The legacy of Oliver Messel (1904–78), one of the most instrumental stage designers of the 20th century, will be celebrated in an exhibition this summer at Glyndebourne. The show marks 100 years since his professional debut and 75 years since he first designed an opera set at the famous East Sussex festival.
‘High on artifice and craftsmanship, the exhibition captures the original, glamorous and creative world that Messel brought to the Glyndebourne stage,’ explains Glyndebourne archivist Philip Boot. His aesthetic, which combined Modernist tendencies with 17th- and 18th-century grandeur, was distinctive and echoes of it can still be seen at Glyndebourne today.
In 1946, he redesigned the theatre’s proscenium arch and, between 1950 and 1965, designed nine productions, including acclaimed stagings of Le nozze di Figaro and Idomeneo by Mozart (the latter featured a young Pavarotti) and Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier.
Messel’s handmade papier-mâché masks from the last are included in the show alongside other ingenious props, stage designs and costumes, with archival photographs taken by Angus McBean and Lord Snowdon. Artworks by contemporary artists Luke Edward Hall and Pablo Bronstein, both of whom cite Messel as an influence, will also feature, as well as Gary McCann’s designs and costumes for the 2024 production of Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow.
Beyond aesthetics, Messel’s legacy stretches to the festival itself; he often hosted luncheons and supper parties to aid the opera house after the war and it was at one of these events that the idea for a membership scheme and a programme book was born. At one of his gatherings, on November 9, 1951, the Glyndebourne Festival Society was inaugurated.
‘Oliver Messel: Designer, Maker, Influencer’ will be open to ticket holders and by appointment throughout this year’s Glyndebourne Festival, May 16–August 24. A selection of the works included will be available to view online.
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