0 LA Opera's Costume Rare Tag Sale TODAY ONLY (Cinderella Costumes Included)

Doing some promo footage for the 2015 LA Opera Costume sale for KTLA Morning News

Looking for a Cinderella shoe, or broom? How about a Papageno mask, or a handmade stepsister wig? Today - Saturday March 28th - might just be your lucky day. The LA Opera Costume Shop is having a public tag sale (today only).
 


The LA Opera Costume shop is cleaning house in prep for moving their location and having a rare "tag sale" of about a thousand items worn on stage in numerous productions, including more than a few worn by the world's greats (think Placido Domingo). Fairy tale costumes will be included in the selection of course!

The L.A. Opera's costume shop, pictured in 2013 during the tailoring of outfits for "The Magic Flute," is moving -- so an estimated 1,000 costumes are being put up for sale. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

From the LA Times and ArtsBeatLA:

Think late 19^th century bustles and flouncy panniers; handmade shoes and masks; military garb and gladiator gear; period wigs and accessories. The items for sale are from productions such as “Cinderella,” "Aida," “The Grand Duchess,” “Lucia di Lammermoor” and “The Turn of the Screw.” Prices start at $25 for complete costumes and $2 for individual pieces. 

One-of-a-kind items such as handcrafted hats, uniquely designed shoes, numerous masks, theatrical jewelry, period wigs, gladiatorial armor and even slave cuffs will be laid out on tables alongside the racks.  Also for sale will be bolts of unusual fabrics and faux fur, as well as buttons, belts, floral hair pins, bustles and panniers. 

   

Costumes available for sale will include items from Aida, The Barber of Seville, The Birds, The Broken Jug, Cinderella, The Grand Duchess, Lucia di Lammermoor, Orfeo ed Euridice, The Queen of Spades, Salome, The Turk in Italy, The Turn of the Screw and Vanessa, among others.

A special “diva rack” will have the high-end items, $1,000 to $5,000, worn by stars such as Jennifer Larmore, Kiri Te Kanawa, Bryn Terfel and Deborah Voigt.

You can see a slideshow of some of the available costumes HERE and

If you're in the neighborhood, go check out the 90 clothing racks at:
330 South Alameda Street in downtown LA (parking lot)
10:30am to 4pm
Saturday March 28th ONLY 

It's a public event and you can browse for FREE!

If you go, don't forget to take your camera. We want to see the goodies please!

Detail: LA Opera's Costume Rare Tag Sale TODAY ONLY (Cinderella Costumes Included)

0 American Ballet Theater's Sleeping Beauty - Final Performances in Costa Mesa CA Today (Sunday)

A quick sneak-it-in post, since Sunday (today as you are probably reading this) is the last day this is being performed in Costa Mesa, California. But the production sounds all sorts of amazing, with new choreography and classic combined, full of symbolism and a different sort of storytelling to usual story ballets.

By the way - beautiful promotional pic, don't you think? Although it also looks incredibly uncomfortable.. that girl is going to need a massage when she finally gets woken up!

The American Ballet Theatre returns to the Center with the world premiere of its new production of The Sleeping Beauty, with choreography by Marius Petipa and additional choreography by ABT Artist in Residence, Alexei Ratmansky. This classic story ballet tells the enchanting tale of the beautiful princess cursed to sleep for 100 years by an evil sorceress, until awakened by the kiss of a handsome prince. It’s ballet on the grandest scale with the superstar dancers and spectacular sets and costumes that only ABT can deliver. And it all unfolds to Tchaikovsky’s ravishing score, performed live by the Pacific Symphony.

New costume design left to right:
1st row: Rose Adagio, The Wolf, Queen at Christening, English Prince
2nd row: Catalabutte, Mandarin, King at the Christening, Indian Prince
3rd row: Hummingbird Fairy, New Wedding Dress, Ariana, Garland Couples

(You can see the costumes sketches much larger HERE.)

I wanted to point to a hilarious, irreverent post on her special night out to see an older ABT Sleeping Beauty production (at The Lincoln Center) HERE. The writer clearly was completely entranced, but makes some hilarious observations and connections too, such as:

"Any respectable girl knows the story of Sleeping Beauty. She is born, and at her welcoming ceremony, her parents offend Helena Bonham Carter, who curses the princess to an early death via poisonous spindle."

I had to laugh.

And if you get the chance to see the ABT's current production, consider going. It's touted to be a little bit more than a standard production of Sleeping Beauty (which is a very difficult ballet to stage and execute because of the technical difficulties - many companies are just not up to the grueling task!).

For this Sunday/today's last two performances, you can find more information HERE.


For more information on the American Ballet Theater touring (though I don't see any further performances of this new Sleeping Beauty production after tomorrow until June) go have a look HERE.Note: if you end up going and seeing a performance of this Sleeping Beauty later in the year, I've read articles which say the ballet, because it's a brand new production, is being tweaked and revised, according to critic and audience reception as it goes along (this is fairly standard for age companies adding a new signature work to their repertoire) so be assured that it will only get better.

Fairy tale bonus of the day:

Ballet legend, Gelsey Kirkland and her amazing Carabosse costume from the ABT production in 2007. I just had to share. It looks like beetles and magic! You can see more from the creator, Kari Love, who created the costumes for the 2007 production HERE.

Detail: American Ballet Theater's Sleeping Beauty - Final Performances in Costa Mesa CA Today (Sunday)