Set Model
1954 (designed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Great Britain’s leading theatre designer from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, Oliver Messel (1904-1978) won international acclaim for his lavish, painterly and poetic designs informed by period styles. His work spans ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue. Messel’s traditional style of theatre design became unfashionable from the mid 1950s onwards, and he increasingly concentrated on painting, interior and textile design, including designing luxury homes in the Caribbean.
Rossini’s opera Le Comte Ory is set in medieval rural France. Countess Adèle is alone with her ladies at Castle Formoutiers while the men are away on a Crusade. Count Ory disguises himself as a hermit and nun to penetrate the Castle so that he can court the Countess. Appropriately, Messel designed medieval costumes and sets for the production at Glyndebourne in 1954, inspired by fifteenth century French and Netherlandish decorative art and paintings.
The set model for Act I shows the castle in its rural setting. It is composed of cut- out paper designs affixed to the wooden model frame, including delicate cut-outs of flowers and rabbits. Painted gauze is used for the trees and he painted acetate with waves to indicate the castle’s moat, to which he affixed paper cut-outs of swans.
Rossini’s opera Le Comte Ory is set in medieval rural France. Countess Adèle is alone with her ladies at Castle Formoutiers while the men are away on a Crusade. Count Ory disguises himself as a hermit and nun to penetrate the Castle so that he can court the Countess. Appropriately, Messel designed medieval costumes and sets for the production at Glyndebourne in 1954, inspired by fifteenth century French and Netherlandish decorative art and paintings.
The set model for Act I shows the castle in its rural setting. It is composed of cut- out paper designs affixed to the wooden model frame, including delicate cut-outs of flowers and rabbits. Painted gauze is used for the trees and he painted acetate with waves to indicate the castle’s moat, to which he affixed paper cut-outs of swans.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Wood, cardboard, fabric, and paint. |
| Brief description | Set model by Oliver Messel for the outside of a castle in Touraine, Act I of Rossini's opera Le Comte Ory, Glyndebourne 1954. |
| Physical description | Set model of the outside of a medieval castle in Touraine by Oliver Messel for a Glyndebourne production of Le Comte Ory, 1954. The set model is enclosed in a wooden box with velvet strips on the inside. Proscenium arch made of card. Trees and fence in the foreground. The castle on the left, with a draw bridge lowered over the moat. Sheets of painted acetate to indicate water. Blue backdrop. |
| Dimensions |
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| Production type | Design |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'COMTE ORY' (Written in ink on label on the side of the wooden box.) |
| Credit line | Acquired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A |
| Object history | Le Comte Ory(1828), an opera in two acts composed by Rossini with a libretto by Scribe and Poirson. Oliver Messel’s production was first performed at the Edinburgh International Festival by the Glyndebourne Festival Society on 23 August, 1954. It was directed by Carl Ebert; choreography by Pauline Grant and featured Bruscantini as Raimbaud and Oncina as Count Ory. It was revived in 1955, 1957 and 1958 at Glyndebourne and in 1958 in Paris. Roger Pinkham has said of this production that “Messel concentrated on such designs as are found in the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, and in Flemish and Netherlandish painting.” (Pinkham, ed., 1983) 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 work for Glyndebourne in this period is regarded as some of his best designs. |
| Production | Reason For Production: Commission |
| Summary | Great Britain’s leading theatre designer from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, Oliver Messel (1904-1978) won international acclaim for his lavish, painterly and poetic designs informed by period styles. His work spans ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue. Messel’s traditional style of theatre design became unfashionable from the mid 1950s onwards, and he increasingly concentrated on painting, interior and textile design, including designing luxury homes in the Caribbean. Rossini’s opera Le Comte Ory is set in medieval rural France. Countess Adèle is alone with her ladies at Castle Formoutiers while the men are away on a Crusade. Count Ory disguises himself as a hermit and nun to penetrate the Castle so that he can court the Countess. Appropriately, Messel designed medieval costumes and sets for the production at Glyndebourne in 1954, inspired by fifteenth century French and Netherlandish decorative art and paintings. The set model for Act I shows the castle in its rural setting. It is composed of cut- out paper designs affixed to the wooden model frame, including delicate cut-outs of flowers and rabbits. Painted gauze is used for the trees and he painted acetate with waves to indicate the castle’s moat, to which he affixed paper cut-outs of swans. |
| Associated object | S.66-2006 (Version) |
| Bibliographic reference | Pinkham, Roger (ed.) Oliver Messel, London, V&A, 1983
illus. pp.28-29 |
| Other number | ROT 8825 - TM Rotation Number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.217-2006 |
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| Record created | July 27, 2006 |
| Record URL |
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