Costume designs for French opera, theater and music-halls
Overview
Costume designs for opera, theater and music-halls productions by French designers, Georges K. Benda, Charles Bétout, and Marcel Mültzer.
Dates
- 1890-1940
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in French.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
Extent
.5 linear feet (57 drawings in 28 folders)Costume designs for the first half of the 20th-century productions of comic ballets and operas by Molière, Puccini and Gluck at Comédie-Française, Opera de Paris, Opera-Comique, and for productions at Parisian music-halls by Georges K. Benda, Charles Bétout and Marcel Mültzer.
Biographical / Historical
Georges Kugel Benda (1873- active until 1961) was a French costume designer for the most noted music-halls in Paris and London. After 1929 he almost exclusively worked for film studios in Europe and in Hollywood.
Charles Bétout (1869-1948) was a costume designer for French opera, operetta and historical films. From 1920 to 1930 he was the principal costume designer for the Comédie-Française. Between 1925 and 1931, he also designed costumes for various historical scenes for the revues at Folies-Bergère. He was one of the great historical designers of the early 20th century.
Marcel Mültzer (1866-1937) was a French costume designer for opera and operetta, Bétout and Mültzer collaborated on many opera productions.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by the artist's name and production title within.
Physical Location
pfd
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2005MT-56. Purchased with the Beatrice, Benjamin and D. Richard Bader Fund; received: 2005 September.
Processing Information
Processed by: Irina Klyagin
- Title
- Costume designs for French opera, theater and music-halls, circa 1890-1940: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou02607
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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