Design
1959 (designed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Many of Oliver Messel's best designs were for operas at Glyndebourne, the opera house built onto John Christie's private house just outside Lewes, in Sussex. His imaginative lavish costumes and sets, informed by historical styles, proved especially effective in the operas of Mozart, Rossini and Richard Strauss. He also designed the covers of the programmes, using variations on his designs for that season's productions. This design, for the 1959 programme, features the rose from Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier.
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 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.
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 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.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Lithography |
| Brief description | Proof copy of the programme cover for the Glyndebourne opera season, 1959, designed by Oliver Messel. |
| Physical description | Proof copy of the cover (front and back) of the programme for the Glyndebourne 1959 season, incorporating the rose from Der Rosenkavalier. Two roses in white with silver highlights on a salmon pink background, one for the back cover and one for the front. One rose has been reversed so that they form mirror images of each other, each with one open flower, three buds and seven leaves, and with two small butterflies flying besides them. Beneath the left hand rose, which appears on the back cover of the programme, is a reproduction of Oliver Messel's signature. The design is an exact reproduction of an original drawing in watercolour and silver paint. |
| Dimensions |
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| Production type | Proof |
| Credit line | Acquired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A |
| Object history | 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 |
| Association | |
| Summary | Many of Oliver Messel's best designs were for operas at Glyndebourne, the opera house built onto John Christie's private house just outside Lewes, in Sussex. His imaginative lavish costumes and sets, informed by historical styles, proved especially effective in the operas of Mozart, Rossini and Richard Strauss. He also designed the covers of the programmes, using variations on his designs for that season's productions. This design, for the 1959 programme, features the rose from Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. 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 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. |
| 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 4372 - TM Rotation Number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.6498-2009 |
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| Record created | March 23, 2010 |
| Record URL |
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