In a previous post I wrote about the connection between fashion designers and the theatre, ballet and opera.
Such connections were strengthened recently thanks to new collaborations such as Emanuel Ungaro's costumes for Mozart's La clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus), recently staged at Naples’ San Carlo Theatre and Prada's work on the costumes for Verdi’s Attila that will soon debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
Christian Lacroix’s name was completely forgotten during the recent Haute Couture Fashion Week and that was a shame. Yet it's good to see he hasn't lost his passion for costume design.
The designer recently worked on the costumes for Agrippina by Georg Friedrich Händel, currently on at the Berlin State Opera.
The opera – with René Jacobs as conductor, Vincent Boussard as director, set designs by Vincent Lemaire and featuring Bulgarian soprano Alexandrina Pendatchanska as Agrippina and Marcos Fink as Claudio – was very aptly premiered in Berlin a few days ago.
I have written ‘very aptly’ since the opera was first composed for the 1709–10 Venice Carnival season and the Carnival celebrations officially started in Venice last Saturday (Carnival falls on 16th February this year).
The opera, composed by Händel at the end of a three-year visit to Italy from a libretto by Cardinal Vincenzo Grimani, tells the story of Agrippina, the mother of Nero, who plans the downfall of the Roman Emperor Claudius and the installation of her son as emperor.
In a way even if you didn’t know that Lacroix designed the costumes for this opera, you could still guess it from the details and silhouettes.
The main inspiration was the Baroque era, though (most of) the designs were simplified and stripped down to allow maximum movement to the actors.
You can see a clip from the opera here, while what follows is a rather interesting video that follows Lacroix during the fittings and also shows a few details about the costumes (check out the very end with Lacroix talking about the fabrics chosen).
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