THE MAGAZINE OF THEATRE DIRECTORS AND STAGE DESIGNERS
ANGELA BUSCEMI
€5
NOVEMBER 2017
THE ART OF DRAWING THE COSTUME VOL. 1
THE SCENOGRAPHER LAUNCHED A NEW COLLECTION OF MONOGRAPHIC ISSUES ON THEATRE DESIGN. THE FAMED GERMAN THEATRE DIRECTOR, HENNING BROCKHAUS WAS APPOINTED ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THIS NEW SERIES OF MONOGRAPHS. SINCE THEN, EUROPEAN CRITICS AND ACADEMICS OF NOTE HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO ITS CONTENTS.
IGNACIO GARCIA DECEMBER 2017
THEATRE DIRECTOR
I BELIEVE THAT, MORE THAN BE AN INVENTOR, A DIRECTOR SHOULD BE A DISCOVERER. THE WORLD OF CONTEMPORARY ART IS DEEPLY OBSESSED WITH INVENTION, BUT I BELIEVE THAT A DIRECTOR IS SOMEONE WHO APPRECIATES THAT WHICH ALEADY EXISTS, WHO RELATES TO THE VIRTUES OF THE TEXT, WHO KNOWS HOW TO READ THEM, WHO LEARNS HOW TO VALUE
THEM AND TO TRANSMIT THEM TO THE PERFORMERS WHO IN TURN MAKE THEM THEIR OWN AND ARE CAPABLE OF COMMUNICATING THEM TO THE AUDIENCE IN AN ORGANIC WAY, REAL, IN AN IMPULSIVE WAY, IN A DEEP AND MEANINGFUL FORM.” by José Gabriel López Antuñano
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COSTUMES & ACCESSORIES
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Giuseppina Angotzi portrait
L COSTUME, founded by GIUSEPPINA ANGOTZI, is a Rome based specialist costume shop boasting over twenty years of activity. Other than possessing great expertise in the creation and production output of new costumes, guaranteed by the presence of highly skilled personnel, the costume shop houses a collection of around 20,000 pieces of every type and period in history, providing an off-the-peg solution able to meet most client requirements in every sector of the entertainment industry. For opera and ballet performances the costume shop has worked, and continues to work with a number of major Foundations both in Italy and abroad (France, Spain, Switzerland, the United States, Japan and Oman), building costumes for productions, such as Il Barbiere di Siviglia, I Puritani, Manon Lescaut, Traviata, Tosca, Lucia di Lammermoor, Falstaff, Nabucco, Aida, Andrea Chenier, Il Pipistrello, Mefistofele, Simon Boccanegra, Turandot, Lo Schiaccianoci, Il Lago dei cigni, Giselle, Don Giovanni and many others.
IL COSTUME
Tel. 0639745533 - 0639745511 / Fax 0639746940 info@il costume.com / www.il costume.com
Via Tommaso Campanella, 27, 00195 Roma
Giuseppina Angotzi in her atelier
In particular, with Angela Buscemi the shop has collaborated on creating costumes for Marie Galante, Macbeth, Sonnambula, La belle Helene, and La Jura. IL COSTUME also holds a strong position in the film sector as their costumes can be seen in countless international productions. Some of the most famous movies include The Patriot, The Gladiator, Divergent, The Third Person, Genius Einstein. The costume shop has for many years worked with major Italian productions and leading directors, such as Giuseppe Tornatore for LA MIGLIORE OFFERTA; Gabriele Salvatores for IL RAGAZZO INVISIBILE 1 and 2; Matteo Garrone for REALITY and IL RACCONTO DEI RACCONTI (Tale of Tales); Paolo Sorrentino for YOUTH,THE YOUNG POPE and LORO; the latter is currently in-production.
COSTUMES Other than a steady stream of contract work for the film sector, a great deal of business derives from the Italian TV industry. Almost every programme on networks ranging from the state broadcaster RAI to commercial channels Mediaset, La 7 and Sky features costumes built by the shop. From Il Più Grande Spettacolo Dopo il Week End starring Fiorello to Tale e Quale with Carlo Conti; from Ti Lascio Una Canzone with Antonella Clerici to Ballando con le stelle, from Sanremo to Amici to Italia’s Got Talent, Miss Italia, plus fiction series, such as Don Matteo, Tutti Pazzi per Amore, The Borgias, Barabba, Romeo e Giulietta, Un’altra vita, Le tre rose di Eva, Il commissario Montalbano, and others, the costume shop
Costume mannequin for National Arab Bank’s event
& ACCESSORIES
plays an important role in providing technical support in the fitting of costumes and the supply of custom-made or ready-made costumes from their collection. Another highly significant sector is that of TV commercials and special events. Among the high-profile TV commercials are those for Wind-Infostrada, Dolce & Gabbana, Campari, William Hill, Giovanni Rana, etc... Dozens of events are organised every year for leading national and international companies. One such important event, working with Angela Buscemi, was National Arab Bank’s decennial celebration.
COSTUMES & ACCESSORIES IL COSTUME DI GIUSEPPINA ANGOTZI, è un laboratorio sartoriale d’arte che opera ormai da oltre 20 anni a Roma. Oltre a una grande capacità produttiva per la realizzazione di costumi nuovi, garantita dalla presenza di personale fortemente specializzato, la sartoria dispone di un fondo costumi di circa 20.000 pezzi di tutte le epoche e tipologie in grado di soddisfare gran parte delle esigenze dei clienti in tutti i settori dello Spettacolo. Per l’Opera e il Balletto la sartoria ha lavorato e lavora con le più grandi Fondazioni italiane e straniere (Francia, Spagna, Svizzera, Stati Uniti, Giappone e Oman), realizzando i costumi per spettacoli come Il Barbiere di Siviglia, I Puritani, Manon Lescaut, Traviata, Tosca, Lucia di Lammermoor, Falstaff, Nabucco, Aida, Andrea Chenier, Il Pipistrello, Mefistofele, Simon Boccanegra, Turandot, Lo Schiaccianoci, Il lago dei Cigni, Giselle, Don Giovanni e molti altri. In particolare con Angela Buscemi ha collaborato alla realizzazione dei costumi di Marie Galante, Macbeth, Sonnambula, La belle Helene, La Jura. IL COSTUME, ha inoltre una forte posizione nel settore cinematografico. Alcuni loro costumi sono presenti in molte produzioni internazionali. Per citarne alcune tra le più significative, basti ricordare: The Patriot, The Gladiator, Divergent, The Third Person, Genius-Einstein. Collaborano poi da anni anche con le maggiori produzioni italiane e i maggiori registi come Giuseppe Tornatore per La migliore offerta, Gabriele Salvatores per Il ragazzo invisibile 1 e 2, Matteo Garrone per Reality e Il Racconto dei Racconti, Paolo Sorrentino per The Youth, The Young Pope e Loro, quest’ultimo ancora in lavorazione. Oltre alla costante partecipazione per il cinema, va segnalata una fortissima adesione anche nel settore televisivo italiano. In quasi tutti i programmi delle varie reti Rai, Mediaset, La 7 e Sky è presente qualche costume da loro realizzato. Da Il più Grande Spettacolo Dopo il Week End con Fiorello a Tale e Quale con Carlo Conti, da Ti Lascio Una Canzone con Antonella Clerici a Ballando con le stelle, da Sanremo ad Amici a Italia’s Got Talent, a Miss Italia, fino alle fiction come Don Matteo, Tutti Pazzi per Amore, The Borgias, Barabba, Romeo e Giulietta, Un’altra vita, Le tre rose di Eva, Il commissario Montalbano ecc. in cui la sartoria si distingue per il ruolo rilevante nella fornitura del supporto di sartoria e di fornitura di costumi anche di repertorio. Ultimo settore d'attività molto significativo è quello dei commercial e degli eventi. Tra gli spot più importanti quelli per Wind-Infostrada, Dolce & Gabbana, Campari, William Hill, Giovanni Rana, ecc.. Decine gli eventi seguiti ogni anno per le più importanti aziende internazionali e nazionali. Uno degli eventi più importanti seguiti con Angela Buscemi è stato quello per il decennale della National Arab Bank.
GIUSEPPINA ANGOTZI was born on 18 November 1964. After having gained a teaching diploma in architecture and interior design she furthered her studies in scenography and costume design at the Accademia di Belle Arti, and fashion design and sartorial skills at the Istituto Internazionale di Moda, Costume e Arte Sartoriale. Since 1988, as a costume designer, she has collaborated with several major theatres and opera houses and numerous film and television production companies. She has also directed and launched diverse business ventures in the fashion industry and as a style consultant.
GIUSEPPINA ANGOTZI è nata il 18 novembre 1964. Dopo aver conseguito il diploma di maestro d’arte in architettura e arredamento ha approfondito gli studi di scenografia e costume all’Accademia di Belle Arti e quelli di moda e tecniche sartoriali all’Istituto Internazionale di Moda, Costume e Arte Sartoriale. Dal 1988 collabora come costumista con alcuni dei più importanti teatri di prosa e dell’opera, molte produzioni cinematografiche e televisive. Ha inoltre diretto e avviato diverse iniziative imprenditoriali nel campo della moda e della consulenza stilistica.
LA JURA
The realization of costumes for LA JURA at the Lyrical Theater of Cagliari for the direction by Cristian Taraborrelli and costumes by Angela Buscemi.
Photos by Priamo Tolu
Costume mannequin for LA BELLE HELÉNÈ.
COSTUMES & ACCESSORIES
MARIE GALANTE
Costumes mannequin for MARIE GALANTE
Photos by Marie-Noëlle Robert
Photos by Corrado Maria Falsini
EVERY COSTUME SKETCH TELLS A STORY OF HOW THE CHARACTER IN AN OPERA IS BORN. AND THE COSTUME HAS TO EXTERNALISE THEIR IDENTITY: THE ESSENCE OF THE SOUL. IT ISN’T JUST THE INITIAL PROCESS OF BUILD, EACH DRAWING FINDS WITHIN ITSELF THE RESOLUTION AS "PURE EXPRESSION"; IT CAN BE CONSIDERED AN "OBJET D'ART". THE CREATIVE ACT HAS
“
YET TO ENCOUNTER THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH
THE PHYSICAL BUILD AND THE PERFORMANCE OF A
COSTUME. IN THE EXPRESSION LIVES THE IMPRESSION, THE SUGGESTION OF ALL THAT HAS YET TO "BECOME" RESONATES.
EVERYTHING
DIRECTING,
IN
THE
DESIGN,
COSTUMES,
MOVES IN THE SAME DIRECTION, IN
PERFECT HARMONY.
AND
SET
IN THE SEARCH FOR A FRESH ANGLE NETWORK OF IDEAS, NARRATION
UNDERGOES A PROCESS OF DECONSTRUCTION AND
RECONSTRUCTION.
EACH
TIME, THE INSPIRATION THAT
DRIVES TAKES A DIFFERENT, UNPREDICTABLE TURN. Angela Buscemi
PUBLISHED BIMONTHLY BY SCSA, LTD. LONDON
EDITOR IN CHIEF Paolo Felici
EUROPEAN MANAGING EDITOR Maria Harman GRAPHIC DESIGN Paolo Felici ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Henning Brockhaus
CONTRIBUTOR FOR THIS ISSUE
Marco Betta, Angela Buscemi, Francesco Calogero, Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, Matteo Pappalardo, Massimo Romeo Piparo, Francesco Torrigiani, Joseph Rochlitz, Cristian Taraborrelli. ENGLISH TRASLATIONS Maria Harman
COVER: MY FAIR LADY
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All artistic material and photos published is the sole property of the authors cited.
November 2017
ISSN CODE 2514-3190 ©2017 The Scenographer.
VOL. 1
The Art Of
Drawing The Costume
ANGELA BUSCEMI
RIGOLETTO. Countess
RIGOLETTO. Extras.
RIGOLETTO. The Duke of Mantua.
SKETCH GALLERY HANS HEILING. VIAGGIO A REIMS Countess of Folleville.
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO. Countess Dalmaviva.
IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA. Rosina.
IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA. Don Bartolo.
L’OLANDESE VOLANTE Senta
L’OLANDESE VOLANTE L’Olandese
SKETCH GALLERY
ANGELA BUSCEMI
Throughout my artistic career My Fair Lady has represented a veritable turning point: from international Rock operas staged in English, I first encountered the grand classic repertoir of Musical Comedy, a close cousin of the operetta. And so the choice of collaborators proved decisive in this shift in genre and career path. Angela has certainly been the person that – whilst with youthful enthusiasm and professional purity as yet uncontaminated by the jaded Italian panorama - has known how to visually pinpoint the right balance between an original stage version and a cult movie that has remained fixed in the memory of three generations. Her classic style seasoned with modern creative flair has conveyed to the spectator the maximum to be expected so as not to remain disappointed. Concurrently – and I’m thinking of the Ascot tableau which, compared to that by Oscar winner Cecil Beaton, made me weak at the knees - Angela has invested our version with an undeniable touch of Latin Mediterranean style and personality by also drawing on the best of our common Sicilian origins.
Massimo Romeo Piparo
Ascot
Ascot
MY FAIR LADY
ANGELA BUSCEMI
MY FAIR LADY
MY FAIR LADY by A. J. Lerner and F. Loewe, from “Pigmalione” by G. B. Shaw. Conductor: Riccardo Biseo. Director: Massimo Romeo Piparo. Set Designers: Giancarlo Muselli. Costume Designers: Angela Buscemi. Lighting designer: Bartlo La Gioia. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, Messina 1999.
ANGELA BUSCEMI
MY FAIR LADY
Ballo
Elisa
MY FAIR LADY
Elisa Act I
ANGELA BUSCEMI
ANGELA BUSCEMI
I have worked with Angela on many projects for comic operas and tragic operas, scenarios and stories of every type. And with Cristian Taraborrelli, her partner in life and in creative ventures. Angela has an incredible ability to read situations, characters, historical periods, and from this complex mix of data to glean ideas that are extremely sophisticated and original. She has a wealth of inventive solutions, something that goes beyond philology and historiography... I often, though not always, have a tendency to shift period costumes towards the contemporary; I feel that the performance always takes place in the ‘here and now’, and so from our standpoint the opera starts from us as we are now... but this ‘us as we are now’ is always the fruit of an invention, objectivity doesn’t come into it, not if we want to avoid a drift towards a bland, uninspiring realism... and Angela has succeeded many times in transforming this ‘now’ into a vivid portrayal. After all, Caravaggio clothed his subjects in modern attire in all his paintings, in garments belonging to his time, even his Judiths or his St. Matthews... Angela succeeds in always having a imaginative quality, she interprets the director’s vision, and then through the forms and the highly delicate mix of colours creates refined images of pure poetry that embody the spirit of the characters,which collectively form exquisite tableaux.
Giorgio Barberio Corsetti
ANGELA BUSCEMI
MACBETH
MACBETH. Music by Giuseppe Verdi. Director: Giorgio Barberio Corsetti. Set designers: Giorgio Barberio Corsetti and Cristian Taraborrelli. Costume designers: Cristian Taraborrelli and Angela Buscemi. Lighting designer: Fabrice Kebour. Choreograper: Raphaëlle Boitel. Video Designers: Fabio Massimo Iaquone and Luca Attili. Teatro alla Scala, Milan 2013.
CAST AND CHARACTERS: Macbeth: Franco Vassallo, Vitaliy Bilyy. Banco: Štefan Kocán, Adrian Sampetrean. Lady Macbeth: Lucrecia Garcia, Tatiana Serjan. Dama: Emilia Bertoncello. Woo Kyung Kim. Malcolm: Antonio Corianò. Medico: Gianluca Buratto. Domestico: Ernesto Panariello. Sicario: Luciano Andreoli.
Lady Macbeth
ANGELA BUSCEMI
MACBETH
witches
soldiers
soldier
ZELMIRA
ZELMIRA. Musical drama in two acts by Andrea Leone Tottola. Music by Gioachino Rossini. Conductor: Roberto Abbado. Stage Director: Giorgio Barberio Corsetti. Set Designers: Giorgio Barberio Corsetti and Cristian Taraborrelli. Costume Designers: Cristian Taraborrelli and Angela Buscemi. Lighting designer: Gianluca Cappelletti. ROF Rossini Opera Festival, 30th Edition 2009. CAST AND CHARACTERS: Polidoro: Alex Esposito. Zelmira: Kate Aldrich. Ilo: Juan Diego Florez. Antenore: Gregory Kunde. Emma: Marianna Pizzolato. Leucippo: Mirco Palazzi. Eacide: Francisco Brito. Gran Sacerdote: Savio Sperandio.
ANGELA BUSCEMI
ZELMIRA choral group
The prisoners
LA SONNAMBULA LA SONNAMBULA. Music by Vincenzo Bellini. Director: Giorgio Barberio Corsetti. Set designer: Cristian Taraborrelli. Costume designer: Cristian Taraborrelli and Angela Buscemi. Lighting designer: Andreas Enzler. Choreographer: Michael Vogel. Theaters St. Galles 2010.
CAST AND CHARACTERS: Amina: Jane Archibald / Evelyn Pollok / Diletta Rizzo Marin. Elvino: Lawrence Bronlee / Arthur Espiritu. Conte Rodolfo: Roberto Tagliavini / Wojtek Gierlach. Lisa: Alison Trainer / Fiqerete Ymeraj. Alessio: Wade Kernot / Robert Virabjan. Teresa: Katja Starke / Manuela Iacob. Notar: Savio Nik Kevin Koch / AndrĂŠs del Castillo.
ANGELA BUSCEMI
LA SONNAMBULA
Amina
Conte Rodolfo
Lisa
Chorus
A N ANGEL AT MY ( DRAWING ) TABLE ON MY WORKING WITH
ANGELA BUSCEMI
by Francesco Calogero
I first met Angela Buscemi in 1994, during my first remit as opera director, having previously worked for many years in cinema. Right from our very first conversations Angela (who until then had worked as an assistant) to me appeared to be absolutely ready to design the costumes for an opera. Our preliminary meetings with the scenographer and the assistant director set the tempo, which became a kind of good luck ritual: same location, same lengthy brainstorming session, same creative contrasts (never bathed in blood, but certainly sweat and tears). Angela came to the fore, without being awestruck (she was by far the youngest of the group), with her brilliant and original ideas, though always in line with the director’s vision. Hence the roadmap was laid out from the very outset: the costumes shouldn’t merely conform to indispensable easy-on-the-eye aesthetics, but to all effects take on a significant narrative function. And so Donizetti’s Rita was immediately enhanced by her intuitive flair and sense of wit: all the female characters wore singular crinolines adorned with roses (in Rita’s case, as the hostess and leading lady) or decked with bows (the two coquettish maids), and made visible by raised skirts artfully arranged. Their cage-like form - accentuated by a scattering of little birds longing to take flight - was perfectly in line with the decorative motif of the scenery, between grids and mobile barriers and those crinolines represented in an inequivocable way the condition of psychological confinement (Rita) or of inferiority (the maids) in which these three women were in some way restricted by the male characters. The great success of Rita led to an immediate acknowledgement of our team for a more demanding task: the staging, in the same evening as is customary, of Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci. Naturally, a more risky challenge as, unlike Rita, here we had to work on operas that were very well known and loved, and create a modern twist on an entrenched tradition scenery-wise - the thought of chipped roof tiles and prickly pears perturbed us more than a little - without however disconcerting an audience little inclined to face the unexpected. For this journey through the use of the lighting, conceived to visually link the two operas in a single concept - highlighting the transition from gas lighting to electric at the turn of the twentieth century - we referenced Verga’s novella, having been a source of inspiration for Mascagni, where emerge the famed “elements seemingly of secondary importance” on which realism rests, to best convey states of mind. And the two basic colours of realism, combined with the contextual grey, that is, the white (symbolizing purity and fear) and the red (rage and blood), established the parameters within which to exemplify Angela’s creativity, through white handkerchiefs, red shawls, and spotless shirts ready to be stained with blood… cont. on next page >>>
ANGELA BUSCEMI
But totally devoid of cliché, highly stylised, and not without a sober elegance, given that in Cavalleria we’re talking about the Easter period, in which it is customary to show off your finest clothes, and in I Pagliacci the action was transposed to a less rural context. Here the burst of colour for the performers’ costumes was overstated - also with regard to what followed the intermezzo in Cavalleria - in a context justified by the invention of electric lighting, by the dazzling world of fairs, of circuses, of the first open-air film screenings in town squares. But the dark spirit of tragedy inevitably loomed... The most difficult undertaking for Angela had yet to come: the testing ground provided by Norma was probably the most arduous yet she excelled in the task at hand. In a monumental scenario depicting a natural setting, dominated by a large stone bridge that straddled a stretch of water (real, with all the problems that entails) complete with Roman trireme, and the sacred oak tree from which to pluck mistletoe in the nocturnal ritual illuminated by the ‘casta diva’, the chaste goddess. Just as substantial resonated the design of the costumes, of barbarian style, all woven cloth and metallic gleam: the ensemble ornamented with refined adornments sporting the leitmotif of the Druid spiral, fruit of a philological research, but certainly contaminated with the liberty that the director must surely grant the ingenuity of the costume designer. The process of integrating the costumes with the scenic design was perfectly achieved in the La Sonnambula of 2003 - our last collaboration up till now (while not forgetting the brillant work done by Angela for my film Metronotte, shot in 2000). Here, the women’s outfits fully conveyed the effect derived from the gouaches découpées of the last Matisse to embellish the scene, in an abstract rendering of those stylised leaves and flowers. The classic Switzerland of thatched roofs and flower bedecked balconies we were to avoid like the plague. But the key concept of the costumes is provided by the shawl found by Teresa, mother of the leading lady Amina, in that fatal night of her daughter’s sleepwalk (worn by Amina with detachment, the black shawl coordinated perfectly with her clothes), which proved decisive in nailing the culprit: Lisa, the deceitful innkeeper. Her red, flowery double-face shawl, symbolizing her foxy character, acted as the perfect counterpart in a storyline in which the theme of the double subtly emerges. A brainwave solution that is not only functional, but also metaphorical; a director simply could not ask more of his costume designer’s talent. Though I have spoken of our last collaboration I cannot however overlook the following evocative sketches penned by Angela for several operas (Salome, Il viaggio a Reims, The Flying Dutchman) yet never staged for a number of reasons. I hope soon to see her seated at the drawing table, ever ready to give form to my chaotic suggestions while drawing upon her infinite talent, her exquisite sensibility.
Francesco Calogero
ANGELA BUSCEMI
RITA Gasparo
RITA by Gaetano Donizetti. Conductor: Federico Amendola. Stage Director: Francesco Calogero. Set Designers: Antonio Virgilio. Costume Designers: Angela Buscemi. Lighting designer: Domenico Maggiotti. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, Messina 1994/95 CAST AND CHARACTERS: Rira: Patrizia Pace. Zelmira: Beppe: Donald Kaasch. Gasparo: Pietro Spagnoli.
RITA
ANGELA BUSCEMI
RITA
Beppe
Waitress
Gasparo
ANGELA BUSCEMI
Cavalleria Rusticana Chorus
CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA. Music by Pietro Mascagni. Conductor: Reynald Giovanninetti. Stage Director: Francesco Calogero. Set Designer: Antonio Virgilio. Costume Designer: Angela Buscemi. Lighting design: Iuraj Saleri. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, Messina 1996/97
CAST AND CHARACTERS: Santuzza: Susanna Anselmi. Turiddu: Gianluca Zampieri. Alfio: Antonio Salvadori. Lola: Emy Spadaro. Mamma Lucia: Tiziana Arena
ANGELA BUSCEMI
CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA
ANGELA BUSCEMI
Chorus
Lola
ANGELA BUSCEMI
CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA
Alfio
Chorus Turiddu
ANGELA BUSCEMI
CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA
Extra
ANGELA BUSCEMI
I PAGLIACCI
I PAGLIACCI Chorus
I PAGLIACCI by Ruggiero Leoncavallo. Conductor: Reynald Giovaninetti. Stage Director: Francesco Calogero. Set Designers: Antonio Virgilio. Costume Designers: Angela Buscemi. Lighting designer: Iuraj Saleri. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, Messina 1994/95. CAST AND CHARACTERS: Nedda: Liliana Marzano. Canio: Giorgio Merighi. Tonio: Antonio Salvadori. Peppe: Antonino Siragusa. Silvio: Gaetano Tirotta.
ANGELA BUSCEMI
I PAGLIACCI
Arlecchino
COLOMBINA
NEDDA
ANGELA BUSCEMI
Given the opportunity to stage Kurt Weill’s Marie Galante at the Rome Opera in 2007, the first full revival since the original production in Paris in 1934, I was very lucky to have someone as talented and imaginative as Angela Buscemi creating the costumes. We decided to situate the story in the 1920s, as written, but to reimagine the characters as though they had been evoked in a dream by our protagonist, Marie Galante. With these guidelines, Angela set free her imagination and produced a series of wonderful sketches: dancers in a seedy saloon bedecked in dazzling ostrich feathers, breathtaking outfits for our leading lady, supremely elegant and character-defining suits for our leading men, expressive and immediately communicative costumes for our secondary roles. Angela has that rare ability to have a clear image of the big picture, making all her costumes part of a coherent whole, while at the same time paying the greatest attention to details and so achieving both beauty and truth in her work. Looking back a few years later at photos of her costumes for Marie Galante, I am again filled with the delight and enthusiasm I felt when I first saw them, and cannot wait for the next opportunity to work with her!
Joseph Rochlitz
Photo by Corrado Maria Falsini
Marie Galante
MARIE GALANTE. Music by di Kurt Weill. Director: Joseph Rochlitz. Set designer: Cristian Taraborrelli. Costume designer: Angela Buscemi. Teatro Nazionale, Rome 2007.
CAST AND CHARACTERS: Marie Galante: Chiara Muti. Capitain: Roberto D'Alessandro. Stage manager: Josiah: Goffredo Matassi. Sailor: Antonello Ronga. Oswald Staub: Vittorio Amandola. Tokujiro Tsamatsui: Andrea Spina. Willy Crawbett: Marco Casazza. Dance Hall Owner: Prospero Richelmy. American sailor: Antonio Speranza. SeĂąora Tapia: Elisabetta De Vito. Soledad: Annalisa De Simone. Mercedes: Esnedy Milan Herrera.
ANGELA BUSCEMI
MARIE GALANTE
Dance
Marie
ANGELA BUSCEMI
MARIE GALANTE
Marie
ANGELA BUSCEMI
MARIE GALANTE
Dance
ANGELA BUSCEMI
MARIE GALANTE
Dance
ANGELA BUSCEMI
There are stage productions that are generated by a special energy: it could be age, a particular moment in a career, environment… all these ingredients went into the mix for the project that was without doubt my most important, the most ambitious: Mozart’s Italian trilogy. In Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte the costumes played a vital, fundamental role in the storyline: they were instrumental in the relationship between the period in which the operas were written and the period in which our productions were set. The eighteenth century of Mozart had to blend with the period at the threshold of the 1900s that referenced - for Don Giovanni - the world of Freudian psychoanalysis and German Expressionism while - in Così fan tutte - it interconnected with a vaguely melanchonic milieu, veiled of a nostalgia almost Visconti-like in its treatment. So that, by way of example, in Don Giovanni Deco motifs decorated tailcoats and gilets, threading a dialogue between different trends, or that esotic (erotic?) colours were gradually introduced into the costumes of the leading performers as the story of Così fan tutte unfolded. Angela Buscemi handled everything with such skill and creative freedom, having a decisive and spirited nature as much as it is delicately feminine at every turn, with that flight of inspired imagination effectively needed to connect with the oneiric world of Don Giovanni and that battle of the sexes in Così fan tutte. There are stage productions that are generated by a special energy and this force field generates fertile creative synergies: at a distance of over fifteen years I am still indebted to Angela … Francesco Torrigiani
D O N G I OVA N N I
ANGELA BUSCEMI
DON GIOVANNI
Donna Elvira
Donna Anna
DON GIOVANNI by W. A. Mozart. Conductor: Marco Balderi. Stage Director: Francesco Torrigiani. Set Designers: Pier Paolo Bisleri. Costume Designers: Angela Buscemi. Lighting designer: Domenico Maggiotti. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, Messina 2010
CAST AND CHARACTERS: Don Giovanni: Simone Alberghini. Commendador: Manrico Signorini. Donna Anna: Chiara Taigi. Donna Elvira: Amarilli Nizza. Don Ottavio: Filippo Pina Castiglioni. Leporello: Domenico Balzani. Masetto: Alessandro Battiato. Zerlina: Chiara Chialli.
ANGELA BUSCEMI
DON GIOVANNI
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
ANGELA BUSCEMI
DON GIOVANNI
Donna Anna
Don Giovanni
Così Fan Tutte COSÌ FAN TUTTE by W. A. Mozart. Conductor: Frédéric Deloche. Stage Director: Francesco Torrigiani. Set Designers: Pier Paolo Bisleri. Costume Designers: Angela Buscemi. Lighting designer: Domenico Maggiotti. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele Messina, 2002
CAST AND CHARACTERS: Fiordiligi: Annalisa Raspagliosi. Dorabella: Adelina Scarabelli. Guglielmo: Donato Di Gioia. Despina: Daniele Schillaci. Fernando: Carlo Vincenzo Allemano. Don Alfonso: Francesco Palmieri.
ANGELA BUSCEMI
Guglielmo
COSÌ FAN TUTTE
Ferrando
COSÌ FAN TUTTE
Chorus
ANGELA BUSCEMI
Chorus
ANGELA BUSCEMI
Don Carlo has been one of the most exhilarating experiences in my working life. I got to grips with one of the most celebrated operas in the Verdi repertoire, wonderful in its musical drama, made still powerful by the quality of the libretto. There were a huge number of costumes to reinvent and build. No less than three costume changes were planned for the numerous chorus singers. The project proved to be really demanding because to the bulk of the workload was added the difficulty working at long distance with the costume department at the Mariinsky Theatre for the entire time it took to work on the costumes‌ and what a distance! For this reason, not the slightest detail could be left to chance. Every minimum detail had to be studied and clarified with sketches that could dispel any doubt whilst working on the build. The costume shop at the Mariinsky Theatre was a revelation! I have very happy memories of the warmth and diligence with which these highly skilled professionals coped with any problem with the sole aim of completing the project while taking care of every minimum detail. After the first impact, in which the difference in language could be rather disarming, little by little it was as if our combined efforts towards a unified goal became a universal language. The invaluable help of the interpreter provided by Mariinsky Theatre proved at times to be wholly superfluous. Just a look was enough, or merely to fold the fabric between hands and drape it over the mannequin in such a way so as to immediately understand each other. The costumers, the pattern-makers, the embroiderers, the dyers, everyone went about their work in a spirit of tireless and disciplined professionalism, perservering in their ultimate goal of realizing the costumes that I had designed. Problems did arise, particularly connected with time restraints, but that mutual understanding ensured that everything was ready on the opening night. That evening, as the house lights were dimmed, all sweat and toil was forgotten, satisfaction shined in the eyes of all concerned! Behind the scenes of the magnificent stage the artists were ready to tread the boards. I recall the agile haste of the walkers-on along those endless corridors, wrapped in sumptuous costumes of ivory silk‌. an intoxicating experience never to be forgotten.
Angela Buscemi
Don Carlo
DON CARLO. Music by Giuseppe Verdi. Conductor: Valery Gergiev. Stage Director: Giorgio Barberio Corsetti. Set Designers: Giorgio Barberio Corsetti and Cristian Taraborrelli. Costume Designers: Cristian Taraborrelli and Angela Buscemi. Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg 2012. CAST AND CHARACTERS: Philip II: Yevgeny Nikitin. Don Carlo: Mikhail Vekua. Rodrigo: Vladislav Sulimsky. The Grand Inquisitor: Sergei Aleksashkin. Elisabeth de Valois: Irina Churilova. Princess Eboli: Yulia Matochkina.
ANGELA BUSCEMI
DON CARLO
Don Carlo
Rodrigo
ANGELA BUSCEMI
DON CARLO
Filippo II
Henchman
ANGELA BUSCEMI
DON CARLO
Elisabeth Act I
Elisabeth Act II
ANGELA BUSCEMI
Angela Buscemi has a very deep connection with theatre, a true sensitivity, of the kind that never fades. Well, let’s be clear, it was love at first sight, characterized by much intense passion and which luckily happened to coincide with a period of resurgence and of major development, perhaps, of the Teatro Vittorio Emanuele in Messina, Sicily. Unexpectantly closed down in 1908, year of the devasting earthquake that caused so many deaths in Messina and Reggio Calabria, the most important theatre in the Peloritane region – which, having already suffered heavy damage from the bombings in 1943 - reopened on 24 April 1985, with an unforgettable concert, repeated the following day, by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli (this capital city and seaport of the Straits, his father’s town, in which he had spent his childhood and adolescence, attending the religious institute). After some years of hosting operas from other theatres in Italy and the rest of Europe, the regional authority (that had meanwhile taken over from the previous local association) decided to produce its own stage productions by drawing from a pool of highly skilled local talent throughout the region and from within the theatre itself (which as a result became a crucial point of reference, at least for the eastern part of Sicily). From this a unique and particularly fortunate season ensued (counting on allocated funding of 13 billion liras, then progressively reduced...), in which to stage the most popular titles plus the odd pearl, Brecht’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny for instance, or Il cappello di paglia di Firenze by Rota and Mefistofele by Boito guaranteed to inflame the hearts of Messina’s many music-lovers. It’s within this context, characterized by a genuine enthusiasm and eagerness to get things done, that Angela found her niche, and with tenacity and talent - and unquestionable bravura - she carved out a role for herself centre-stage among those involved in that first important season. Her highly valued input shined in a number of productions: Rita by Donizetti, the diptych on realism by definition - Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni and I Pagliacci by Leoncavallo - and then Norma and La Sonnambula by Bellini, Don Giovanni and Così Fan Tutte by Mozart and two interesting one-act performances by young musicians from the island, Averroé by Marco Betta and Sogni siciliani by Albino Taggeo. Her costumes, elegant and always of exquisite finesse, are still today remembered among those working at Messina’s theatre and especially by its habitués: always on point and perfectly attuned to the creation of gifted directors (Francesco Calogero, Francesco Torrigiani and others) with whom she has effectively collaborated. And when her costumes happen to be on display, as they were just over a year ago during the staging of Don Giovanni from Moliére with Alessandro Preziosi (included in the theatre playbill), there are many who call for her return to Messina, the city in which she was born and grew up, before she spread her wings towards other shores. I count myself among them, having as a music critic followed her career with warm admiration. In the meantime I have become Musical Director, certain of being able to involve Angela in some production that I am preparing for the forthcoming season.
Matteo Pappalardo
NORMA
ANGELA BUSCEMI
Norma
NORMA by Vincenzo Bellini. Conductor: Andrea Licata. Director: Francesco Calogero. Set Designers: Antonio Virgilio. Costume Designers: Angela Buscemi. Lighting designer: Domenico Maggiotti. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, Messina 1997/98 CAST AND CHARACTERS: Norma: Denia Mazzola. Pollione: Gianluca Zampieri. Adalgisa: Gloria Scalchi. Oroveso: Franco De Grandis. Flavio: Gianluca Gheller. Clotilde: Sara Palana.
NORMA
Chorus
ANGELA BUSCEMI
ANGELA BUSCEMI
Priest druid
NORMA
Flavio
NORMA
Pollione
ANGELA BUSCEMI
ANGELA BUSCEMI
Vite Immaginarie
VITE IMMAGINARIE by Giuseppe Di Leva. Music: Marco Tutino. Conductor: Michele Amoroso. Stage director: Vincenzo Tripodo. Set designer: Francesca Cannavò. Costume designer: Angela Buscemi. Choreographer: Ugo Pitozzi. Lighting designer: Danilo La Rosa. Production: Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, Messina 2000
ANGELA BUSCEMI
Puccini’s La Rondine happens to be one of my all time favourite operas: this modern Traviata, a woman who has a brief love affair with a young country bumpkin who in turn tempts her away from the extravagant good life of Paris, has a certain modernity and spirit of independence that has always fascinated me. Magda, in fact faced with the prospect of becoming a model wife and mother holed up in a provincial town under the watchful eye of her mother-in-law, in a proto-feminist jolt, so to speak, bids farewell to her love and returns whence she came and, like a swallow having enjoyed its “place in the sun”, flys back to the frigid world of wealthy, complaisant bankers who, with banknotes and jewellery, stop her from thinking about the emotional sterility in which she lives. With Angela Buscemi we characterized this world of luxurious futility in a 1950s Paris, compiling detailed documentation on great names in fashion of that period, such as Balenciaga and Schubert and from lavish creations by the Fontana sisters to the clean lines of Chanel. In the first act our leading lady and her friends donned the typical colours of the swallows, in a play of black and white which emphasised the rosy flesh of the young and beguiling protagonists, and through a hybrid of cross-referencing and overlaying enhanced the sensual and strikingly elegant forms of these 1950s escorts. The nebulous atmosphere of a Paris Rive Gauche by contrast characterizes the second act, with some digression into a certain “grottesque” a là Grotz. Here Ms. Buscemi laid out a colour palette, cut and composition that showed a post-war humanity that was capricious and confused, of an erotic, loutish and provocative nature in stark contrast to the sensual and intentionally cool monochromatic forms of the first act. In the third act, where Magda lives out her dream of love in a squalid little hotel room with her Ruggero, we worked on the lingerie of that period after which, to please her lover she wore a reassuring flimsy little dress with a flower pattern that was bordering on shabby, as if Magda ostentatiously wanted to forget the world from which she came. Also in this case it’s worth mentioning that the costume works as a dramatic metaphor of the character’s personality: it’s not enough to have visual impact but through the costume, the cut, the use of colour and the mix or at times even juggling with chromatic mismatch, it must be absolutely faithful to the drama and reveal intrinsic meanings in the text and in the ambiguity in its characters. It was a really exciting project to work on, full of research, subtractions, bold and intuitive design solutions. I have to say that Angela Buscemi has really proved herself in terms of flair and in strict adherence to the text, a condition without which it is impossible to make good theatre.
Stefano Vizioli
Bianca
Suzi
Yvette
LA RONDINE
LA RONDINE by Giacomo Puccini Conductor: Hirofumi Yoshida. Stage Director: Stefano Vizioli. Set Designer: Cristian Taraborrelli. Costume Designer: Angela Buscemi. Lighting designer: Nevio Cavina. Production: Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, Messina 2012
Magda
Chorus
Chorus
Lisette
LA RONDINE
ANGELA BUSCEMI
Angela Buscemi is an artist whom I have had the fortune to meet in the course of my working life. With her beside me, the way I view costumes has changed. She has given a poetic touch to the characters and, more recently, in designing the costumes for the productions I have directed she has created characters that are "dramatically pure" in their elegance. To have the opportunity to see her figure sketches take form is a privilege; the emotion that resides in every brushstroke is the same that is revived in me when observing the costumes worn on the stage. And it was just so in Jura by Gavino Gabriel at the Opera House in Cagliari where her input was fundamental. Here, she succeeded in invoking once again the Sardinian culture of inventing spellbinding chromatic combinations that were capable of sparking amazement as only nature in its mesmerizing randomness knows how to produce. Her innate talent has given life to operas such as La pietra del paragone and La belle Hélène, in which the costumes were true protagonists on the stage. In “Don Carlos” in St. Petersburg she skillfully recreated that period with unparalleled sophistication: the attention to detail in the embroidery and the creation of vibrant nuances produced on stage tableaux in motion of strong emotional impact. When I’m working on a new project it’s impossible to think of it without her creativity. Cristian Taraborrelli
LA JURA. Libretto and music by Gavino Gabriel. Conductor: Sandro Sanna. Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro Lirico in Cagliari. Choral director: Gaetano Mastroiaco. Tàsgia chorus of the Accademia Popolare Gallurese “Gavino Gabriel”. Director and set designer: Costume designers: Cristian Taraborrelli and Angela Buscemi. Lighting designer: Guido Levi. Video Designer: Fabio Massimo Iaquone. Choreographer: Antonella Agati. Teatro Lirico, Cagliari 2015.
La Jura
ANGELA BUSCEMI
La Jura
La Jura
LA
BELLE
HÉLÈNE
Photo by Marie-Noëlle Robert
LA BELLE HÉLÈNE LA BELLE HELÉNÈ. Book : Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. Conductor : Lorenzo Viotti. Stage director and designer: Giorgio Barberio Corsetti. Video Designer: Pierrick Sori. Costume designer: Cristian Taraborrelli. Dress designer: Angela Buscemi. Choreographer: Raphaëlle Boitel. Lighting designer: Gianluca Cappelletti. Orchestre Prométhée. Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris 2015
CAST AND CHARACTERS: Hélène: Gaëlle Arquez. Pâris: Merto Sungu / Jesus Leon. Oreste: Kangmin Justin Kim. Ménélas : Gilles Ragon. Calchas : Jean-Philippe Lafont. Agamemnon : Marc Barrard. Achille : Mark van Arsdale. Ajax II : Franck Lopez. Ajax I, roi de Salamine: Raphaël Brémard. Loena : Rachel Redmond. Bacchis : Jennifer Michel. Partœnis : Je Ni Kim.
ANGELA BUSCEMI
LA BELLE HÉLÈNE
Amorino, Julien Lambert
Leaena, hétaïre. Achille, roi de Phtiotide.
Ajax Deuxieme, roi des Locriens
Agamemnon, roi des rois.
Hélène, reine de Sparte
LA BELLE HÉLÈNE
AVERROÈ
ANGELA BUSCEMI
I well remember Angela Buscemi’s costumes for Averroè, a meditation in the form of a one-act opera from the libretto by Daniele Martino. I have a vivid recollection of them, during rehearsals at Teatro Vittorio Emanuele in Messina, Sicily as the opera took shape, directed by Vincenzo Tripodo with Michele Amoroso as conductor. The moment in which each character appeared in costume made a strong impression on me, it moved me to the core. Angela had wrapped each performer in a kind of embrace of fabrics that to me suggested patterns and passages suspended between colours and the sounds of my musical score. We were all in syntony as we worked on the opera, an intense and passionate process, and Angela’s costumes intersected and interacted with each other; they were painting, sculpture, music, a possible refuge of the soul, suspended between memory of the great tradition of the past and the creativity of our time. Angela had evoked strong and expressive emotional states. The staging of the opera was as smooth as silk. I listened to the sounds reflected in the theatre, in the sets, in the costumes and I recall a multitude of colours.
IBN Arabi
Marco Betta
Averroè
AVERROÈ by Daniele Martino. Music: Marco Betta. Conductor: Michele Amoroso. Stage director: Vincenzo Tripodo. Set designer: Francesca Cannavò. Costume designer: Angela Buscemi. Lighting designer: Domenico Maggiotti. Video: Christian Bisceglia. Production: Teatro Vittorio Emanuele, Messina 2006.
ANGELA BUSCEMI Angela Buscemi was born in Messina in 1971. While still at high school she began to study the art of costume design. She graduated at the art institute of Messina and continued her studies at the Accademia Internazionale D’Alta Moda ed Arte del Costume “Koefia” in Rome. Soon after, she began her career in theatre, collaborating on the staging of a great many lyric operas. Among her most significant projects we cite: Don Carlo at Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and Macbeth at Teatro alla Scala, Milan. She has created the costumes for a number of musicals and, in 2001, for My Fair Lady, she gained a nomination for best costume design at the IMTA, Italian Musical Theatre Award. In 2000, she designed the costumes for the film Metronotte directed by Francesco Calogero, the recipient of an award at the Annecy Film Festival. In 2004, a Special Mention Award by the International Jury of the Taormina Film Festival for the short film Il regalo di compleanno directed by Christian Bisceglia for which she designed the costumes. SPECIAL MENTION AWARD 2015, for La Belle Helene, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, a show for which she created the costume sketches, working with the director, Cristian Taraborrelli.
2017 Il colore del sole by L.Gregoretti. Teatro Comunale di Modena and Teatro Spontini di Jesi. 2015 La Jura by G. Gabriel. Teatro Lirico di Cagliari. - La Belle Helene by J. Offenbach. Teatre Chatelet de Paris. 2013 Macbeth by G. Verdi. Teatro alla Scala di Milano. 2012 Don Carlo by G. Verdi. Teatro Mariinskij di San Pietroburgo. - La rondine by G. Puccini. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele di Messina. 2010 La sonnambula by V. Bellini. Teatro di San Gallo. 2019 Zelmira by G. Rossini. Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro. 2005 Marie Galante by K. Weill. Teatro Dell'Opera di Roma. 2003 La sonnambula by V. Bellini. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele di Messina. 2002 Così fan tutte by W. A. Mozart. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele di Messina. 2001 Saturday Night Fever (“La febbre del sabato sera”) Musiche dei Bee Gees. Teatro Nazionale di Milano. Nevebianca by M. Tutino. Fondazione Arena di Verona. - Don Giovanni by W. A. Mozart. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele di Messina. 2000 Vite immaginarie by M. Tutino. Teatro di Messina. 1999 My Fair Lady by A. J. Lerner e F. Loewe. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele di Messina. 1998 Averroè by M. Betta. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele di Messina. - Norma by V. Bellini. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele di Messina. 1997 La dirindina by D. Scalatti. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele di Messina. - L’impresario delle Canarie by D. Sarro. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele di Messina. - Cavalleria Rusticana by P. Mascagni. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele di Messina. - Pagliacci by R. Leoncavallo. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele di Messina. 1995 Rita ou le mari battu by G. Donizetti. Teatro Vittorio Emanuele di Messina.