Stage design for Richard Wagner's opera "lohengrin", Act 3, Bridal Chamber 1905

This is Alfred Roller’s stage design for Richard Wagner's opera "Lohengrin" created in 1906, it appears to be a charcoal drawing. The marks feel certain, even though the work deals with something intangible, the stage. I’m interested in the way that the architecture is rendered with such care, but is also illusory. There is something almost dreamlike, or nightmarish about the heavy stonework and cavernous hearth. Look at the light coming from the fire, a burst of energy amongst the heavy lines. The stage design isn’t a painting, but you can sense a painterly touch in the way that the darkness is applied so gesturally. The drawing reminds me of Piranesi and his etchings of imaginary prisons. It also makes me think about de Chirico and his stage designs. The drawing becomes a conversation across time. It’s a drawing but also so much more.