Adolphe Appia

Adolphe Appia (1 September 1862 – 29 February 1928), son of Red Cross co-founder Louis Appia, was a Swiss architect and theorist of stage lighting and décor. Early life Adolphe Appia was raised in Geneva, Switzerland, in a "strictly Calvinistic home".:7 He attended boarding school at the Collège de Vevey starting in 1873 at the age of 11, where he remained until 1879.:7 He saw his first professional theatre production at the age of 16, when he attended a production of Charles Gounod's Faust.:8 He studied music at the Leipzig Conservatory (1882–83) and at a music school in Dresden (1886–90).:8 Career Appia is best known for his many scenic designs for Wagner’s operas.:7 He rejected painted two-dimensional sets for three-dimensional "living" sets because he believed that shade was as necessary as light to form a connection between the actor and the setting of the performance in time and space. Through the use of control of light intensity, colour and manipulation, Appia created a new perspective of scene design and stage lighting.