{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O124378"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O124378/"}},"images":null,"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O124378","accessionNumber":"S.80-2006","objectType":"Set design","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Great Britain’s leading theatre designer from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, Oliver Messel (1904-1978) won international acclaim for his lavish, painterly and poetic designs informed by period styles.  His work spans ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue. Messel’s traditional style of theatre design became unfashionable from the mid 1950s onwards, and he increasingly concentrated on painting, interior and textile design, including designing luxury homes in the Caribbean.\r\n\r\nMozart’s comic opera <i>The Abduction from the Seraglio</i> was one of four Mozart operas performed  at Glyndebourne in 1956 to celebrate the bi-centenary of his birth.  Messel’s exuberant designs are inspired by eighteenth century Western European art and design and its fascination for the Orient, in harmony with the spirit of Mozart’s opera.\r\n\r\nConstanze, Blonde and Pedrillo are captured by pirates, and they sail to Bassa Selim’s palace.   Messel lets his whimsical imagination run riot, imagining a boat driven by slaves, carrying a tented structure and adorned with an elaborate parasol.  The scaled drawing enabled prop makers to construct the boat to exact dimensions.","physicalDescription":"Design by Oliver Messel for a Glyndebourne production of <i>Die Entführung aus dem Serail</i>, 1956.  An ink drawing on scaled tracing paper of Selim's boat, propelled by four men using poles.  The boat contains a tented structure on the left.  On the right, a man holds a parasol.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Messel, Oliver Hilary Sambourne","id":"A4929"},"association":{"text":"designer","id":"x36960"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"tracing paper","id":"AAT14161"}],"techniques":[{"text":"drawing (image-making)","id":"AAT54196"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Pencil and ink on tracing paper","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Designs","id":"THES48968"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":[],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"009","id":"THES356275"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"set design","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1956","earliest":"1956-01-01","latest":"1956-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Acquired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"38.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"approximately","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"25","unit":"cm","qualifier":"approximately","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"<i>Die Entführung aus dem Serail</i> (1782), an opera in two acts by Mozart with  libretto by Bretzner.  Oliver Messel’s production was first performed by Glyndebourne Festival Opera at Glyndebourne on 10 June 1956; directed by Peter Ebert and featuring Ernst Häefliger as Belmonte and Arnold Van Mill as Osmin.  It was revived at Glyndebourne in 1957 and 1961.  \r\nLord Snowdon, Oliver Messel's nephew, inherited Messel's theatre designs and other designs and artefacts.  The designs were briefly stored in a disused chapel in Kensington Palace before being housed at the V&A from 1981 on indefinite loan.  The V&A Theatre Museum purchased the Oliver Messel collection from Lord Snowdon in 2005.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Set design by Oliver Messel for Selim's boat in Act I, scene i, of Mozart's opera <i>Die Entführung aus dem Serail</i>, Glyndebourne 1956.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Pinkham, Roger (ed.) <u>Oliver Messel: an exhibition held at the Theatre Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, 22 June - 30 September 1983.</u> \r\nLondon: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983.  200p., ill\r\nISBN 0905209508)"}],"production":"Reason For Production: Commission","productionType":{"text":"Design","id":"THES48872"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.80-2006"],"accessionNumberNum":"80","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2006,"otherNumbers":[{"type":{"text":"TM Rotation Number","id":"THES50368"},"number":"ROT 718"}],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-08","recordCreationDate":"2006-05-26","availableToBook":true}}