As you may remember from a previous post, Prato's Museo del Tessuto (Textile Museum) launched last year a a crowdfunding campaign on Eppela under the name "The Lost Costume" (Il Costume Ritrovato) to restore the newly-found costumes from the première of Puccini's Turandot.
The opera was first staged at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 25th April 1926, but the rich costumes inspired by the Orient and designed by legendary La Scala costumier Luigi Sapelli, better known as Caramba, were considered lost.
In 2017, though, a trunk of costumes, wigs and jewellery resurfaced in Sardinia and investigations led the Prato Museum curators to realise the costumes had belonged to the famous Pratese soprano Iva Pacetti and were the long-lost gowns for Puccini's Turandot. The crowdfunding campaign was very successful and the museum extended it to the jewels as well.
Cultural institutions all over the world are currently closed to contain the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, but the Prato Museum has posted some updates to show people that supported the project how the restoration is going.
The new images relate to the jewels made in 1926 by Milan-based company Corbella, an official supplier of La Scala. The pictures show the pieces and in particular the lavish crown donned by the soprano, being cleaned (they were oxidised). There are also some images relating to the restoration of the brass hairpin with multi-coloured gems decorated with pearls and red and blue rhinestones (some gems were lost and had to be replaced).
The Prato Textile Museum will employ the exceeding funds of the crowdfunding for an exhibition to be scheduled later on this year, but, for the time being, we can celebrate the restoration of beauty through these images to take our minds off Coronavirus.
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