The “original Christine Masquerade costume” masterpost
When “Phantom of the Opera” opened in West End in 1986, Christine Daaé didn’t wear the pink/blue “Star Princess” costume in Masquerade. Instead she wore the white creation seen overneath. It was worn until 1988, when the “Star Princess” was introduced both in the just-opened Broadway production (January) and in the original West End production (spring/summer?). It’s the “Star Princess” Christines all over the world has used - when talking replica productions, anyway. Both designs were by Maria Bjørnson.
So why was it changed? I’ve never read anything official about it. But there’s lots of good and bad theories, including:
*Sarah Brightman felt the stiff cage skirt was hard to dance in, so they changed it to a more ballet tutu like creation,
*Christine already wears two white dresses in the show,
*Christine’s white creation looked bleak in “Masquerade” compared to the sea of colours seen on all others,
*The costume wasn’t particularly symbolic or easy to understand.
And that brings me to question two: what’s she supposed to BE?
*A Shepherdess? I’ve heard it nicknamed “Bo Peep”, which is a shepherdess from an English nursery rhyme song. It CAN be seen as a 19th century interpretation of the popular 18th century shepherdess costumes, I guess. But she lacks the crook.
*A Saloon Girl? I don’t really think so, but there are elements reminding of it, and it’s my preferred nickname.
*Maybe a faint nod to Gaston Leroux’s novel, where he describes Raoul and Christine dressed in white and black dominos. Since Raoul wears a black uniform, Christine was given a white dress. Opposite of Leroux, and not generic domino costumes, but kept within the same colour scheme.
*It’s also lovingly nicknamed “Hershey’s Kiss”. Because… well.
So who wore this original costume?
The original West End Christines, including Sarah Brightman, Claire Moore (alt/principal), Maria Kesselman (u/s) and Rebecca Caine (alt.). There might be other covers I don’t know about, but these four were at least photographed in the costume, and they all played the role before/until 1988, when it was changed. Three of them also got to wear the Star Princess costume; Sarah Brightman on Broadway, Claire Moore in West End and Rebecca Caine in Toronto. I don’t think Maria Kesselman got to.
Photos:
1. The original costume design, in a semi good coloured version printed on a fabric. Ignore the colours, the actual design shows a b/w dress. Now, the costume was in large recreated as drawn, with two major changes: 1. the design shows a bodice with sleeves, the stage costume was sleeveless with only tiny ruffled puffs, and 2. The pompons was only done on the bodice, not on the skirt.
2. Claire Moore photographed by Marcus Tylor. Note that the bodice is fairly similar in construction to the Star Princess one, and she also had a mask on stick. They aren’t too unsimilar, really, but the colours, the construction of the skirt and the glittering decorations separate them.
3. The wearers: Sarah Brightman, Claire Moore, Rebecca Caine and Maria Kesselman, all in West End.
4. A backstage photo of Maria Kesselman in her wardrobe. It shows the actual colours of the costume (far left) better. We’re talking white lace and white shiny silk with a silver shine to it, with black piping and decorations. The skirt with a viewable crinoline construction is also a chid of the 1980s, seen in high end fashion like Vivienne Westwood. It has since become a standard repertoire for haute couture designers, like Alexander McQueen and Jean Paul Gaultier, but back in the 1980s it was quite new.
Designer Maria Bjørnson also got to add her signature POTO detail: the apron.
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