A lot of times I see torches, rings of fire, etc., in opera that look amazingly lifelike, but I know simply can’t be real.
Does anyone know how these effects are created?
We used to use strips of silk that were blown by a fan, and then lit for the bottom with red and yellow light - very realistic looking.
For fake fire, one method is to use some lightweight silk a couple of fans and some coloured lights. Here this explains things much better than I could.
Don’t assume that everything is fake, either. I’ve used a lot of real fire in musical productions. You just use specially designed tools that snuff out easily and professionally trained people using them.