"Il Dissoluto Punito" - Original Illustration for Don Giovanni

Original illustration for Peter Sellars' 1980 production of Don Giovanni, by the renowned American artist and writer best known for his unsettling Gothic tales. The full Italian title of the opera, "Il Dissoluto Punito, osia: Il Don Giovanni," is lettered in Classical capitals within a detailed border composed of a dead wolf's pelt. The illustration was used for both the program and the curtain of the opera production. Pen and ink on paper. Signed in brown ink at the lower right margin and captioned "curtain 1/4"=1'" in black ink at the lower right corner. Registration marks and Gorey's faint erased pencil tracings are visible beneath ink. Image 6.5 x 7.5 inches (15.7x19 cm), on sheet measuring 11 x 13.75 inches. Nicely framed.

After the great stage director Peter Sellars made his mark with Wagner's Ring Cycle in the late 1970's, he was invited to produce Mozart opera, "Don Giovanni," at the Monadnock, New Hampshire Music Festival. Already marking his career as a daring innovator, Sellars persuaded Gorey, who was recently celebrated for his brilliant, macabre designs for the Broadway production of Dracula, to create the sets and costumes for the Festival's Palace Theatre production. The successful performance ran September 20th and 23rd, 1980 with musical direction by James Bolle.

This illustration is a fine example of Gorey's meticulous craftsmanship, through both the faint underlying pencil sketches which reveal his attempts to perfect the lettering and spacing, and in the richly inked shading and textural details of the Gothic wolf's head and skin border design. (14508)

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Art

Opera

Art & Design

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