In yesterday's post we looked at a lengthy legal battle involving a shoe company. But that was a more commercial case and, when we talk about copyrights, we should remember that they establish intellectual property rights in different creative fields and disciplines.
A copyright can, for example, be applied also to set and stage design (it is worth reminding that in operas and ballets, set design, costumes and movements on stage are all protected by copyrights): a plain staircase in the background of a theatre play is a generic feature, but, if that staircase has a peculiar shape, width, configuration, colour and decorations, it may become very distinctive and therefore end up being copyrighted.
As an example, let's take into consideration the "Nabucco" performance that took place at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in June.
The performance was mentioned by different media outlets as it took two years to stage it. Everything was ready in March 2020 for the penultimate rehearsal - from the costumes to the sets designed by Stefano Poda, also responsible for the lighting and choreography. Then Covid hit and the premiere ended up being postponed for more than two years.
In June there was the final presentation with the set conceived as a cube in which the protagonists of the opera, the Hebrews and Assyrians, dressed in white and black costumes respectively, moved.
There was one distinctive element in the opera: a gigantic Möbius strip, a symbol of infinity, suspended over the choir singing "Va pensiero".
The Möbius strip appeared on stage in a previous opera: Japanese artist Mariko Mori created in 2013 two large Möbius loops for "Madama Butterfly" directed by Àlex Rigola and staged at La Fenice in Venice.
The fire-resistant poliexpan strips represented in this case the intersection between ancient Japanese traditions and modern technologies, but they were also symbols hinting at the life, death and rebirth circle.
There are some differences between the strip in "Nabucco" and the loops in "Madama Butterfly": the former was suspended from the ceiling and had a more brutalist look that called to mind concrete. The first Möbius band in "Madama Butterfly" was suspended from the ceiling, while the second was placed on the floor and looked more like a house in which the characters may have sheltered. Mariko Mori's loops also looked more fluid and elegant than Poda's, as they were coated with resin and covered in holographic paint, to give them a sense of perfect smoothness that maybe evoked futuristic architectural designs à la Zaha Hadid.
Now, a Möbius strip appearing in the sets for two different operas doesn't automatically mean that this is a case of copyright infringement, but the comparison should remind creative minds out there to be careful when "getting inspired" by something and always remember that there is a thin line between inspiration and plagiarism.
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