What Colour is White?

Paris Opéra, November 21st 1831 - a gas batten has fallen to the stage, the tenor has toppled into a trap and a heavy cloth has crashed from the flys and nearly killed the ballerina. This is the premiere of Meyerbeer's opera Robert le Diable, the show that changed ballet history. And oddly enough, though it was obviously Taglioni's integration of pointe work into the narrative sweep of the ballet that caused the sensation, the ill-fated sets and lighting turned out - in the long run - to be almost as important in the development of Romantic ballet. Diffused white light, stage mist, moon-beams, cast shadows, spotlights and cross-fading were the cutting edge of nineteenth-century stage technology. And these innovations not only made the new supernatural scenarios possible, they established a range of techniques that have remained in use, particularly in the traditional rep of the Royal Ballet. I've worked at the Royal Opera House for 30 years, in and out of the dye shop, in the flys, up in the roof, and never ceased to be amazed at the way we create "white" acts from traditional stage colours, use manual operators on the spots, and create moon after moon of matchless perfection... 

Sarah Lenton has spent her working life in the theatre: her principal employers are the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival opera, and Garsington Opera. She writes programme articles and scripts, and gives lectures on the operas and ballets in the rep. She is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and has written and directed shows for the ROH Linbury Studio Theatre and the Glyndebourne Tour.