Opera Atelier's Don Giovanni

Opera Atelier's Don Giovanni (Photo by Bruce Zinger)

Opera can be such a serious affair but in the case of Opera Atelier's presentation of Don Giovanni, the goal was laughter. Director Marshall Pynkoski introduced the opening night production by equating Mozart's character of Don Giovanni to Warren Beatty which in and of itself caused much mirth. He also said  that the two ways to create a comedic opera were 1. speed and 2. youth. By filling his cast with attractive and trim young singers, dancers and actors, and by keeping a lively pace, he achieved both goals and the audience responded with laughter throughout the show and with a standing ovation at the end.

Opera Atelier's Don Giovanni (Photo by Bruce Zinger)

Award-winning designer Martha Mann created costumes that achieved that difficult balance between period dress and modernity. Although the colours were subdued, and sometimes bordered on somber, the effect was harmonious. Subtle details like sequins and lace allowed the lighting effects to dance over the costumes, adding another dimension of sparkle. Of particular note were the glorious men's outfits, particularly the brocade vests and the velveteen breeches worn with fabulous thigh-high (Puss in boots style) boots. Another highlight were the swirling cloaks with colourful satin lining on the cuffs and hoods for the masquerade. With such a simple garment, the mastery of cut was evident in the movement and dimension created by these glorious cloaks.

Set designer Gerard Gauci did his usual magic with immense trompe l'oiel panels. His sense of humour was evident in the painted corner of the drop that curls to reveal the back of the canvas and the sheets of music that appear to float to the floor. Small details like a painted bush lifted up to reveal Act II added to the fun.

Although the opera is sung in Italian, I didn't need to look at the translation. The actors movements, gestures and changes in their voice conveyed the story beautifully. In fact, I think I've seen this opera several times before, but I don't ever remember enjoying it so much.

Opera Atelier's Don Giovanni is playing at the Elgin Theatre this week only:
October 30, November 1, 2, 4, and 5, 2011. The production will also be travelling to Ohio later this month. For tickets and more information, visit the Opera Atelier website. And by the way, Opera Atelier will be performing in Versailles in May 2012!


Photos provided courtesy of Opera Atelier and are subject to copyright.

Creative Process Journal: Marie Antoinette and Chick Lit

Marie Antoinette and her ladies in waiting from the movie Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola

One of the best thing about being a grad student is having access to online academic journals..... And given how much I like to read, it is almost like getting my daily dose of candy. One article that helped me gain a better understanding of the most recent wave of interest in Marie Antoinette is called "Marie Antoinette: Fashion, Third-Wave Feminism, and Chick Culture" by Susanne Ferriss and Mallory Young which was published in Literature Film Quarterly in 2010.

In this article, the authors trace the popularity of Marie Antoinette as an icon of fashion to the rise of chick culture and third wave feminism. They identify Antonia's biography called Marie Antoinette The Journey (2001), Caroline Weber's book Queen of Fashion (2006) and Sofia Coppola's movie Marie Antoinette (2006) as being pivotal to the transformation of the woman who was once considered a "heartless, elitist, anti-revolutionary wicked witch" into a "sympathetic, unfairly maligned victim" (Ferriss and Young: 98). The authors present the argument that this  revisionist account of Marie Antoinette is representative of a "third-wave feminist aesthetic focused on youth, fashion, sexuality, celebrity and consumerism." (Ferriss and Young: 99).

Fashion figures heavily into their analysis of the books and film and the authors consider how a ceremonial change in dress symbolized a "re-fashioning of self". For example, there was a stripping of her Austrian identity as Marie Antoinette crossed the border from Austria into France with her nakedness becoming "a metaphor for her psychic vulnerability" (Ferriss and Young: 102). As well, the authors consider other aspects of fashion in the movie such as the use of pink as a "signature colour of postfeminism" and as the shoes by Manolo Blahnik as having a "strong chick-culture connection" (Ferris and Young: 104-105).

Marie Antoinette Movie - Converse Sneakers

There is a lot of meaty content in this article but of note here are two items:
1. The Converse shoes in the film's shopping scene were not a mistake (as some articles/websites would suggest). The authors posit that "Coppola consciously admits and laughs at her own use of contemporary fashion imagery." (105)
2. Marie Antoinette's love of fashion and her lavish consumption is considered to be "evidence of her playful, endearing, queen-next-door charm" and is pivotal to the understanding of the movie as a revisionist account and alignment with chick lit culture and third-wave feminism. (106)

This scholarly article was both entertaining and enlightening. I equate reading it to a light-bulb moment. I now understand why "the attitude toward the infamous queen might provide a clue to the Zeitgeist during any period in Europe and America since her own time," as Caroline Weber suggested in her book and is emphasized by Ferriss and Young  (99).

Bottom line - I think that I need to incorporate a pair of Converse high-tops into my Marie Antoinette dress installation.....

Works cited:
Article: Marie Antoinette: Fashion, Third-Wave Feminism, and Chick Culture
Authors: Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young
Source: Literature Film Quarterly, 2010. Vol. 38, Issue 2, p98-116

Queen of Fashion, What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution
Author: Caroline Weber
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, New York, 2006.

Project Clock: Article review and synthesis 3 hours
To date: 13 hours

Meet me in Florence at the Costume Colloquium

Courtesy of the Costume Colloquium III

From Iowa to Florence... it's a big leap but hey it doesn't hurt to have big dreams.... Florence Italy will be the host city for the Costume Colloquium III: Past Dress-Future Fashion which will take place November 8-11, 2012. This international, interdisciplinary and intercultural symposium is intended to promote the exchange of knowledge related to costume and dress. 

 

If you have a paper, unpublished research, new creations and/or practical experience, relating to the theme, consider submitting an abstract before the deadline of October 31, 2011. The topics of interest include:
I.  The remaking or recreating dress from the past: yesterday and today
II.  Patterns from the past and the fashions of today: which aspects of a certain historic past?
III. The past relived through dress:
    . in institutional collections (public and private)
    . in a social context (pageantry, parades and historical reenactment)
    . in didactic experiences (fashion and design course and schools)
IV. The vintage phenomenon and recycling of styles
V.  Conservation, restoration and the presentation of collections: new tendencies and innovative methods
VI.  Fashion documents and archives
VII. Dress collecting: goals and accessibility
VIII. Information regarding costumes and dress accessories

Of course, being in Florence the symposium will take advantage of the rich cultural history of the region and will include exclusive behind-the-scene visits, tours, and visits to some of Florence’s historic monuments and sites, including the current installation of historic dress and contemporary fashion at the Costume Gallery of the Palazzo Pitti.

Costume Colloquium III: Past Dress – Future Fashion is the third in a series of bi-annual conferences dedicated to the discussion of fashion, fabric, styles, techniques, conservation and the may topics associated with dress history and contemporary costume creation, use and design. Costume Colloquium I (2008) was a tribute to renowned dress historian Janet Arnold, while Costume Colloquium II (2010) centered on themes related to Dress for Dance. The 2012 edition will focus on the broader analysis of influences of historical styles on current and future fashion trends.  

Shall we meet there?

For further information visit the website www.costume-textiles.com or send an email to info@costume-textiles.com

Creative Process Journal: The Nature of Obsession

Marie Antoinette Obsession (Digital Collage by Ingrid Mida 2011)

Obsession is defined in the Webster's dictionary as "the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image or desire." Under that definition, it is clear that I am obsessed -  with the dress that is believed to have been worn by Marie Antoinette and that is now part of the Royal Ontario Museum's collection. What it is about that particular dress that haunts me I cannot articulate clearly... It might be because that dress was the reason I discovered that the world of fashion had a scholarship beyond what I knew from fashion magazines. But it is clear that I am not alone in my obsession with this dress or Marie Antoinette.

It was not long after the doomed Queen of France lost her head that others became obsessed with her. In the middle of the 19th century, Empress Eugenie became obsessed with Marie Antoinette. In an article called The Empress's New Clothes, Fashion and Politics in Second Empire France, the author, Therese Dolan,  writes Eugenie "wished to connect her personal image with what she perceived to be the political astuteness and personal courage of the beheaded queen." Eugenie's imitation of Marie Antoinette influenced the revival of 18th century styled fashions including the exaggerated silhouette of enormous skirts and other accessories like the fichu and mantillas. (Dolan: 26-27)

In an article called Marie Antoinette Obsession published in the University of California Press by Terry Castle (Volume No. 39, Spring 1992, p 1-38), he refers to several case histories of women becoming obsessed with Marie Antoinette:

In the case of "Helene Smith", she claimed in a state of hypnotic trance to have had three previous lives, one of which included Marie Antoinette. At such times, she would "pantomime with a handkerchief or an imaginary fan, pretend to take snuff, mimic the action of throwing back a train, and address those present as though speaking to members of a court." (Castle: 2) Observers of her trance-like behaviours as Marie Antoinette believed that Smith's "embodiment as queen was often convincing, if not moving." (Castle: 2)

Castle also refers to an article from 1907,  in the British Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, in which an anonymous author described having seeing an apparition that she believed "to be the ghost of the French Queen" which had appeared to her repeatedly since childhood.  The writer of this article called "Dream Romances" admitted that she could not think of any "plausible explanations" for her visions. (Castle: 2-4)

In 1911, a book called "An Adventure" was published by Macmillan in which the authors "Miss Morison" and "Miss Lamont" described seeing an apparition of the queen and several members of her court in the gardens of Versailles near the Petit Trianon. It was later revealed that the authors of this book were in fact two academics, Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain, the principal and vice-principal of a college in Oxford. These two respectable women faced a great deal of ridicule after their identities were revealed and yet even in the "face of exquisite public ridicule" they maintained their beliefs and spent many years trying to validate their claims. (Castle 5-6)

The point of Castle's article is not to point out the oddity of this obsession but instead to ask the question "What was it about Marie Antoinette - and Marie Antoinette alone - that she should become so extraordinarily present, more than one hundred years after her death, to four presumably intelligent, well-educated and otherwise conventional women?" (Castle: 8)

And while I disagree with the balance of Castle's argument (which delves into Freudian analysis and homoerotic attachment), I think he poses an interesting question. Why have so many succumbed to an obsession with Marie Antoinette?

Works Cited:
Marie Antoinette Obsession
Author: Terry Castle
Source: Representations, No. 38 (Spring 1992) pg. 1-38
Published by: University of California Press

The Empress's New Clothes: Fashion and Politics in Second Empire France
Author: Therese Dolan
Source: Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Spring - Summer, 1994) pp. 22-28
Published by: Woman's Art, Inc.

Project Clock: + 4 hours (research, article analysis, digital collage and blog write-up)
Total to date: 10 hours