Radamès
Costumes
Inventory number
2024.3.26.1.CO.SC.1880.FRAuthors:
Eugène LACOSTE (French, 1818 - 1907)Opéra national de Paris (French, founded 1870)
Description
Part of costume consisting of a rigid semi-circle creating the illusion of an Egyptian pectoral necklace to which a rectangular band is attached and falling in the center front to the knees. At the stomach level, a wide belt going down to the waist creates an effect of colored armor then two small strips of fabric and a triangular piece below create the effect of a starched Egyptian shendyt. The whole is decorated with pieces of multicolored woolen fabric on which three metal plates adorme the silhouette, one with a beetle in a neck and two with intertwined snake motif are affixed on the bottom.This is the stage costume for the character of Radamès interpreted by the French lyric singer, tenor at the Paris Opera, Henri SELLIER (1848-1899) in Giuseppe VERDI's four-act opera Aida. The premiere took place in Cairo on December 24, 1871, then presented at the Scala in Milan on February 8, 1872. The opera arrived in France in 1876, at the Théâtre-Lyrique Italian in Paris, with the same cast as the Milan premiere and finally on March 22, 1880 at the Palais Garnier. For this production, the costume designer Eugène LACOSTE (1818-1907) recreates the costumes of the very first production in Cairo down to the smallest detail, which had been imagined by the Egyptologist Auguste MARIETTE (1821-1881).
Materials
WoodCotton brocate
Metalic bands
Metal