Costume Design
1950 (designed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Oliver Messel (1904-1978) was Britain’s leading theatre designer throughout the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s, mastering every aspect of entertainment - ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue - as well as working in interior decoration and textile design. His lavish, painterly and romantic concepts were perfectly in tune with the times and earned him an international reputation. By 1960, however, that style was becoming unfashionable, and Messel gradually abandoned theatre and built a new career designing luxury homes in the Caribbean.
Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, with libretto by Hugo von Hofsmannsthal, was a one-act opera written in 1912 to follow performances of Molière’s comic play Le Bourgeois gentilhomme. The difficulties of staging such a lengthy work, which required an acting company as well as an opera company, led Strauss to revise the work in 1916 so that it could be staged without the play.
Glyndebourne Festival Opera presented Strauss’s original opera preceded by a shortened version of Le Bourgeoise gentilhomme at the 1950 Edinburgh Festival. Oliver Messel designed the settings and costumes. This production was revived at Glyndebourne in 1962 with an acting company from the Old Vic.
Monsieur Jourdain, a character from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670), is a nouveau riche businessman aspiring to the lifestyle of an aristocrat. He plans to entertain his guests with a dinner party and a theatrical entertainment, combining a serious opera based on the Greek myth of Ariadne and Bacchus with a comic harlequinade. In both the 1950 and 1962 Glyndebourne productions the role of Monsieur Jourdain was taken by Miles Malleson.
Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, with libretto by Hugo von Hofsmannsthal, was a one-act opera written in 1912 to follow performances of Molière’s comic play Le Bourgeois gentilhomme. The difficulties of staging such a lengthy work, which required an acting company as well as an opera company, led Strauss to revise the work in 1916 so that it could be staged without the play.
Glyndebourne Festival Opera presented Strauss’s original opera preceded by a shortened version of Le Bourgeoise gentilhomme at the 1950 Edinburgh Festival. Oliver Messel designed the settings and costumes. This production was revived at Glyndebourne in 1962 with an acting company from the Old Vic.
Monsieur Jourdain, a character from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670), is a nouveau riche businessman aspiring to the lifestyle of an aristocrat. He plans to entertain his guests with a dinner party and a theatrical entertainment, combining a serious opera based on the Greek myth of Ariadne and Bacchus with a comic harlequinade. In both the 1950 and 1962 Glyndebourne productions the role of Monsieur Jourdain was taken by Miles Malleson.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Pencil, charcoal, watercolour and gold paint on paper |
| Brief description | Costume design by Oliver Messel for Monsieur Jourdain in Richard Strauss's opera Ariadne auf Naxos, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 1950 or 1962. |
| Physical description | Costume design for Monsieur Jourdain in Ariadne auf Naxos, 1950 or 1962. Full length male figure in a late 17th century style wide-brimmed dark grey hat and a grey-blue coat, richly patterned in gold and trimmed with red ribbons, with a deep pink sash and red shoes and stockings. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Credit line | Acquired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A |
| Object history | Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, with libretto by Hugo von Hofsmannsthal, was originally a one-act opera, written to follow performances of Molière’s play Le Bourgeois gentilhomme in 1912. In 1916 Strauss revised the work so that it could be staged without Molière’s drama. Glyndebourne Festival Opera presented Strauss’s original opera with a shortened version of Le Bourgeoise gentilhomme at the 1950 Edinburgh Festival. Oliver Messel designed the settings and costumes. In 1953 the 1916 version of Ariadne auf Naxos was given at Glyndebourne with new designs by Messel, and these designs were used in revivals throughout the 1950s. In 1962 Glyndebourne restaged its Edinburgh Festival production with an acting company from the Old Vic and reverted to Messel’s 1950 designs. Lord Snowdon, Oliver Messel's nephew, inherited Messel's theatre designs and other designs and artefacts. The designs were briefly stored in a disused chapel in Kensington Palace before being housed at the V&A from 1981 on indefinite loan. The V&A Theatre Museum purchased the Oliver Messel collection from Lord Snowdon in 2005. Historical significance: Messel worked for Glyndebourne from 1951 to 1959, when he was at the height of his popularity as a designer for the stage. His Glyndebourne designs are regarded as some of his best work. |
| Production | The design might relate to the Glyndebourne Festival Opera production of 1950 (seen at the Edinburgh Festival) or to the revival of this production at Glyndebourne in 1962. |
| Summary | Oliver Messel (1904-1978) was Britain’s leading theatre designer throughout the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s, mastering every aspect of entertainment - ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue - as well as working in interior decoration and textile design. His lavish, painterly and romantic concepts were perfectly in tune with the times and earned him an international reputation. By 1960, however, that style was becoming unfashionable, and Messel gradually abandoned theatre and built a new career designing luxury homes in the Caribbean. Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, with libretto by Hugo von Hofsmannsthal, was a one-act opera written in 1912 to follow performances of Molière’s comic play Le Bourgeois gentilhomme. The difficulties of staging such a lengthy work, which required an acting company as well as an opera company, led Strauss to revise the work in 1916 so that it could be staged without the play. Glyndebourne Festival Opera presented Strauss’s original opera preceded by a shortened version of Le Bourgeoise gentilhomme at the 1950 Edinburgh Festival. Oliver Messel designed the settings and costumes. This production was revived at Glyndebourne in 1962 with an acting company from the Old Vic. Monsieur Jourdain, a character from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670), is a nouveau riche businessman aspiring to the lifestyle of an aristocrat. He plans to entertain his guests with a dinner party and a theatrical entertainment, combining a serious opera based on the Greek myth of Ariadne and Bacchus with a comic harlequinade. In both the 1950 and 1962 Glyndebourne productions the role of Monsieur Jourdain was taken by Miles Malleson. |
| Bibliographic reference | Pinkham, Roger (ed.) Oliver Messel: an exhibition held at the Theatre Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, 22 June - 30 September 1983.
London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983. 200p., ill. |
| Other number | ROT 21 - TM Rotation Number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.806-2011 |
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| Record created | August 26, 2011 |
| Record URL |
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