Opera Costume as a Creative Process: The Farani Tailoring Workshop between Material, Design and Stage

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the role of tailoring in the creation of opera costumes, focusing on the modus operandi of Sartoria Farani, historically recognised for its highly textured approach, at times transgressive and exuberant in its use of materials, and for a modern-oriented conception of costume. Through a virtuous combination of artisanal knowledge and creative design, Sartoria Farani has produced significant results in the history of Italian costume design, both in the fields of prose, opera, and cinema. Thanks to the opportunity to analyze the material preserved in the Farani Collection, deposited at the Communication Study and Archive Center (CSAC) of the University of Parma, the essay focuses in particular on the analysis of some costumes created for the leading performers of three opera productions of the 1980s: Giorgio Pressburger’s The Magic Flute (1980), with costumes by Gianni Novak; Franco Zeffirelli’s La Traviata (1984); and Gianfranco De Bosio’s Armida (1985), with costumes by Santuzza Calì.