dance | design | interviews
Interview: Theatre designer Jérôme Kaplan – Be yourself! Always be curious and dream.
Between projects in New York, Copenhagen and Monaco, theatre designer Jérôme Kaplan finds time to talk to Paul Arrowsmith.
design
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[Interview] Designer Tom Pye on death threats, Cinderella – and cowboys
Paul Arrowsmith talks to Tom Pye, designer of The Royal Ballet’s new production of Cinderella about redesigning the Ashton classic and his career highlights.
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music & opera | dance | design | news
80 years of opera and ballet costumes from La Scala go on display
The theatrical costume is a paradox: it hides, yet at the same time, communicates revealing aspects of a character; it is made to be seen from afar, yet the designers and costume makers care for the tiniest details, even if invisible. Each costume contains thousands of secrets, from colour combining to decoration, from the choice…
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Maria Callas on Stage – a new exhibition at La Scala
Maria Callas in scena – Gli anni alla Scala (Maria Callas on Stage – the La Scala Years) runs from 15 September to 31 January at La Scala’s museum, which is housed in the same building as the theatre. The Italian theatre designer, Margherita Palli, has overseen the exhibition which contains 14 of La Divina’s…
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dance | design | music & opera
Luisa Spinatelli – celebrating the life of the Milanese opera and ballet designer
Luisa Spinatelli… taking tasteful to a higher dimension The Amici della Scala (Friends of La Scala), run by the indefatigable Anna Crespi, gathered together at the association’s spectacular headquarters, a short walk from La Scala, to celebrate one of Italy’s most important theatre designers. Luisa Spinatelli is one of a tight-knit core of Milanese artists,…
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dance | design | music & opera | top dance
Picasso in Rome, with Diaghilev, Cocteau and Massine: The Ballets Russes and Parade
One hundred years ago, Pablo Picasso lived Rome for two months. It was his first trip to Italy. The Ballets Russes was in town and Picasso was eager to begin work on his designs for Parade, the ballet which would open on 18 May 1917 in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet. Two years previously,…
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“Cross-dressing” Grayson Perry to design front cloth for English National Ballet’s female choreographers
English National Ballet has announced that it has commissioned Grayson Perry to design the front cloth for its She Said programme, at Sadler’s Wells from Wednesday 13 – Saturday 16 April 2016. Perry – introduced on Wikipedia as “an English artist, known mainly for his ceramic vases and cross-dressing” – has ENB’s Artistic Director as a fan of his…
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La Scala to become a catwalk for Dolce & Gabbana
Although Dolce & Gabbana have already used La Scala to present a collection, it was in the sumptuous foyer Toscanini and not in the main theatre. Tomorrow, 31 January, the pair will present their haute couture collection on a series of catwalks which pass through the stalls, over the orchestra pit and onto the stage. The…
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dance | design | obituaries | top dance
Eufemia Brancato, queen of the tutu, dies at 95
Eufemia Brancato died this morning three weeks before her 96th birthday. She was the head of Brancato Costumiers in Milan which she founded in 1961 after five years working at the Piccolo Teatro with Giorgio Strehler. Creating her own company came about after the great Italian designer Luciano Damiani asked her to make all the…
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Rome’s Colosseum to get its floor back
Ecco nelle foto Alinari come i visitatori vedevano e vivevano il Colosseo sino a poco più di un secolo fa. pic.twitter.com/i4w74IYUlB — Dario Franceschini (@dariofrance) November 2, 2014 Last November Italy‘s Minister for Culture, Dario Franceschini, tweeted about a plan to create a floor for the Colosseum in Rome. The arena had a floor until the 1800s…
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dance | design | music & opera
The Royal Opera House’s £27m ‘open up’ project to go ahead
The £27m scheme to ‘open up’ the Royal Opera House in London has been given the go ahead by Westminster City Council. The plans will make the entrances and street-level public spaces of the Opera House more open and inviting to the public. Alex Beard, the Chief Executive of Covent Garden, said, The ‘Open Up’ project aims…
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Pompeii will collapse entirely, says UNESCO commission
After two areas of Pompeii crumbled yesterday – part of the Temple of Venus and part of a tomb at the Nocera Gate – another part collapsed this morning: a 2 metre-high wall in via Nola. The new Culture Minister, Dario Franceschini, has called an urgent meeting for tomorrow morning. This morning’s collapse was of part…
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The face of a soprano: Fornasetti’s obsession with Lina Cavalieri
Italian designer Piero Fornasetti was fascinated with the face of soprano Lina Cavalieri, creating over 350 variations of her likeness.
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dance | design | music & opera
Sanquirico, designer of Norma and Anna Bolena, finally rests among the greats
The Wikipedia entry on Italian painter and designer Alessandro Sanquirico reads: Alessandro Sanquirico (Milan, July 27, 1777 – Milan, March 12, 1849) was an Italian scenic designer, architect, and painter. He provided the decorations for the celebration of the crowning of Ferdinando I of Austria, as king of Lombardy and the Veneto. He designed the architectural…
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Actress Valentina Cortese radiant in haute couture at 90
Great Italian actress Valentina Cortese turned 90 this year. Style has always been part of her life (she is the sort of actress who is theatrical offstage as well as on) and the diva quality in her manner and dress belongs to the glamorous era of Taylor and Burton, and the jet-set. But Cortese is…
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The new Muscovite: David Hallberg dresses up for Vogue
David Hallberg returned to the Bolshoi for Onegin, and while there found time for a photoshoot for Vogue Russia. He talked to Anna Fedina for an article entitled “New Muscovite”. On returning to the Bolshoi after the acid attack on ballet director Sergei Filin: It was Sergei Filin invited me here in the first place. Of…
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Buttoned-up Bolle: Shock fashion spread shows Roberto Bolle fully clothed
For the Spring/Summer 2013 issue of Fantastic Man, Roberto Bolle is featured in a series of suits looking very distinguished; his famous pectorals hidden by shirts, jackets and ties: buttoned-up Bolle. The La Scala and American Ballet Theatre dancer wears creations by Tom Ford, Brioni, Richard James, De Fursac, Paul Smith, Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani. The spread is entitled Elastic Man,…
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Italy’s Riccardo Tisci designs costumes for Abramovic’s Bolero
Italian designer Riccardo Tisci, a graduate from London’s Central Saint Martins Academy, has been Givenchy’s Creative Director for the last eight years. His first ballet costumes were seen last night in Marina Abramovic’s take on Boléro. Belgian choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet were responsible for the dance, but it was Abramovic’s concept, and set design. This coming together was organised by the Paris Opera Ballet…
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dance | design | music & opera
Sylvano Bussotti: flamboyant composer, poet, set and costume designer, theatre director, and… and… and…
Silvano Bussotti, known as Sylvano, is an Italian eccentric, some say genius, and the word ‘flamboyant’ appears in many articles about this modern Renaissance man. He is a composer, poet, set and costume designer, painter, journalist, actor, singer, theatre and film director and sometime bad boy of the arts. Internationally he is more known as a composer,…
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Maria Callas’ costume for Macbeth at La Scala in 1952 in photos
Maria Callas‘ costumes evoke a special frisson of excitement: knowing that she was wearing it when she sang a role so loved from a recording, and, for a few, having actually seen her 60 years ago in the theatre dressed in the same costume now sitting on a mannequin. Milan‘s Teatro alla Scala preserves these…
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Boris Bilinsky: costume and set designer for ballet, opera and film and legendary graphic artist
Boris Bilinsky was born in Odessa in 1900, but left Russia in 1920, escaping from the aftermath of the Revolution. He settled in Berlin where he was still able to collaborate with Russian theatres, but in 1923 he moved to Paris and worked with the Studio Albatros, a production company in Montreuil. Albatros had only been set up…
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Adolphe Appia at La Scala: a new publication by the Amici della Scala
The Amici della Scala (Friends of La Scala) was formed in 1978 to promote music, art and culture in Milan and the Lombardy region, though the La Scala opera house is the focus of their activities. Activities of the Amici della Scala include scholarships for young talents; gifts of musical instruments to young soloists; lectures, conferences, television…
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Taste the music: an audience eats algae fed by an opera singer’s breath
Last weekend at London’s V&A museum a gimmicky but fascinating piece of silly science was part of the London Design Festival. The Algae Opera has been formed for the event by the After Agri collective. Mezzo-soprano Louise Ashcroft was the singer. Here’s the blurb from their site: The algae, which are a photosynthetic plant-like organism, feeds on the carbon dioxide in…
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The whiff of celebrity: Carla Fracci launches her new perfume, Aurora
David Beckham has his underwear collection, singer Jessica Simpson has a wildly popular fashion label, and Italian ballerina Carla Fracci has her perfume collection. Yesterday, in Milan‘s chic 10 Corso Como, the seventh fragrance in the collection was launched: Aurora, named after one of the étoile’s favourite roles. In fact all the collection’s perfumes are…
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Dubai will build its opera house and museum despite economic problems
Dubai will build its opera house and modern art museum as planned, the Dubai government has announced. The complex is to be built near Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower. Architectural elements are now being finalised and work will begin soon, said AFP. Dubai is heavily in debt having borrowed to finance its rapid economic growth….
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Priscilla the Musical gives the Milan catwalks an added dash of kitsch
Today is carnival day in Milan: Sabato Grasso. It comes later than all the other carnival celebrations, and this year Milan was blessed with a 20°C sunny day which gave the tourists a good excuse to get out their shorts and sandals. As carnival week also coincides this year with a fashion week, Milano Moda Donna, the streets were crowded, especially outside one of…
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Kinder Aggugini designs ballet costumes for MacMillan’s The Rite of Spring
British Vogue reports that Kinder Aggugini is teaming up with the English National Ballet to redesign the costumes for Kenneth MacMillan‘s The Rite of Spring, during the Beyond Ballets Russes season at the London Coliseum in March 2012. Kinder is an intriguing character. An Italian Ex-punk, he studied at St. Martins during the 1980′s and worked on Savile row…
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Amy Winehouse dress fetches $68,000 at auction
A printed chiffon dress worn by the late singer Amy Winehouse for the cover of her chart-topping album “Back to Black” has sold for £43,200 ($68,000) at auction. The hammer price was well above pre-sale estimates of £10-20,000 pounds. Proceeds from the Disaya-designed dress will go to the Amy Winehouse Foundation, a charity set up by…
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Raina Kabaivanska donates Roberto Capucci gowns for charity
One of opera’s most elegant stars, Raina Kabaivanska, has donated a number of her concert gowns for a charity auction which starts today. The soprano, who will be 77 next month, has given many of her signature Roberto Capucci creations to E For People who are auctioning more than 10,000 items of clothing and accessories in…
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Armani luxury hotel opens in Milan – close to La Scala and via Montenapoleone
Giorgio Armani opened a luxury hotel in the centre of Milan today. It is in via Manzoni, near to La Scala, the Montenapoleone shopping district, and that other great Milanese hotel Grand Hotel et de Milan where Verdi lived and composed and everyone from Maria Callas to Rufus Wainwright has stayed. Armani’s new hotel will surely attract…
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