VENICE: Palazzo Fortuny - Fortuny Mission Project. The restoration of Mariano Fortuny’s
theatres carries on….
A cocktail party was held at Palazzo Fortuny for the
completion of the restoration of Mariano Fortuny’s Teatro delle Feste and
Dipinti Dell’Atelier and the cry for help for the restoration of the Bayreuth
Theatre and the Theatre Drawings Album. “THANK YOU” said Franca Coin president of the Venice Foundation “When you do
something for Venice it bounces back at an international level.” The thanks was directed to all the micro
patrons who bought virtual seats to help restore the Teatro delle Feste to its
full splendor.
The story: In 1912,
Mariano Fortuny, Gabriele D’Annunzio and Lucien Hesse designed the Teatro delle
Feste, which was to be constructed at Esplanade des Invalides in Paris. Mariano
himself built the model, based on their design, with his prodigious hands,
inside the studio of the present-day Fortuny Museum where it is now exhibited
in all its former glory.
The virtual seats: The restoration of the model of the Teatro delle Feste was financed
through the booking of virtual seats.
The restoration team. In less than one year, Stefano
Provinciali directed his team of restorers, Laura Folin, Gea Storace together
with Francesco Rado who restored the electrical parts. They will now be restoring the Bayreuth
Theatre, which has to be ready for Wagner’s bicentennial in 2013 to commemorate
the great German composer’s connections to Venice and the city of his death.
The Bayreuth Theatre # 1. Since 1891 Mariano Fortuny was completely captivated
by the allure of the staging of Wagner’s theatre, however many years passed
before he concretely measured himself against the theatre experimenting at
length with both lighting and technology and the preparation of scenographic
sketches. It was in fact starting with
the realization of scenographies linked to the works of Wagner that this model
was born in 1903. Made of wood and metal
and now kept in the atelier, it is a reconstruction of the layout and the
risers of the setting of the German Bayreuth Theatre. In addition, certain reduced scale lighting
applications like the cupola or dome and indirect and diffused lighting
techniques are visible. This maquette is
an intricate and complex system made up of small cables, electrical power
transformers and light bulbs; of wings and scenes depicted on cardboard; of the
cupola, an important stagecraft element of Fortuny’s reformist project. These are all elements, which are in very
poor state of preservation and must absolutely be restored. The objective is that of being able to once
again admire the captivating luminous effects projected onto the setting of
this impressive theatre model, which was meticulously created by Mariano
Fortuny’s skilled hands. The dimensions
of the model are: height 240cm, width 210cm and depth 170cm.
The Bayreuth Theatre # 2. In a rare autobiographical recollection,
Fortuny affirms: “All that I saw and heard kindled in me a desire to achieve
new forms and new aspects that would enhance the general effects of the
theatre: I still remember certain
details of The Rhine Gold scene that were dissatisfying to my youthful
imagination. The effect of the river in
the distance was lacking in the effectiveness because of a bad light trick.”
Note: The scene above is for The Rhine Gold
production.
HELP!!! – The Bayreuth Theatre # 3. You can see for yourself the sorry state of
the Bayreuth Theatre, which stands in one of the rooms of the piano nobile of
Palazzo Fortuny crying for help. It desperately
needs restoring. Donations for the restoration of the model are inspired by
certain Wagnerian works that Mariano Fortuny depicted in paintings and
etchings: the Flower Maidens (E 200 $ 280) running after each other and playing
in Parsifal: Wotan (E 100 $140), the King of the Gods found in the tetralogy
The Ring of the Nibelung; Sieglinde (E 50 $ 70), Sigmund’s sister in The
Valkyrie and finally Mime (E 25 $ 35), a character present both in The Rhine
Gold and Siegfried. The names of the contributors, in the manner, which they
themselves indicate, shall be included in the list of supporters of the
restoration of the Bayreuth Theatre model. For more information contact The Venice Foundation.
Greetings. The mayor of Venice, Giorgio Orsoni,
the director of the Fortuny Museum, architetto Daniela Ferretti, the chairman
of The Venice International Foundation, Franca Coin and the president of the
Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Walter Hartsarich greeted guests at the
cocktail party held at Palazzo Fortuny.
“Dear Friends,” Franca Coin writes in the Venice Foundation newsletter “
in 2013 we shall celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of Richard Wagner. There are many connections between the great
German composer and Venice, a city that he visited six times. During his first visit, in 1858, he worked on
the composition of Tristan and Isolde, while he spent his final one, in 1882,
at Palazzo Vendramin Calegi. It was here
that he spent the last six months of his life.
Yet there is another link which for us is very significant: even Mariano
Fortuny - a man to whom the Venice Foundation has been dedicating the Fortuny
Mission Project since 2010 for the restoration of great works - had since his youth
been so fond of Wagner’s works that he created a model of the Bayreuth Theatre,
so dear to Wagner, upon which to apply his brilliant technological
innovations. This model, which is kept
at the atelier of Fortuny Palace Museum, was created by Mariano and now needs
your generous contribution in order to be restored. We must start right away because the
restoration will be long, difficult and meticulous. We would like to finish in time to
contemporaneously celebrate the skill of Wagner and the genius of Fortuny.”
Theatre Drawings Album. Fortuny expert Claudio Franzini explains the Theatre Drawings Album and
points out the sorry state it is in.
HELP!!! Also on the Fortuny Mission Project agenda is the
restoring of the Theatre Drawings Album, an extraordinary and unique
collection of drawings relating to studies and the scenic and lighting applications,
which Fortuny designed in
support of his complex and structured theatrical reform at the beginning of the
twentieth century. Worthy of note in this album are various drawings and
sketches dating back to 1898 of scenographies of Wagnerian operas along with several architectural reliefs of the Bayreuth Theatre, but above all it is
the first drawings of 1902, done in Paris, of the structure of the scenographic
device commonly known as the “Fortuny
Dome” and the system for the lighting of scenes with indirect and
reflected light that are the most striking. This thick and bulky album gathers
together an undefined but very consistent number of drawings, which are attached
directly onto pieces of cloth. Given the poor preservative condition of the
album, upon the completion of the restoration the individual insertion of each
drawing into a double page with the inventory number on the outside is
foreseen.
The
restorer. Margherita Errera will be restoring the Fortuny Theatre Drawings
Album. She was also responsible for
restoring Palladio’s drawings from the collection of the Musei Civici di Vicenza.
Daniela
Giussani, Giulia Venturini and Marialiusa Frisa
Fashionista,
Cecilia Matteucci
The
Fortuny Dinner. A dinner party for the Fortuny Mission Project was held after
the cocktail party in a palazzo on the Gran Canal.
Adele Re Rebaudengo, Manfredi Bellati and Franca Coin
Cesare de Michelis, Emanuela Bassetti and Tonci Foscari
Journalist Manuela Pivato who wrote one of twenty
short stories in the book I Nuovi Veneziani (The new Venetians) curated by
Caterina Falomo and published by Studio LT2.
Not on the menu. Hand blown Murano fruits sit in mid nineteenth century ceramic bowls.