Beckie Kravetz

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    Bronze of Don Giovanni on black marble base. Inside, a miniature "shooting gallery" of women on a hand-cranked conveyer belt file past a figure of Giovanni, then fall over the edge, disappearing behind a red velvet curtain. The procession is interrupted by the figure of the Commendatore, who will ultimately drag Giovanni down to Hell, represented by daemons and flames painted on the music behind the drawn curtain.

     This sculpture is in a private collection. A limited edition bronze of the mask is available.

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     Oil-painted resin mask of Octavian, a young count who bears a marriage proposal to Sophie in the form of a silver rose. The stem of a hand-crafted, life-sized sterling silver rose curves up from a marble base to support the mask and winds around a white-gold interior, where sterling silver leaves encircle music from Octavian's and Sophie's Act II duet, silk-screened on clear plexiglass in an ornate silver frame.

     This sculpture is in a private collection. A limited edition bronze of the mask is available.

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     Laminated rice paper mask of Cio-Cio-San (Butterfly) mounted in a miniature cherry-wood Shoji screen. The screen, skinned in rice paper, houses a collection of Japanese butterflies depicted on vellum. In one “box”, a miniature nude geisha-butterfly wrought in sterling silver, with silver wings in a colored resin American flag pattern, is pinned through the heart. The screen and butterfly collection are backed by a gold-leafed glass upon which is silk-screened Butterfly’s music: “Let him die with honor who can no longer stay alive with honor.”

     This sculpture is in a private collection.

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     Back-to-back bronze faces of the Queen of the Night and her counterpart, the Egyptian high priest, Sarastro. Their double-sided bronze headdress depicts night (mother-of-pearl moon phases, paint, gold leaf and cloisonné enamel) and day (bronze and gold leaf with enamel). The masks are mounted on a bronze pyramid resting on a black marble base.

     This sculpture is in a private collection.

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     Face in molded leather of Emilia Marty, opera diva who has been taking a potion of eternal youth for three centuries, depicted at age thirty-seven and mounted on an antique oversized leather-bound ledger. Inside the book is a leather mask of Emilia at age three hundred thirty-seven, gazing into a mirror upon which is screened her musical lament: “it was a great mistake to live so long”. Several small wooden drawers contain representations of the collected documents of Emilia’s life.

     Mixed media. NFS

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     Oil-painted resin mask of Olympia, a mechanical doll, on a purple heart wood base. The silver-leafed interior is filled with an assemblage of gears and springs to suggest the inner working of an automaton, including a wind-up music box mechanism that plays music from the opera.

     This sculpture is in a private collection. A limited edition bronze of the mask is available.

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back view

     Portrait of the pious blind mother of La Gioconda, a street singer. La Cieca offers her rosary and blessing to a masked noblewoman who saved her from being burned as a heretic during the Inquisition in 15th century Venice.

     Bronze and mixed media.

One-of-a-kind with interior. Edition of 10 with solid back.

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     Bronze of Shakespeare's tragic hero, mounted on a bronze and marble miniature replica of the column of St. Mark's from the main piazza in Venice. The mask's interior depicts metaphors from the opera: a many-headed hydra, wrought in gold and semi-precious stones, engulfing a statue of the Lion of Venice atop the column.

     Bronze and mixed media.

     One-of-a-kind with interior.  Limited edition of bronze mask available.

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     Bronze portrait of Rusalka, a water nymph. The mask, with hair of patinated copper wire ending in bronze fish tail, is suspended over a teardrop-shaped black marble base. A window in the back of the hair reveals a miniature moonlit lake scene, framed in copper and freshwater pearl cattails.

     Bronze and mixed media.

This sculpture is in a private collection.

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     Bronze of Wotan, lords of the gods, on a polished buckeye burl wood base, whose natural fissures are inlaid with a river of lapis lazuli. Pure gold nuggets are set into the riverbed. At the bottom of the base, a small knothole inlaid with gold leaf and fire agate represents Alberich's underworld. The mask is supported by a bronze rainbow inset with lapis, malachite, amber, coral, citrine, and amethyst, arching up from the base and leading to a miniature gilded Valhalla in the mask's interior.

     Bronze and mixed media.

     This sculpture is in the collection of James Morris and Susan Quittmeyer.  A limited edition bronze mask is available.

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back view

     Salome at the moment she begins the Dance of the Seven Veils.

     Bronze on black Belgain marble.

     Limited edition of 40.

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     The Spanish gypsy is depicted with her final love, the toreador Escamillo. The tarot cards show Death (which always appears in Carmen’s readings), the spurned soldier, Don José, as the Fool, and Carmen and Escamillo on the upside-down Lovers card, representing doomed love.

     Bronze and mixed media.

     One-of-a-kind.

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     The courtesan who renounces happiness to save the family name of her beloved. By the time her lover’s father realizes her sacrifice and sends a letter to beg forgiveness and announce his son’s imminent return, it is too late, because she is dying of consumption.

     Bronze and mixed media.

     One-of-a-kind with interior.  Limited edition of 5 in bronze with solid back and classic patina.

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     A princess of ancient China described as cold as ice, for whom many princes have died by failing to answer the three riddles that would win them Turandot’s hand in marriage. The Chinese characters on the front of the pedestal read “Ice Princess”. Those on the side, “Hope” and “Blood” are the answers to two of the riddles. The third riddle, whose answer is “Turandot”, appears on the music, and the character for “Love” completes the pedestal.
     Turandot's headdress and hairstyle are based on research of ancient Chinese costume.

     Polychromed and patinated bronze, 24-karat gold leaf, white gold leaf, mica, jade, freshwater pearls, and semi-precious stones.

     Bronze and mixed media.

     One-of-a-kind with interior. Limited edition bronze mask available.