(COSTUME DESIGN). (ORIGINAL ART). CHITTARO, Linda. [Original costume design for Antonietta Stella in "Fedora."]

Dramatic Costume Design by a Noteworthy Interdisciplinary Artist 

(COSTUME DESIGN). (ORIGINAL ART). CHITTARO, Linda. [Original costume design for Antonietta Stella in "Fedora."] (Rome: ca. 1967 (but dated 1969)) (460 x 309 mm.)   Single sheet with full page illustration rendered in ink and watercolor pencil. Verso with contemporary ink notation, and a pencil note saying it was "Purchased at Peter Wright's 7/18/73." About fine. 

A stunning original costume design for the soprano Antoinetta Stella, by a dynamic figure of the mid-century Italian art world.

This beautiful design was executed for the Teatro Dell'Opera Roma for their 1967-68 staging of "Fedora" by Umberto Giordano. The title role was played by Antoinetta Stella (1929-2022), an Italian "spinto" soprano who performed all over the world and was particularly renowned for her performances of Verdi and Puccini. Composed in shadowy lilac hues against a fiery orange backdrop, this costume appeared in the second act of the opera, in which Fedora, a Russian noblewoman, hosts an elegant reception at her Parisian home where she confronts (and then falls in love with) the man who murdered her betrothed. Frothy yet dramatic, the gown captures Fedora's femininity and passion with high-flying style.

Active primarily in Rome during the 1940s through the 1970s, Linda Chittaro was a multidisciplinary talent who worked as costume and set designer, fine artist, gallery owner, art dealer, and theater director. She opened the Galleria dello Zodiaco in 1942, which became an important space for artists and intellectuals both during and after the war, and she later became the first artistic director of the Teatro della Cometa in Rome. As an artist, Chittaro worked frequently with ink, graphite, and watercolor, blending elements of theater, high fashion, and the avant-garde into her paintings and drawings. Her life and circle were recently highlighted in the 2023 biographical study "Linda Chittaro e la Galleria dello Zodiaco" by art historian Mariacristina Gobbo. (1122)