Page - 368 - in Musiktheater im höfischen Raum des frühneuzeitlichen Europa - Hof – Oper – Architektur

Juan José Carreras 368 To Carlier’s crucial ground plan, which as we saw gives no information about the height and disposition of the interior, we may add an invaluable series of drafts used for the distribution of the audience between 1655 and 1760, which have been only partially studied and which are of paramount importance to gain a clear idea of the structure and function of the theatrical space of the coliseo. (Fig. 3)30 Most of these distribution plans are conceived for a specific performance, as notes such as “por esta vez” (for this occa- sion) clearly prescribe, to avoid claims of property or precedence by the invited specta- tors. An early example belonging to a performance planned for the 30  May 1708 at the Coliseo by the Italian Commedia del arte players may help us grasp the importance and interest of this kind of source.31 The sketch clearly indicates an interior of three floors (suelos) with eight boxes on each floor (four on each side). Just in front of the stage are 30 For a useful survey of the surviving documentary evidence for the 17th-century interior and its public and courtly functions, see Flórez Asensio 1998. 31 Biblioteca Nacional de España, Ms. 20273/29. Purchased by the library in 2001, this seating-plan must be added to the list of sources published in Greer  /  Varey 1997, pp.  249–256. For a transcription of this document, although wrongly located at the Archivo General de Palacio (Madrid), see López Ale- many  /  Varey 2006, pp.  76–77. Figure  3.  Distribution of boxes for a performance at the Buen Retiro theatre, Madrid 30 May 1708.