modern movement. In this respect the evolution of opera house and playhouse are seen as one. Wagner is venerated as the first to remove all of the distractions inherent in the multi-tier auditorium with the aim of concentrating attention on the stage picture contained within the proscenium arch. The stage pictures which Wagner created behind a heavy black frame were naturalistic in style and were seen in a darkened auditorium as images on a cinema screen were viewed half a century later. Indeed the focus and hence form of Wagner’s theatre can be said to be cinematic rather than theatrical. His audiences were to forgo any social
distractions and, forsaking all others, surrender themselves passively to the music drama of the master.
