Set Design
1955 (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.
Grétry’s Zémire et Azor (1771) is based La Chausée’s comedy, Amour par amour (1742), a variant on Charles Perrault’s fairy tale Beauty and the Beast (1697). This production was first performed at the Bath Theatre Royal as part of the 1955 Bath Festival. Messel's colourful, elegant and fantastic costumes and sets complemented the otherworldliness of the story.
An ink and wash design for the cut cloth, gauze and front cloth for Azor’s palace. Messel’s sets received critical praise for their fantasy and invention ‘The production … is marvellously ingenious, and turns the smallness of the stage to positive advantage. Oliver Messel’s décor has a Cocteau-like whimsy, and Sir Thomas nearly deceives us into mistaking the tinselly patches in the score for pure gold’ (Daily Telegraph, 12 May 1955).
Grétry’s Zémire et Azor (1771) is based La Chausée’s comedy, Amour par amour (1742), a variant on Charles Perrault’s fairy tale Beauty and the Beast (1697). This production was first performed at the Bath Theatre Royal as part of the 1955 Bath Festival. Messel's colourful, elegant and fantastic costumes and sets complemented the otherworldliness of the story.
An ink and wash design for the cut cloth, gauze and front cloth for Azor’s palace. Messel’s sets received critical praise for their fantasy and invention ‘The production … is marvellously ingenious, and turns the smallness of the stage to positive advantage. Oliver Messel’s décor has a Cocteau-like whimsy, and Sir Thomas nearly deceives us into mistaking the tinselly patches in the score for pure gold’ (Daily Telegraph, 12 May 1955).
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Charcoal, pencil, ink and wash on paper |
| Brief description | Set design by Oliver Messel for Zander's House in Grétry's opera Zémire et Azor, Bath Festival Society 1955 |
| Physical description | Set design for the outside of Azor's palace by Oliver Messel for a Bath Festival Society production of Zémire et Azor, 1955. A study in ink and wash on two pieces of paper stuck one on top of the other. |
| Dimensions |
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| Production type | Design |
| Credit line | Acquired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A |
| Object history | Zémire et Azor, an opera (1771) in four acts composed by Grétry with libretto by Marmontell from La Chausée’s comedy, Amour par amour (1742), a variant on Charles Perrault’s fairy tale Beauty and the Beast (1697). Oliver Messel’s production was first performed at the Bath Festival, Theatre Royal, Bath, on 11 May 1955. It was directed by Anthony Besch with choreography by William Chappel and featured Huguette Boulangeot as Zémire and Michael Sénécal as Azor. 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. |
| 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. Grétry’s Zémire et Azor (1771) is based La Chausée’s comedy, Amour par amour (1742), a variant on Charles Perrault’s fairy tale Beauty and the Beast (1697). This production was first performed at the Bath Theatre Royal as part of the 1955 Bath Festival. Messel's colourful, elegant and fantastic costumes and sets complemented the otherworldliness of the story. An ink and wash design for the cut cloth, gauze and front cloth for Azor’s palace. Messel’s sets received critical praise for their fantasy and invention ‘The production … is marvellously ingenious, and turns the smallness of the stage to positive advantage. Oliver Messel’s décor has a Cocteau-like whimsy, and Sir Thomas nearly deceives us into mistaking the tinselly patches in the score for pure gold’ (Daily Telegraph, 12 May 1955). |
| 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
ISBN 0905209508) |
| Other number | ROT 4194 - TM Rotation Number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.346-2006 |
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| Record created | August 31, 2006 |
| Record URL |
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