Exhibition Titina Rota at San Giorgio
From 26 September the exhibition areas of the Nuova Manica Lunga at the Giorgio Cini Foundation will host a show of costume designs by Titina Rota (Milan 1899 – Rome 1978). A stage designer, painter and cousin of the composer Nino Rota, Titina was one of the most interesting fi gures in 20th-century Italian theatre.
This exhibition focused on her costumes designs for a production of Pelléas et Mélisande will be curated by Maria Ida Biggi.
The works on show are all unpublished designs recently acquired by the Study Centre for Documentary Research into European Theatre and Opera. All pastel on cardboard works, the eleven plates depict the characters from the Symbolist lyric play written by Maeterlinck to mark the opening of Lugné-Poe’s Théâtre de l’OEuvre in Paris in 1893; it was then set to music by Claude Debussy in 1902. The three leading roles – Mélisande, Golaud and Pélleas – have two costumes apiece, while King Arkel, Geneviève (the mother of Pelléas and Golaud), the young Yniold, the doctor and the serving girl all have one costume design each. The designs for Pelléas et Mélisande were made for a proposed production at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, in 1935, but unfortunately the project came to nothing. The exhibition is supplemented by material from the Nino Rota bequest documenting Titina’s artistic career and her relations with theatres at the time. Some other designs by the artist are also one show, such as her work for the sets and costumes of the world première of G. F. Ghedini’s Re Hassan at the Teatro la Fenice, Venice, in 1939; these designs survived the 1996 fi re in the Venetian opera house.
Lastly, Titina Rota’s presence in Venice will be documented by period photographs from the Biennale Historical Archives. They include some photographs showing her working with Max Reinhardt in various productions, while others are from an album of Il fi losofo di campagna by Goldoni and Galoppi, staged in the grounds of Ca’ Rezzonico in 1938, under the direction of Corrado Pavolini and with sets by Virgilio Marchi.
The exhibition was realised with the contribution of Telecom Italia.
25 September – 31 December 2010
From Monday to Friday: 9.00 – 16.30
For the Nuova Manica Lunga users
Saturday and Sunday: 10.00 – 16.00
Entrance allowed just through the guided visits
More info:
Centro Studi per la Ricerca Documentale sul Teatro e il Melodramma Europeo
tel. +39 041 2710236 – fax +39 041 2710215
teatromelodramma@cini.it
