Let's continue the recent Turandot/opera archives thread by looking at a solution regarding materials for opera headpieces. In yesterday's post we mentioned Sylvano Bussotti, who maintained in his creations for a 1982 staging of Puccini's "Turandot" a strong connection with Umberto Brunelleschi's sumptuously magnificent fable-like illustrations, so let's start from there.
Brunelleschi's works were the starting point also for Bussotti's headpieces, they looked incredibly rich and often integrated different materials. Volumes and proportions were important as the characters had to look visually striking, so some of the most elaborate headpieces were 50 cm wide, among them there was also a grand headdress for the main character, that integrated red and orange cockerel and ostrich feathers, juxtaposed to more threatening sharp brass feathers. The feathers formed rays that erupted from the centre of the headdress.
Yet some of the most intriguing experiments Bussotti came up with consisted in designs that recombined historical inspirations with modern materials. For the opera "Le Racine", staged in 1980 in Milan (but the headpiece was reused also for the character of Heliogabalus in a 1981 staging of the ballet "Phaidra-Heliogabalus" in Turin), Bussotti created for the character of Hippolytus a headpiece inspired by Greek and Persian helmets, but made with boiled felt covered in gold and black silk brocade.
The peculiarity of the helmet was the fact that it featured a crest, visor and earflaps made with embroidered organza, sandwiched between two layers of transparent plastic, profiled in leather and gold. When hit by the stage lights, the plastic assumed a sort of stained glass effect that immediately caught the audience's attention.
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