Maquette for The Bassarids
Maker and role
Artist: Tazeena Firth, British, born 1935
Artist: Timothy O'Brien, British, 1929-2022
Year
ca. 1974
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Object detail
Media/Materials
Painted wood and board, with found wood, string, and beads
Measurements
20 3/4 x 30 x 27in (52.7 x 76.2 x 68.6cm)
Credit line
Gift of The Tobin Endowment
Accession number
TL2002.192
Object type
Department
Location
Theatre production
Opera by Hans Werner Henze. Produced by the English National Opera, London, 1974.
Further information
For Hans Werner Henze's operatic version of the myth of Dionysus (Bacchus), O'Brien created a raked (sloped) set with a central acting area recalling outdoor amphitheaters built into the hillsides of ancient Greece. In the maquette, a blasted tree and strings of beads, illuminated to suggest fireflies, completed the nighttime scene. Here, Dionysus and his female followers engaged in the ecstastic, wine-fueled rituals that threatened the male leaders of Thebes.
Documentation
An Eye for the Stage; William J. Chiego, Jody Blake (American, b.1953); 2004; p. 74
Theatre Design & Technology; Winter 2014; p. 34-35
Theatre Design & Technology; Winter 2014; p. 34-35
Associated person
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