A luxury book, embodied into a wood sculpture by archistar Mario Botta, enriched by a numbered and signed print by William Kentridge.

Denise Poray-Wendel takes us into the uncharted territory of the intertwining of visual and musical arts. Painting the Stage first examines more than 200 years of opera stage design, unravelling this rich historical tale through more than 300 illustrations, interviews, and accurate reconstructions. The most complete resource book yet on the subject, it will be of great interest to those in the fields of art as well as opera.

The exquisite wooden sculpture created and signed by archistar Mario Botta, functions like a proscenium theatre framing the numbered print created exclusively for this publication William Kentridge. A luxury cloth-covered copy of Denise Wendel-Poray's Painting the Stage is hidden in a sliding drawer in the back.

There are four separate and distinct versions of this limited edition, with special woods for each: an ash wood sculpture for the two William Kentridge sugar lift aquatints, walnut for the print by the Kabakovs, and durmast for that of Jan Fabre.

Mario Botta designed the box exclusively for the project, and Riva1920 made them. All the prints have been numbered and signed by the artists. Each print is related to an opera production that was designed by the artist and that is discussed in detail in a chapter of Painting the Stage.