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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. |
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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. |
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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 Butterflys music: Let him die with honor who can no longer stay alive with honor. |
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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. |
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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 Emilias life. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Oil-painted cast resin of Basilio, the frazzled music
master. Mounted on black Belgian marble and oak base. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Salome at the moment she begins the Dance of the Seven
Veils. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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