One of Maria Callas’ lost costumes is found
Part of Fiorilla’s costume from Franco Zeffirelli‘s 1955 production of Il turco in Italia has been rediscovered during the reorganization and cataloguing of the costume department at La Scala.
The dressing gown was worn by Maria Callas in the April 1955 edition of Rossini’s opera, which was conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni.
While preparing costumes for 360° photographs as part of a digital cataloguing process an unlabelled pink lace dressing gown was among other costumes grouped together in a box labelled ‘Il Turco in Italia‘.
In the wardrobe department’s catalogue n° 171 is listed a “shirt, white canvas, white silk, trimming, pink ribbons / pink curtain lace dressing gown”.
Comparing it with photographs of the production made it possible to correctly identify elements of Fiorilla’s costume. Among the costumes designed by Franco Zeffirelli was also a white nightgown with a corset. The only photo in La Scala’s photo archive of the scene in Don Geronio’s house shows us Callas wearing a lace dressing gown (though the colour is unknown as the image is in black and white) and in addition she is wearing a nightgown. Careful examination of the nightgown at La Scala found that it was from Luchino Visconti‘s production of Bellini’s Sonnambula conducted by Leonard Bernstein in March 1955 – a month before Il Turco – though again with Callas. The costumes for La sonnambula were designed by Pietro Tosi.
However, together with Il turco‘s costumes there is another nightgown with a built-in corset comparable to the one in the photo and not attributed, which therefore could be the one described in the tailoring book n° 171. The investigation continues.
A Scala and Milan celebrate the 100th anniversary of Callas’ birth with exhibitions in La Scala’s museum and around the city.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
