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LONDON – No opera has a heartache, but in “Semele” grief is wrapped in beautiful fabrics.
The Handel opera from 1744 was redesigned by Oliver Mears, the director of the Opera at The Royal Ballet & Opera, with a turn – this time it is determined between the 60s and 70s.
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The story follows Semele, played by Pretty Yende, who works for Jupiter and his wife Juno in their palace house. She falls in love with Jupiter and is further seduced by his forces – he is disguised because he is a god.
Semele becomes tired by Jupiter and asks him to reveal herself to her, to which he refuses because it would lead to her death. Jupiter shows them in materialistic clothing and jewelry, but Semele stays with answers.
Your wardrobe is different from the French rags of an opera. Semele is dressed in a silk, pale pink shoulder -free dress with black roses. A Jacquard layer dress in white and purple and a white wedding dress that is decorated with small white flowers.
However, her most powerful and touching costumes are her silk night, which she implements in bed and Jupiter white shirt that she longs for herself.
“We wanted the opera to have this very dark but a kind of strange atmosphere with the red and rosa,” said costume designer Annemarie Woods.
She wanted the costumes to be alluded to death from Semle’s future, where it was burned alive by Jupiter and Juno in the chimney.
“Semele begins as an employee in the house and then she gets glamorous. Your hair and her clothes become more glamorous.
The costume designer overtook herself through photo books and pictures from the 1960s to shape Semele’s world. She also looked at the costumes of “Mad Men” for Jupiter’s sharp tailor -made suits that contribute to his charming, toxic behavior.
“[The costumes are] Absolutely decisive because we wanted to make a show about power and hierarchy, and costumes are the main method to tell this story on stage – from the servants in Jupiter’s household to Jupiter and Juno himself, ”said Mears, who has been working with Woods for 14 years.
“The main characters look decadent and dark and sexy to convey so much of the essential atmosphere of the show and their own psychologies,” he added.
The cooperation between Mears and Woods was the second nature.
“We know exactly what kind of shows we like to do. [We] Have very similar aesthetics and sense of humor and very similar views of what is important in the theater. I fully trust her – especially if she feels that something doesn’t work yet, ”said Mears.
The couple started working on “Semele” three years ago, but this year only came on stage with his debut in the Théâtre of the Champs-Élysées in February.
Woods saw its appropriate proportion of tragedies on stage. She worked on “Orfeo”, “Il Trovatore” and “The Rape of Lucretia”, but found “Semele” even more brutal.
“All women always die in the opera, this is a great criticism, but Semele has a lot to do with real female stories. If they die in a broken heart, it is somehow silly, but in this story she is murdered and it is so sad because she has not even put a fight. She was destroyed by this very wealthy man and his wife,” she said.
In the end, there is nothing more of Semele – not from your pretty clothes or diamond chains – only your ashes and lessons in heartache.
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