This conductor carries the full responsibility for the progress of the opera. Video screens spotted around the stage and auditorium show a picture of the conductor, enabling singers to watch for cues without looking directly into the pit. Originally the conductor's only job seems to have been to beat time.
Roman records tell of leaders who kept time by stamping their feet or tapping their toes.
In those cases, the leader was one of the musicians who needed his hands to play his instrument. Gradually silent beating, using hand motions, replaced the audible beat. Formerly conductors might have used a roll of parchment or paper to indicate the tempo as shown in the picture of Carl Maria von Weber to the left. This was the beginning of the modern baton . During a performance of his Te Deum , the seventeenth-century composer, Lully, beat time on the floor with a staff.