Historical stage costumes are by their very nature fabulous. Rarely understated they needed to communicate the nature of a character as soon as they step onto the stage. Some are ridiculous intentionally, some not (I fear poor Andreas Dippel was supposed to look heroic but fell rather short of that), and some are simply wonderful like the gold-breastplated Brunhilda and Bertha in Ondine.
I have no idea why that lady is dressed as a chicken – I really hope it wasn’t from a rendition of Swan Lake but I applaud her pluck (see what I did there?). Which of these is your favourite?
Above: Mizzi Hajos, Hungarian-born American stage performer, 1914.
Fanny Davenport looking rather swashbuckling, late 1800s
Kate Josephine Bateman, late 1800s
884 photograph of Toole in the the title role of F C Burnand’s burlesque ‘Paw Claudian’
Coquelin aîné (Benoît-Constant Coquelin, 1841-1909) as Mascarille in Molière’s Les Précieuses ridicules.
Cabinet Card photo of stage and screen actress Louise Beaudet in harem costume
Theatre actor Max Devrient as “Zawisch” at the Burgtheater in Vienna, late 1890s
Gerda Grönberg in 1894
Andreas Dippel in the title role of Wagner’s Siegfried. 1898
Lillian Nordica as Brünnhilde in Richard Wagner’s The Ring, 1898
Enrico Caruso as Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca, 1902
Geraldine Farrar as Elisabeth, 1920
Norwegian revue artist Lalla Carlsen performing a cabaret at the Chat Noir theatre in Oslo. 1920
Marian Seldes, as Bertha in Ondine by Jean Giraudoux. 1954
French operatic baritone Jean Périer (1869-1954) as Pelléas in Claude Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. Early 1900s
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Oh my god, the chicken.
Well, I know what I’m doing for Halloween this year. *cluck cluck*
I’ve seen the chicken costume in various poses and other similar costumes as well – seems it was a popular theme ‘suit’ for a time as were other ‘bird’ suits – there’s some outrageous ones done as renditions of ostriches which were very popular for a time as curiosities and many ostrich farms were around as well then (the ostrich eggs remained a popular gourmet food for years) – they had ostrich rides even at some of the amusement parks and ostrich farms.