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| after Robert Edge Pine Mrs Yates in the character of Medea after 1771 watercolor Yale Center for British Art |
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| Anonymous Printmaker Mrs Yates in Medea ca. 1771 etching Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Robert Gaillard after Jean-Baptiste Martin Medea in the opera Jason et Medée 1779 hand-colored engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Francesco Bartolozzi after Nathaniel Dance Jason et Medée - Ballet Tragique 1781 etching and aquatint British Museum |
"A satire on tragic poses in dancing, showing Gaetano Vestris as Jason between two danseuses, the one on the right is Medea. The scene takes place in an architectural setting with a garden in the background beyond. Below are the heads and shoulders of three members of the orchestra."
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| John Thornthwaite Mrs Siddons as Medea 1792 etching and engraving British Museum |
I once had Parents – ye endearing names!
How my torn heart with recollection bleeds!
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| Georg Melchior Kraus Mlle. Raucourt as Medea before 1806 etching Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Alfred Edward Chalon Madame Pasta as Medea 1826 watercolor Victoria & Albert Museum |
"The Italian soprano Giuditta Pasta was born in Saronno in 1797 and studied with Giuseppe Scappa in Milan, where she made her debut in 1815. . . . She is said to have introduced dramatic realism to the opera stage, and her fame was as much a result of the intensity of her acting as of the brilliance of her voice, which became increasingly uneven towards the end of her career."
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| John Hayter Madame Pasta in Medea ca. 1827 lithograph Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| G.H. Davidson (publisher) Frederick Robson as opera singer Adelaide Ristori in Medea ca. 1856 lithotint (music cover) Victoria & Albert Museum |
"This sheet music is illustrated with a photograph of the celebrated comedian and singer, the diminutive Frederick Robson (1821-1864), dressed as Italian opera singer Adelaide Ristori playing Medea, which she had done in Paris in 1856 in Ernst Legouvé's 3-act opera Medea. Robson, who was born in Margate as Thomas Brownhill, became a star of London's Olympic Theatre and eventually one of its managers. He had a great talent for burlesque, or performances that parodied the originals, and he was a hit in the burlesque Medea, or, Best of Mothers, with a Brute of a Husband, written by Robert Brough, which opened at the Olympic on 14 July 1856. Charles Dickens noted in one of his letters that in it Robson performed 'a frantic song and dagger dance, about 10 minutes long altogether, which has more passion in it than Ristori could express in 50 years.'
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| André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri Opera singer Adelaide Ristori in the role of Medea ca. 1860 albumen print (carte de visite) Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company Kate Bateman as Medea 1872 albumen print (carte de visite) Victoria & Albert Museum |
"Photography was a novel and exciting development in Victorian days. Most actors and actresses had studio photographs taken, in everyday dress or theatrical costume, for cartes de visite and later cabinet cards. Both were albumen prints made from glass negatives, attached to stiff card backing printed with the photographer's name. Cartes de visite, the size of formal visiting cards, were patented in 1854 and produced in their millions during the 1860s, when it became fashionable to collect them. . . . They were superseded in the late 1870s by the larger and sturdier cabinet cards, whose popularity waned in turn during the 1890s in favour of postcards and studio portraits."
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| Anonymous Printmaker Sarah Bernhardt as Medea ca. 1895-1905 hand-colored lithograph Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Carl Van Vechten Judith Anderson as Medea 1948 gelatin silver print Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Roslav Szaybo Euripides' Medea at Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith 1986 printed poster Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Rod Tuach Susan Curnow as Medea (in a version by Brendan Kennelly) 1989 printed poster Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Dewynters Ltd., London Diana Rigg in Euripides' Medea at Wyndham's Theatre, London 1993 printed poster Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Hugo Glendinning Fiona Shaw in Euripides' Medea at Queen's Theatre, London 2001 printed poster Victoria & Albert Museum |
– quoted texts from curator's notes at the Victoria & Albert Museum