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 originally a one-act opera, written to follow performances of Molière’s 1670 comic play Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and first staged in 1912. The difficulties of presenting such a lengthy evening’s entertainment, which required both an acting company and an opera company, led Strauss to revise the work in 1916 so that it could be staged without the play. Glyndebourne Festival Opera presented the original 1912 opera preceded by a shortened version of Le Bourgeoise gentilhomme at the 1950 Edinburgh Festival, with sets and costumes by Oliver Messel. In 1953 the 1916 version was staged 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.
Madame Jourdain, a character from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670), is the wife of a nouveau riche businessman who aspires 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.
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 1670 comic play Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and first staged in 1912. The difficulties of presenting such a lengthy evening’s entertainment, which required both an acting company and an opera company, led Strauss to revise the work in 1916 so that it could be staged without the play. Glyndebourne Festival Opera presented the original 1912 opera preceded by a shortened version of Le Bourgeoise gentilhomme at the 1950 Edinburgh Festival, with sets and costumes by Oliver Messel. In 1953 the 1916 version was staged 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.
Madame Jourdain, a character from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670), is the wife of a nouveau riche businessman who aspires 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.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Materials and techniques | Pencil, watercolour and gouache on paper |
Brief description | Costume design by Oliver Messel for Madame Jourdain in Richard Strauss's opera Ariadne auf Naxos, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 1950 or 1962. |
Physical description | Costume design by Oliver Messel for Madame Jourdain in Ariadne auf Naxos, 1950 or 1962. Full length female figure wearing a late 17th century style dress with a black bodice and grey-blue skirt with a purple overskirt gathered at the back. She has a white lace-trimmed apron, a wide white collar and a white cap tied under the chin. She carries a basket of flowers in her right hand and a small red watering can in her left. |
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 originally a one-act opera, written to follow performances of Molière’s 1670 comic play Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and first staged in 1912. The difficulties of presenting such a lengthy evening’s entertainment, which required both an acting company and an opera company, led Strauss to revise the work in 1916 so that it could be staged without the play. Glyndebourne Festival Opera presented the original 1912 opera preceded by a shortened version of Le Bourgeoise gentilhomme at the 1950 Edinburgh Festival, with sets and costumes by Oliver Messel. In 1953 the 1916 version was staged 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. Madame Jourdain, a character from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670), is the wife of a nouveau riche businessman who aspires 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. |
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 31 - TM Rotation Number |
Collection | |
Accession number | S.808-2011 |
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Record created | August 26, 2011 |
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