section_path: History/Western performing arts/Modern era
section_name: Modern era
paragraph_text: Modern era
  
  The introduction of the proscenium arch in Italy during the 17th century established the traditional theatre form that persists to this day. Meanwhile, in England, the Puritans forbade acting, bringing a halt to performing arts that lasted until 1660. After that, women began to appear in both French and English plays. The French introduced a formal dance instruction in the late 17th century.
  
  It is also during this time that the first plays were performed in the American Colonies.
  
  During the 18th century, the introduction of the popular opera buffa brought opera to the masses as an accessible form of performance. Mozart 's The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni are landmarks of the late 18th century opera.
  
  At the turn of the 19th century, Beethoven and the Romantic movement ushered in a new era that led first to the spectacles of grand opera and then to the musical dramas of Giuseppe Verdi and the Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) of the operas of Richard Wagner leading directly to the music of the 20th century.
  
  The 19th century was a period of growth for the performing arts for all social classes, technical advances such as the introduction of gaslight to theatres, burlesque, minstrel dancing, and variety theatre. In ballet, women make great progress in the previously male-dominated art.
  
  Modern dance began in the late 19th century and early 20th century in response to the restrictions of traditional ballet.The arrival of Sergei Diaghilev 's Ballets Russes (1909–1929) revolutionized ballet and the performing arts generally throughout the Western world, most importantly through Diaghilev's emphasis on collaboration, which brought choreographers, dancers, set designers/artists, composers and musicians together to revitalize and revolutionize ballet. It is extremely complex.
  
  Konstantin Stanislavski 's "System" revolutionized acting in the early 20th century, and continues to have a major influence on actors of stage and screen to the current day. Both impressionism and modern realism were introduced to the stage during this period.
  
  With the invention of the motion picture in the late 19th century by Thomas Edison and the growth of the motion picture industry in Hollywood in the early 20th century, film became a dominant performance medium throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.
  
  Rhythm and blues, a cultural phenomenon of black America, rose to prominence in the early 20th century, influencing a range of later popular music styles internationally.
  
  In the 1930s Jean Rosenthal introduced what would become modern stage lighting, changing the nature of the stage as the Broadway musical became a phenomenon in the United States.