May 26, 2019
turlupin replied to your post:
Hi, sorry I tried searching, but is as wondering...
Apparently a decision by Maria to mitigate Theater an der Wien’s seating arrangements - more than half of the guests would have a side view of the chandelier, making the shape awkward to look at. The first photo is definetly not from Vienna though. They had 3 lamps between every harp, the photo has just 2. Also the lowest tier had a round arrangement of beaded strings :P
Thank you! I can think of other productions with a lot of side view, so I still think the chandelier somehow made things more complicated to the point where they didn’t repeat it. But it certainly makes sense.