Garden Scenes, Threaded With Flowers

Sets, as can be seen through programme books, plant the scene for gardens both enchanted and evil. Groves, flowerbeds, undergrowth, forests, grottos, fountains…Thus the sleeping forest of Sleeping Beauty or the deep forest of Melisande, the park planted with majestic chestnut trees where the amorous games of the Marriage of Figaro take place, the little garden of Marguerite in Faust come down from the flies or emerge from under the stage.

Like geniis of nature or great architects, costume designers create forms and material, textiles and ornaments to people the stage with creatures from the vegetal world, full of charm, fantasy and the picturesque. Flower girls, the lady of the camellias, the lilac fairy, the spectre of the rose, Flore, Iris, Pomone, the Chevalier of the rose, Carmen and the "flower you threw to me" are embodied, while gardeners and flower sellers busy themselves with cultivating the theatre stages. Fantastic and fairylike visions come to life through woven or printed costumes, painted with stencils, silkscreened, embroidered with thread or sequins, garnished with appliqué work or inlays. Each vein drawn, each petal cut out, each stem embroidered, each leaf silkscreened is an element of a precise and magical set, created with the know-how of artisans using techniques, tools and materials with science and art. This art is the fruit of sometimes very ancient transmission, daily creation, inspired by books of botany or born of an imagination without limits. Some of the techniques (embroidery, lace, artificial flowers, painting, silkscreening, flock printing…) are explained in the exhibition, not only through educational information but with samples to touch and discover.