Annenberg Center Presents "Il Teatro Alla Moda" in Beverly Hills

Roberto Capucci diva gowns: (top row) Raina Kabaivanska, Helga Dernesch*, Anna Caterina Antonacci;
(bottom row) Stefania Bonfadelli, Katia Ricciarelli, Anna Caterina Antonacci
[*costume originally for Salome/Teatro alla Scala/1987 as Herodias]

"The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts presents the U.S. premiere of Il Teatro Alla Moda (Theater in Fashion), the first exhibition to explore Italy’s famous haute couture designers and their impact on the stages of opera, dance and theater. More than 80 costumes, sketches and drawings from Giorgio Armani, Roberto Capucci, Enrico Coveri, Fendi, Alberta Ferretti, Romeo Gigli, Antonio Marras, Missoni, Emanuel Ungaro, Valentino and Gianni Versace will be on display here to celebrate the current transformation of the Italian Renaissance Beverly Hills Post Office into a distinctive performing arts venue and to honor the designers’ contributions to the performing arts. The exhibition will have a limited 4-week run from Oct. 14–Nov. 13. While the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is under construction, the exhibit will be on display at 253 N. Beverly Dr. on the ground floor of the new MGM Place, which will be converted into a temporary gallery." [Source]

For more information about the operatic connections to the costumes in this exhibit, click here. More information for the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts can be found here. Check out two more colorful costumes after the jump.

LaCroix Sweetie, LaCroix! Fashion Designers in Opera

Fleming wears LaCroix (Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera)

Since declaring chapter 11, Christian Lacroix has kept himself busy in the opera world designing costumes around the globe. In 2008 he, along with John Galliano and Karl Lagerfeld, designed soprano Renée Fleming's gowns for opening night scenes of La Traviata, Manon and Capriccio at the Metropolitan Opera. As an encore, he returned to the MET in January 2009 to design the costumes for Massenet's Thaïs featuring Fleming and Thomas Hampson with Jesús López-Cobos conducting. [Source, Source]

Pendatchanska in Berlin

This March, Lacroix is creating the costumes for Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Conductor Yves Abel leads a cast that will include Vesselina Kasarova, Eri Nakamura and Dimitri Pittas. [Source] In February 2010 he designed the costumes for Händel's Agrippina at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. The occasion marked his debut at the German opera house. He flew back and forth between Paris and Berlin to personally oversee the fittings. Alexandra Pendatchanska sang the title role and René Jacobs led the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. [Source]

After the jump is a 30-year retrospective of designers (Capucci, LaCroix, Armani, Versace) creating costumes for opera and evening gowns for divas (Kabaivanska, Antonacci, Fleming, Dernesch, Ricciarelli).