we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, but they would mould our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking.
In classical ballets like Swan Lake, where the ballerina wears the traditional tutu, it is the costumes worn by the non-dancing or walking on roles which help establish time and place in the mind of the audience. This beautifully detailed, yet theatrical, headdress, from the Sadler’s Wells (now Royal) Ballet’s 1943 production, perfectly suggests a medieval setting, while still belonging to a fantasy world.
The designer of the production, Leslie Hurry, was relatively new to ballet design, having made his reputation as a surrealist painter. This made him an ideal choice to create the world of Swan Lake, where the realistic costumes of the court anchored the more flamboyantly dream-like sets and the basic unrealistic dance costumes. His designs were so successful that, with various reworkings, they were still in use thirty years later. By the 1970s, however, he had had enough and pleaded with the Royal Ballet never to ask him to design or revise the costumes again.
am Gopal was one of the most important dancers of the 20th century and certainly one of the most exotic theatre performers. He was a major figure in the revival of Indian dance and his spectacular theatrical presentations introduced it to audiences both in Asia and the West. He was proud of the authenticity of his music, costuming and style, shrewdly tailored his presentations to Western audiences, using modern theatrical techniques and spectacular presentation.
This costume was worn by Gopal in The Eagle Dance, (1939) one of his most famous solos; in it he portrayed Garuda, the sacred golden eagle of Lord Vishnu, whose mission was to destroy the Naga (snake) people, for which Vishnu rewarded him with immortality. The costume is made of gold leather, cut into ‘feathers’ and lotus shapes, trimmed with brilliant blue, and under the stage lights would have shone with a sun-like radiance entirely fitted to a servant of a god.
Such costumes were expensive, some were insured for as much as £25,000, and they had to be carefully looked after. Thus, the wings and headdress for this costume had specially designed carrying cases to protect them on the long journeys between engagements.
Jocelyn Herbert (1917-2003) trained at the London Theatre Studio run by Michel Saint Denis and George Devine, graduating in 1938. She worked with Devine for ten years and her minimal settings, in which realistic details were placed within simplified settings, revolutionised post-war stage design. Her work was seen at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the National Theatre, where her designs for Peter Hall’s productions of The Oresteia (1981) and The Oedipus Plays (1996), using full masks, were much admired.
Herbert used her experience of creating the masks for The Oresteia when she came to design Harrison Birtwistle’s opera, The Mask of Orpheus. The opera tells and re-tells different versions of the Orpheus myth using singers, mime artists and puppets. All were masked, the singers requiring half-masks, the mimes and puppets full masks. Some puppets were the size and proportion of the human figure but with larger heads and masks, others were larger than life. Each mask was made from a clay mould and painted to create stylised human faces.
Lila de Nobili (1916-2002) was a designer of great delicacy and ingenuity. In 1968, she designed Peter Wright’s production of The Sleeping Beauty for the Royal Ballet, and the surviving artefacts are little masterpieces of both imagination and craftsmanship. There were, in fact, so many visual delights that it took several viewings to realise them all.
In Act III of the ballet, the guests at the wedding of Princess Aurora and her Prince include several fairy-tale characters, including Red Riding Hood and the Wolf. The costume for the Wolf was a glorious mix of realism and imagination, the mask intensely realistic, allied to a chain-mail tunic and tights, with a very smart little hat. This wolf’s head was a superb example of animal headdress-making. It was devised by the great mask-maker Rostislav Doboujinsky, who was later to make the headdresses for the film of Frederick Ashton’s ballet Tales of Beatrix Potter. Dancing under the heat of stage lights is uncomfortable, and having to wear full head mask is not popular with the performers, so the masks have to be as light as possible and give some ventilation. By the 1960s, new materials allowed Doboujinsky to create heads that were substantial but light enough to be worn for long periods, give as wide an angle of vision as possible and try to ensure that the wearer did not overheat.
Throughout the 20th century, great painters have been employed to design sets and costumes, with varying degrees of success. Among the most successful is David Hockney (born 1937), whose bold sense of form and colour are admirably suited to the stage. His ability to absorb a subject and then embody it visually using only the essential elements gives a great simplicity to his stage pictures, creating the essence of a character, theme or period.
Stravinsky’s opera The Nightingale (Le Rossignol), is based on Hans Andersen’s story of the Chinese Emperor who replaces a nightingale with a mechanical bird. When the Emperor falls ill, Death agrees to spare the Emperor if the nightingale will sing once more. Hockney’s designs were highly stylized, set and costumes limited to shades of blue, black and white, reminiscent of the Chinoiserie Willow Pattern design. This costume is for the Bonze, a Buddhist monk, and the robe’s very simplicity married to the high, stylized headdress help establish the character’s authority.
![Costume for a Little God in Fokine’s ballet Le Dieu bleu designed by Leon Bakst, Diaghilev Ballet, 1912. [Theatre costume] Long-sleeved tunic of gold metal jersey set with gold studs. Around the neck is a gold band with gilt medallions linked to gold epaulettes with loops of gold cord and beads. [Theatre costume] White bell-shaped trousers with gold waistband. Down centre front and side seams are gold flaps linked by gold cord loops. The lower legs are stiffened gold jersey set with gold braid and studs and edged with gilt ball buttons. [Theatre costume] Tall papier maché conical headdress, moulded as four graduated child heads on a base band of gold tissue from which hang gold cord loops.](http://media.vam.ac.uk/media/thira/collection_images/2010CT/2010CT4798_jpg_ds.jpg)
Costume for a Little God in Fokine’s ballet Le Dieu bleu designed by Leon Bakst, Diaghilev Ballet, 1912.
[Theatre costume] Long-sleeved tunic of gold metal jersey set with gold studs. Around the neck is a gold band with gilt medallions linked to gold epaulettes with loops of gold cord and beads.
[Theatre costume] White bell-shaped trousers with gold waistband. Down centre front and side seams are gold flaps linked by gold cord loops. The lower legs are stiffened gold jersey set with gold braid and studs and edged with gilt ball buttons.
[Theatre costume] Tall papier maché conical headdress, moulded as four graduated child heads on a base band of gold tissue from which hang gold cord loops.
oh my word thankyou! I’ll change it now :)
these photos were taken in the Vienna MuseumsQuartier function room 3 and for the life of me I’ve forgotten the names of the artists, I thought I’d written them down. ANYWAY.
the exhibit was called Get in the Haze.
“The second photo in a dressing room includes Lydia Lopokova’s Sylph costume, Lydia Sokolova’s Hostess dress from Les Biches and Bolm’s belt and cap from his Polovtsian Chief costume, all of which are included in the V&A’s current exhibition. Also scattered on hangers, over the back of the chair and on the floor are the body tights and costume elements worn by Nicholas Zverev and Vera Nemchinova as the Acrobats in Parade, which were acquired by the Bibliothèque-nationale in 1967.
Interestingly many of the costumes displayed were loaned by Cyril Beaumont (his collection was bequeathed to the V&A) or by Serge Grigoriev. Grigoriev’s collection formed the nucleus of the first, 1967, major Sotheby’s Ballets Russes auction. It was in this part of the exhibition that the Guerlain Mitsouko perfume (Diaghilev’s favourite in the 1920s) was sprayed each day.” (text from V&A blog, bold mine)
As a perfume nerd, this makes me so happy.
