Setting the Scene: Opera Costumes Off-stage

Abstract

This paper examines the curatorial strategies and interpretive challenges involved in exhibiting opera costumes outside their original theatrical context. Removed from the stage, opera costumes are stripped not only of the performing body but also of the scenographic environment that activates their full meaning. Their display in a museum context thus demands careful consideration of how to evoke the performative and spatial dynamics they once inhabited.

Through an analysis of key exhibitions, mainly those staged by the Centre National du Costume et de la Scène (Moulins), and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), this paper explores different approaches to framing opera costumes in the absence of both the stage and the body. The V&A’s Opera: Passion, Power and Politics exhibition, embraced a scenographic and immersive model to represent seven premieres in seven European cities for a total of 400 years of operatic history. By contrast, the DIVA exhibition at the same institution foregrounded the symbolic and celebrity value of certain iconic costumes, blurring the lines between opera, fashion, and popular culture.

This comparative approach enables a reflection on the motivations behind exhibiting opera costumes: whether to highlight the legacy of a specific production, performer, or designer, or to engage audiences through broader cultural narratives. Special attention will be given to the tension between theatrical ephemerality and museological permanence, and to the interpretive tools used to mediate that gap. Ultimately, the paper argues that curating opera costumes requires more than preserving garments: it involves “setting the scene” anew, translating the experiential, sonic, and visual layers of performance into a new, hybrid scenography for the museum visitors.