February 2018

Spiritual Renaissance by Blackfin

“Sometimes you need to get away from it all to make peace with reality”

Looking beyond. Always. This is Blackfin’s inspirational vision for life and eyewear. Now they take a new path: the search for the self, and looking at the world in new ways with open eyes  – in their new campaign – Spiritual Renaissance. Blackfin then expresses these discoveries with unique eyewear creations. To capture a natural backdrop that reflects the inner journey, the Italian brand chose the contrasting topography of Lanzarote – both magnificent and magical – with its ragged cliffs, lava rocks, desert wilderness and rolling ocean waves. (Top image: Brighton – Spiritual Renaissance by Blackfin)

Marrowstone by Blackfin

Blackfin embarked on this campaign as a way to look into its company values; with the refusal to reject all that is standardised; striving for excellence; and never accepting conventional definitions. The frame designs – stunningly photographed by Giovanni De Sandre – visually illustrate the raw, rugged beauty of Lanzarote. The natural setting with its prolific extremes is effortlessly and simply transformed into eyewear that is totally streamlined, and unrestricted from all that is superfluous. Crafted from the purest titanium in Blackfin’s studios, the frames are superbly lightweight, yet strong and durable – just one of the attributes of premium, quality titanium. Sunglasses and optical styles demonstrate the versatility of titanium, with dramatic frame shapes that portray quiet luxury and sophistication.

Silverdale from Blackfin’s Spiritual Renaissance Collection

Nicola Del Din,, CEO of Blackfin stated: “In 2018, keeping faith with our pay-off  ‘Looking beyond. Always’ we want to look beyond from a more inner, almost spiritual point of view. In recent years, the world has forgotten many essential ethical values, which it is trying to rediscover with considerable difficulty…in some cases, in a completely unnatural way. Blackfin has never lost those values, nor has it ever betrayed them. With the new campaign, we want to emphasise the importance of a general return to the true essence of things.” www.blackfin.eu JG

 

Opera: Passion, Power and Politics at the V&A

Four hundred years of operatic passion and European history highlight the spectacular exhibition currently on view at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The exhibition – in collaboration with the Royal Opera House – is a splendid, intriguing journey that explores opera on a grand scale. This is the first exhibition staged in the new spacious, subterranean Sainsbury Gallery at the V&A. Opera: Passion, Power and Politics is a musical journey to seven cities, and focuses on seven operatic premiers. It explores how the social, political, artistic and economic factors interact with great moments in opera history, to reveal a story of Europe over hundreds of years.

Draft of part of Cherubino’s Act I aria ‘Non so piu cosa son’ (K492 no. 6) from ‘The Marriage of Figaro’, 1786 (ink on paper) by Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-91); British Library, London, UK/Bridgeman Images

Never a fan of headphones, this exhibition totally changed my perspective. The sound experience is exquisite – with world-leading performances dynamically changing as the visitor explores cities and objects. The result is an evocative and fully immersive sound performance. The seven cities and premieres in the exhibit include: Venice with Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione de Poppea in 1642, which made its initial appearance during the Carnival season in Venice, and transitioned opera from private court entertainment to the public realm. The opera tour then continues to London and Handel’s Rinaldo in 1771, one of the first Italian language operas performed in London, as the city emerged as a global trade centre.

“Milano”, from the series “Fratelli d’Italia” (2005-2016) Matthias Schaller

Mozart’s Le nozze de Figaro premiered in Vienna in 1786, an opera that is much loved to this day. A piano on which Mozart played when visiting Prague is also on display, the first time the instrument has left Prague since the 18th century, to be shown for this exhibition. Verdi and Milan are synonymous, and the composer’s superb Nabucco premiered at La Scala in 1842. Verdi was a master of the chorus; and Va pensierfo (Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco) became Italy’s unofficial nathional anthem.

Manet, Edouard (1832-1883): Music in the Tuileries Gardens, 1862. London, National Gallery

During the reign of Emperor Napoleon 111, opera in Paris had immense status, and in 1861 Wagner’s Tannhâuser premiered and polarised audiences…as only Wagner can. However, Wagner’s vision for the art form proved inspirational for future writers and artists. The beautiful city of Dresden, with its history of artistic expressionism, was the setting for Richard Strauss’s premiere Salome in 1905. The opera was based on the play Salome, written in French  by Oscar Wilde. The final opera explored is Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, that opened in St. Petersburg in 1934. It was banned under political censorship in 1936, and Shostakovich never wrote another opera.

George Frederick Handel (1685-1759); (Terracotta) by Louis François Roubiliac, (1702-62); Pre-1738, The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge,

Opera: Passion, Power and Politics introduces more than three hundred amazing objects from the V&A collection, along with creative stage sets; manuscripts; costumes; paintings; important international loans; and compelling not-to-be-missed footage of seminal opera performances. The exhibition is marvellous and mesmerising, for opera fans and the non-opera going public alike. Opera: Passion, Power and Politics in collaboration with the Royal Opera House, and sponsored by Sociétié Génerale continues until 25th February 2018. vam.ac.uk/Opera JG

Top image: Eva Gonzalés (1849-83) oil on canvas, c. 1874 Paris Musée d’Orsay, gift of Jean Guérard, 1927 Musée d’Orsay, Paris France/Bridgeman Images