Dec 02

A World Stage: the History of the Royal Opera House

Uncategorized No Comments »

The Royal Opera House is the third theatre on the Covent Garden site. In 1728 an actor/manager by the name of John Rich commissioned “The Beggars Opera” from John Gay, a poet and dramatist. The success of this production helped provide the capital for the first Theatre Royal to be built and on the 7th December 1732, it had its opening night.

The theatre was primarily a playhouse for the first hundred years or so, with King Charles II granting John Rich and the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, as well as the Drury Lane theatre, almost exclusive rights to present drama in London. Rich also began developing pantomime as an art form which led to the tradition of pantomimes being performed every Christmas – a tradition that lasted until the 1930’s at Covent Garden and still continues today at theatres across the country.

The first serious musical works to be performed at Covent Garden were the operas of Handel, who gave regular seasons there from 1735 until his death in 1759. Unfortunately his organ, which he had bequeathed to John Rich, was burned, along with most of the theatre, in a fire in 1808.

The rebuilding of the theatre began at once and, in September 1809, the second Theatre Royal opened in Convent Garden with a performance of Macbeth. To attempt to recoup the costs of rebuilding the theatre, ticket prices were raised. However, after two months of disgruntled theatre goers disrupting performances with booing and hissing, prices were forced back down.

In 1846, a dispute with the management at Her Majesty’s Theatre (the exclusive home to ballet and opera in London at the time), conductor Michael Costa aligned himself with Covent Garden, taking most of his company of singers with him. The auditorium at Convent Garden was completely remodelled and the theatre re-opened in April 1847 as the Royal Italian Opera.

Fire struck again in 1856, completely destroying the theatre, and work on the third and present theatre began in 1857, before re-opening in 1858. Just over thirty years later, in 1892, the theatre officially became the Royal Opera House, with summer and winter seasons of ballet and opera produced regularly. This carried on until the First and Second World Wars, when the Royal Opera House became a furniture repository and a dance hall, respectively.

Several renovations took place in the 1960s including improvements to the amphitheatre, but it was clear that the theatre needed a complete overhaul. Despite being given land adjacent to the theatre to make room for the renovations in 1975, it wasn’t until twenty years later before work began when the newly created National Lottery granted the Opera House £58.5 million towards the rebuilding costs. The new Royal Opera House was opened in December 1999, with two new, smaller performance areas added to the theatre as well as the now historic main auditorium.

Now open all day and not just for evening performances, visitors come from all over the world to the theatre, packing the nearby hotels in London, and enjoying not only the wonderful shows, but also the beautiful interior of a historic building. The views that the Royal Opera House commands across London from the Amphitheatre Terrace have delighted tourists and guests since it’s re-opening, almost as much as the productions performed.

Tagged with: • • • • •
Nov 28

How is a tutu made ? And what are the origins of the TUTU

Uncategorized No Comments »

The tutuAbout 150 years ago, when ballerinas first began dancing on their toes, a new type of dress called a tutu was invented. This was for two reasons. Firstly, it was very light, so the dancers could move easily about the stage. Secondly, and most importantly, they allowed the audience to see the complicated footwork and leg movements that are so important in a ballet.HOW A TUTU IS MADETo make a tutu you require two pieces of fabric, cut to the shape shown in picture 1, to the right of the page. These two pieces, joined together, form a ‘basque’, which wraps around the waist and hips.

The whole dress is made to the waist measurement of the individual dancer who will be wearing it. However, each dress is designed so that alterations can be made quickly. This might be necessary if the dancer is injured and a substitute dancer has to appear.For the next stage, you will need two more pieces of fabric to make the front and the back of the pants, as shown in picture 2 to the right. These are joined together down one edge. The lines on the pattern indicate where the frills will be sewn. The pants are left flat for the moment, as in picture 3.The frills, made of netting, are now added. The designer has already chosen what colours to use, and may also now decide to add more details to the fabric. This could included cutting the edges of the fabric so the dress looks like it is made of feathers. Early tutus were often sprayed with paint after they had been sewn together, to give the colour required. The spray unfortunately made them very stiff, and difficult to iron!The first frill is now attached along the curved bottom line of the pants using a sewing machine. It is important that the stitching is straight. Four more frills are then added, along the bottom four lines drawn on the pants. Each of these frills faces upwards. Four further fills are then sewn along each of the remaining lines on the pants, this time with the frills facing downwards. Picture 4, to the right of the page shows a side view diagram of this. All of this means that the bottom frills push against those at the top, which is what gives the tutu so much body and shape. In total, between 6 and 7 metres of netting will be used!The pants are now joined together at the other edge, and elasticated at the leg line. They are sewn onto the basque that was made earlier, and each later of frill is joined at the back, so that each one will wrap all the way around the dancer’s body.The tutu is now joined to a lined bodice, which is the part of the dress which covers the dancers stomach, chest and back. It can now be decorated with sequins or extra lace, or left plain, depending on which ballet it has been made for.The whole process will take an experienced dressmaker (a ‘cutter), about two days for one  tutu.http://www.brb.org.uk/2980.html

more articles from www.123fancydress.co.uk

Tagged with: • • • • • • •
Nov 21

Odessa Opera Theatre. Attractions of Odessa Ukraine

Uncategorized No Comments »

The existence of the theatre in the city of Odessa began from the first days of the city’s foundation. The Opera & Ballet Theatre is entitled to be called the elder among a great number of cultural institutions. Odessa strived for the right of building the theatre in 1804, and in 1809 it was already built. On the10th of February 1810 the first performance took place – the Russian troupe by Fortunatov staged a one -act opera by Fralih “A New Family” and a vaudeville “A Consolating Widow”.

But, unfortunately, in 1873 an old building was burnt. And it was burnt completely. The restoration was our of the question. It was a tragedy, which was relented by one circum-stance – nobody suffered from it. It was suggested to draw up a draft of a new city theatre to Vienna architects F. Felner Y. Helmer. Eleven years have passed since laying of the first brick into the foundation of the new theatre building. And the theatre opening took place on the 1st of October 1887.

The building of Odessa Opera and Ballet House was fulfilled in the style of Vienna “baroque”, which was the main in the European art from the end of the XVIth up to the middle of the XVIIIth century.

There is a sculptural group over the front, portraying one of the muse – a patron of art- Melpomena. She is sitting in the chariot, harnessed by the four furious panthers, which were subdued, her. A little bit lower there are sculptural groups from the ancient mythology subjects. At the bottom, near the central entrance, on the high pedestals, two sculptural groups are set up, personifying Comedy and Tragedy: on the left – a fragment from the tragedy by Euripi “Ippolit”, on the right – an episode from the comedy by Aristophanes: “The Birds”.

Along the pediment of the building in the bays of the upper circle the busts of the brilliant Russian art & literature creators. Pushkin, Glinka, Griboyedov, Gogol are placed. The most beautiful part of the building – is its hall. Its architecture is maintains in “rococo” style.

It is luxuriously decorated by various molded ornaments, with the fine gilt. The ceiling is of a special interest. Four pictures by Lefler in the form of a locket (medallion) are in its basis. The scenes from the works are Syakespeare: “Hamlet”, “A Dream in the Summer Night”, “The Winter Fairytale” & “As You like It”, is depicted on them.

A big chandelier in the centre of the ceiling strikes by its drake of tracery details. There are many different stucco moldings in the hall and in all the circles.

The modeling in the circles is fulfilled with a special grace. Side lobbies and along staircases, leading to the boxes. All kinds of lampions, candelabrums and bronze ornamented inlays are originally and inventively made. Perhaps, in any of the theatres, there is no so tastefully made curtain, outlined by the prominent theatrical painter – Golovin. The area of the stage is 500 Esq. The unique acoustics allows to deliver even a whisper from the stage to any part of the hall.

The Theatre itself is interesting not only by us architecture, but by its rich creative biography. The great merit in the development of musical culture in the south of our country belongs, to this theatre. P.Tchaikovsky, N.Rimsky-Korsakov, S.Rachmaninoff, Ezhen Izai, Pablo Sarasate and others performed their works. There appeared on the stage the actors, who glorified the home art/ the great singers: Fyodor Chaliapin, Solomiya Grushelnitskaya, Antonina Nezhdanova, Leonid Sobinov, Tito Ruffo, Batistini, Jeraldoni sang here, Anna Pavlova, the first world ballet-dancer, had been dancing here. In 1926 the theatre was awarded the title of “Academic”. The theatre ballet group consists of 50 people. Among them such Honored ballet dances of Ukraine as Andrey Musorin and Yelenaa Kamenskih – the participants of the Farewell Tour of Rudolf Nuriyev, and others. “Jizelle”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Nut-Cracker”, “Don Quihote”, “Chopiniana”, “Un Ballo in Maschera”, “Hunchback Horse”, “Carmen-Suite” are in the repertoire of the theatre. The ballet dancers were touring in Canada, Japan, Vietnam, Ceylon, China, Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland, South Korea, Italy, Spain and Portugal – with Maya Plisetskaya and in Indonesia, Switzerland, Sweden and other countries. The opera singer’s troupe consists of 40 people. They are National artists of Ukraine – Lyudmila Shirina, Anatoliy Boyko, Anatoliy Kapustin and Vladimir Tarasov, the Honored artists of Ukraine: Anisimova Tatyana, Irina Berlizova and Nataja Yutesh, Pavel Yermolenko, Laureates of International Contests. Viktor Mityushkin, Shalva Mukeria, Natlja Shvchenko, Ruslan Zinevich and others.

There are 25 operas, such as “Carmen”, “Aida”, “Il Trovatore”, “La Traviata”, “Cavaleria Rusticana”, “I Pagliacci”, “Iolanta”, “Madam Butterfly”, Rigoletto”, and others are in the repertoire of theatre. The theatre opera singers were appearing on the stages of Spain, Italy, France, Finland, Japan, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Belgium, Greece and the individual opera soloists – practically in all the countries of the world.

Tagged with: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
preload preload preload