The impact of gaslight on
stage
was dramatic and impressed the public and press of the period alike. The following account, given by Leigh Hunt, editor and critic at the Examiner, describes the possibilities inherent in gas lighting. After watching gaslit performances at the Covent Garden and the Drury Lane theatres, he wrote on September 7, 1818: "… can promise our readers much satisfaction with the gas-light, which is introduced not only in front of the stage, but at various compartments on each side: their effect, as they appear suddenly from the gloom, is like the striking of day light …".
The gaslight installation included footlights and winglights, but lacked lighting from above, on which Hunt commented: "… if the front light could be thrown, as daylight is, from above instead of below the effect would be perfect".
The use of gaslight in the theatre spread rapidly over Europe. In 1832, the Comedie Francaise installed an extensive gaslight system , yet the use of oil lamps as footlights persisted well into the second half of the 19th century since the Comedie Francaise actors objected to the blinding glare of gaslight as footlights.
Gaslight was soon adopted in American theatres too. The Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia was illuminated by a gas light system as early as 1816. An advertisement in the Aurora in November 1816 claimed this to be the first application of gaslighting in theatre in America and boasted that the lighting system was both safe and brilliant. The Chestnut Theatre burnt down only four years later, on April 1820, one of the first casualties of the new system. Nonetheless, theatres in Baltimore, Boston and in New Orleans soon followed suit and introduced gaslight to their stages. |
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A gas control room at the Paris Opera 1875.
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