CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, April 15, 2026

‘Innocence’ at the Met Opera Transforms With Backstage Magic

The New York Times: At the Metropolitan Opera, the set of “Innocence” goes on a journey. In the beginning, a rotating midcentury building contains a two-story restaurant. As the set revolves, various spaces are revealed: downstairs and upstairs dining rooms, a kitchen, a closet, a reception area, a patio.

1 comment:

Emily R said...

This scenic design is actually crazy, and seems like a task to design due to the complexity of the changes. The fact that there are eight stage managers on this show plus almost 20 prop members is really wild and just shows how much goes into this scenic design. Something that I have always wondered with scenic design is how you can put a show with multiple locations, like this Opera, and make it into a design that can encompass them all on stage. The idea that this opera has at least five different locations and are fully built up rooms rather than an abstraction of the location is something that would truly seem like magic if you were seeing these changes in real time. I also want to see a backstage time lapse of the show and scenic changes to see what all goes into them and how fast they happen.