I mentioned Greek mythology towards the end of yesterday’s post, so let’s look today at a protagonist of a Greek tragedy, Medea.
My favourite representation of this tragic character on the big screen remains Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film Medea featuring Maria Callas (donning costumes by Piero Tosi).
In a previous post I looked at that costume and at Medea’s figure in fashion, yet it’s worthwhile briefly analysing today a different representation of this character through a costume for Luigi Cherubini’s opera that opened in 1953 at Milan's La Scala with soprano Maria Callas as Medea and Leonard Bernstein as conductor. The costumes for this opera were designed by Salvatore Fiume.
The Sicilian artist originally moved to Milan to become a painter, but his first success came in the literary field.
A painter, sculptor, architect, writer and stage designer, he warmly accepted to collaborate with La Scala as set and costume designer when he was invited to do so.
It was actually painter, writer and musician Alberto Savinio, Giorgio de Chirico’s brother, who suggested theatre director Nicola Benois to invite Fiume to work for the stage for the first time in 1952.
Luigi Cherubini's Medea was a very successful performance: while it marked the very first changes in Maria Callas’ look (she had started losing weight at the time and had gained self-confidence), it also showed a very personal representation by Fiume of Medea’s figure.
Fiume created designs characterised by bold colours that called to mind the sets and costumes for the Ballets Russes.
Callas in her black cloak stood out against Fiume’s visionary and colourful sets.
This simple white silk satin dress with hand-painted decorations remains my favourite from this production. Rather than covering Medea in jewels, Fiume opted for minimalist yet striking tunics with bold brushstrokes and trompe l'oeil elements that also showed an architectural derivation.
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I've never met anyone who applied architectural brush strokes in designing. It's a great thing that I visited your blog. You got a unique idea!
Posted by: plaid suits | May 28, 2011 at 04:27 AM