March 2021: L'incoronazione di Poppea

Costume design for the opera L'incoronazione di Poppea by Claudeo Monteverdi.

This project was part of my studies at Edinburgh College of Art. The assignment was to independently research, develop and present costume designs for the ten characters of the opera. This included presenting textile samples, a project book with research and development files, finished costume illustrations as well as technical drawings of the garments, and a basic idea for scenography.

A digitally collaged lineup of ten character illustrations. They have various outfits but all of them resemble 1970s pop- and rockstars such as Bianca Jagger, Farrah Fawcett, Robert Plant or Chaka Khan.

Character lineup from left to right: Mercury, Drusilla, Seneca, Ottavia, Nerone, Poppea, Ottone, Fortuna, Virtue. Amore laying down.
Below: pages from project book detailing the final designs of Nerone and Poppea.

A page from a project book labelled NERONE. To the left is an illustration of the character; she is blonde and wears black flared trousers, a sheer red top and a dark red cape with a black feather collar. Underneath the top she is bare chested and tattooed. A secondary illustration shows the gold wreath she wears and the back of the cape, with a gold S.P.Q.R. text. Four photos show the gold coronation wreath of Napoleon, a photo of Robert Plant, a tattooed marble bust and a female actor from Takarazuka Revue in crossdressing. Another three photos show material samples of marbled fabric, feathers, and gold detailing. A page from a project book labelled POPPEA. To the left is an illustration of the character; she has a large, dark afro and wears a red mini dress in the style of a greek chiton. Her boots are black with white marbling and reach mid thigh, there is a small cape over her shoulders and gold jewelry. Four images show a photo of Frida and Agneta of ABBA, Chaka Khan, a line drawing of a chiton, and another photo of Frida and Agneta. Five photos show material samples of different feathers, gold beads on red fabric, marbled fabric, and a greek key ribbon.

L'incoronazione di Poppea concerns itself with how love makes fools of us all, forcing nations to step aside to accommodate the desires of two lovers. With the framing of Amore proving his complete power over mortals to his fellow deities, this iteration of Poppea views the corrupt emperor Nerone and his entourage through the lens of 1970s' pop and rock stars, examining the relationships between power and aesthetics.

I contrasted the pairing of the rich baroque music and the lavish aesthetics of the 1970s, with the aesthetics of greco-roman antiquity, evoking it with symbols of the culture and water marbling. Much of this project was dedicated to getting the textil techniques right in order to use them to establish a language of design. For instance, Amores influence on a character can be seen in the use of gold and surface prints, whereas Fortunas mark is the use of embroidered embellishment and animal materials such as fur and beetle wings.

A photo of a material sample: a piece of black leather with white marble surface detailing and red fabric puffing out through three slashes. A photo of a material sample: a piece of black fabric onto which is embroidered several green, irridescent beetle wigns and glass beads. A photo of a material sample: a square piece of fabric quilted into a star pattern. The star is turqoise and the surrounding pieces are purple. Both the colours have been marbled onto a pale base.

Textile samples, left to right: water marbled leather, beetle wings and beads embroidered onto black fabric, water marbled and quilted cotton.
Below: pages from project book describing the development phase, with sketches and samples of water marbling. A basic sketch of the scenography.

Three pages from a project book stacked on top of each other. The back page is labelled WATER MARBLING and shows several narrow samples of water marbled paper. The middle pages title is not seen, it has photos of Cher, Janis Joplin and Robert Plant, as well as three rudimentary sketches of the characters of Amore, Fortuna and Virtue. The front page is titled DESIGN LANGUAGES and has a large chunk of text between several rudimentary sketches of garments and characters. A simple pencil sketch of a stage layout. The stage is made up out of three levels with a stair going up the middle; the bottom one on the stage floor, there is draperies and a door with a star on it. On the second level is what looks like a backstage corridor and green room, with a couch and a clothes rack, the wall behind it covered with signatures. The top floor is the stage of a rock concert as seen from behind, with bundles of cable, transport boxes, a covered up drumset, etc.