The Queen of the Night
"Hear, hear, hear vengeance—O gods!—Hear a mother's oath." – from "Der Hölle Rache" ("Hell's vengeance boils in my heart") – also known as the Queen of the Night Aria, from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), (1791).
Long before Whitney Houston sung about being Queen of the Night in the 1992 Hollywood film The Bodyguard, in 1791, Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart wrote a fantastical opera blending faerie tale adventure with Enlightenment ideals, called Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). Prince Tamino is sent on a quest to rescue Princess Pamina, aided by a magic flute and his comic companion Papageno. Through trials of wisdom, courage, and love, Tamino discovers that the true enemy is ignorance, not the mysterious brotherhood led by the high priest, Sarastro. The opera celebrates harmony between reason and emotion, light and darkness. One of the most vivid and electrifying characters in Mozart’s opera is the Queen of the Night: a complex, vengeful villainess, and a dazzling soprano role famous for her fiery coloratura arias. After her husband dies, his magical talisman passes to her rival, Sarastro. When Sarastro takes the Queen's daughter, Pamina, the Queen manipulates Prince Tamino into rescuing her. In Act II, pushed to the brink of despair, she sings her famous coloratura aria "Der Hölle Rache" ("Hell's vengeance boils in my heart"). She hands Pamina a knife and demands she assassinate Sarastro, or be disowned forever.
It is the Queen of the Night who inspired me to create this image using one of my more recently acquired Dressel Kister & Cie half-dolls. This elegant Art Nouveau style lady, with her muted grey hair held aloft by golden hair ornaments, her ivory body, and her delicate blush cheeks, is from the late 1910s, and she is part if the “lady with gesture” sculpt family. The 22206-mould number appears in several Dressel Kister & Cie catalogue references for small vanity half dolls with expressive gestures — often used atop powder boxes or pincushions. To give her a sense of drama as befits the Queen of the Night, and wrap her up into the murky darkness, I have enveloped her in some hand dyed pleated wool crêpe in a dark greyish blue hue which I also mirrors her striated hair. The theme for "Smile on Saturday" for the 25th of July is an "open day theme" where I am allowed to post a photograph of my own choice. I hope you like my image for this week’s open theme, and that it makes you smile!
Memorable for its multiple upper register staccatos, the fast-paced and menacingly grandiose "Der Hölle Rache" is one of the most famous of all opera arias.
The "half-doll" is a dainty porcelain or bisque figurine, fashionable in the early Twentieth Century with an upper body, head, arms, but no legs. These dolls were produced in the thousands at the height of their popularity by German factories such as Dressel Kister & Cie, Heubach, Goebel and Kestner. Later they were produced in France, America and later still, in Japan. They commonly served as handles and toppers for fabric covers made for powder boxes on ladies’ dressing tables and small brushes, however they were also made for jewellery boxes, pincushions, tea cosies and other covers. In this case, this three and a half inch high half-doll is part of Dressel Kister & Cie's luxury line, and was made for either a jewellery case, a powder puff, pin cushion or a boudoir lamp.
Dressel Kister & Cie were one of the most important German porcelain manufacturers of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, best known today for their exquisitely modelled figurines and half‑dolls. Their history spans both Thuringia and Passau, and the name appears in several related factory phases. Dressel Kister began as a Thuringian porcelain works in the mid‑1800s, producing pipe bowls, doll heads, and eventually high‑quality figurines. By the early Twentieth Century, the Passau branch (Dressel, Kister & Cie.) became especially known for luxury figurines and half‑dolls, many of which are highly collectible today. The early factory in Scheibe‑Alsbach, Thuringia was active under the name Dressel, Kister & Co. from 1844 to 1863, producing small porcelain items and later expanding into figures. A later branch, Dressel, Kister & Cie. in Passau, was established after three businessmen purchased a factory in 1853. This branch produced high‑quality figurines and half‑dolls, exporting worldwide. The business thrived, making half‑dolls (including exotic themes like parrots, dancers, and ladies with animals) and high‑quality figurines inspired by Meissen and Höchst traditions, all with finely painted faces, delicate modeling, and elegant poses. When the Great Depression hit, Dressel, Kister & Cie suffered as so many people no longer had money spare to buy their luxury porcelain items, and the Passau factory finally went bankrupt in 1936, and was absorbed into the Volkstedter porcelain group. Export pieces, often unmarked or marked only with mould numbers were produced and sent to France and England until the Great Depression.
The Queen of the Night
"Hear, hear, hear vengeance—O gods!—Hear a mother's oath." – from "Der Hölle Rache" ("Hell's vengeance boils in my heart") – also known as the Queen of the Night Aria, from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), (1791).
Long before Whitney Houston sung about being Queen of the Night in the 1992 Hollywood film The Bodyguard, in 1791, Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart wrote a fantastical opera blending faerie tale adventure with Enlightenment ideals, called Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). Prince Tamino is sent on a quest to rescue Princess Pamina, aided by a magic flute and his comic companion Papageno. Through trials of wisdom, courage, and love, Tamino discovers that the true enemy is ignorance, not the mysterious brotherhood led by the high priest, Sarastro. The opera celebrates harmony between reason and emotion, light and darkness. One of the most vivid and electrifying characters in Mozart’s opera is the Queen of the Night: a complex, vengeful villainess, and a dazzling soprano role famous for her fiery coloratura arias. After her husband dies, his magical talisman passes to her rival, Sarastro. When Sarastro takes the Queen's daughter, Pamina, the Queen manipulates Prince Tamino into rescuing her. In Act II, pushed to the brink of despair, she sings her famous coloratura aria "Der Hölle Rache" ("Hell's vengeance boils in my heart"). She hands Pamina a knife and demands she assassinate Sarastro, or be disowned forever.
It is the Queen of the Night who inspired me to create this image using one of my more recently acquired Dressel Kister & Cie half-dolls. This elegant Art Nouveau style lady, with her muted grey hair held aloft by golden hair ornaments, her ivory body, and her delicate blush cheeks, is from the late 1910s, and she is part if the “lady with gesture” sculpt family. The 22206-mould number appears in several Dressel Kister & Cie catalogue references for small vanity half dolls with expressive gestures — often used atop powder boxes or pincushions. To give her a sense of drama as befits the Queen of the Night, and wrap her up into the murky darkness, I have enveloped her in some hand dyed pleated wool crêpe in a dark greyish blue hue which I also mirrors her striated hair. The theme for "Smile on Saturday" for the 25th of July is an "open day theme" where I am allowed to post a photograph of my own choice. I hope you like my image for this week’s open theme, and that it makes you smile!
Memorable for its multiple upper register staccatos, the fast-paced and menacingly grandiose "Der Hölle Rache" is one of the most famous of all opera arias.
The "half-doll" is a dainty porcelain or bisque figurine, fashionable in the early Twentieth Century with an upper body, head, arms, but no legs. These dolls were produced in the thousands at the height of their popularity by German factories such as Dressel Kister & Cie, Heubach, Goebel and Kestner. Later they were produced in France, America and later still, in Japan. They commonly served as handles and toppers for fabric covers made for powder boxes on ladies’ dressing tables and small brushes, however they were also made for jewellery boxes, pincushions, tea cosies and other covers. In this case, this three and a half inch high half-doll is part of Dressel Kister & Cie's luxury line, and was made for either a jewellery case, a powder puff, pin cushion or a boudoir lamp.
Dressel Kister & Cie were one of the most important German porcelain manufacturers of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, best known today for their exquisitely modelled figurines and half‑dolls. Their history spans both Thuringia and Passau, and the name appears in several related factory phases. Dressel Kister began as a Thuringian porcelain works in the mid‑1800s, producing pipe bowls, doll heads, and eventually high‑quality figurines. By the early Twentieth Century, the Passau branch (Dressel, Kister & Cie.) became especially known for luxury figurines and half‑dolls, many of which are highly collectible today. The early factory in Scheibe‑Alsbach, Thuringia was active under the name Dressel, Kister & Co. from 1844 to 1863, producing small porcelain items and later expanding into figures. A later branch, Dressel, Kister & Cie. in Passau, was established after three businessmen purchased a factory in 1853. This branch produced high‑quality figurines and half‑dolls, exporting worldwide. The business thrived, making half‑dolls (including exotic themes like parrots, dancers, and ladies with animals) and high‑quality figurines inspired by Meissen and Höchst traditions, all with finely painted faces, delicate modeling, and elegant poses. When the Great Depression hit, Dressel, Kister & Cie suffered as so many people no longer had money spare to buy their luxury porcelain items, and the Passau factory finally went bankrupt in 1936, and was absorbed into the Volkstedter porcelain group. Export pieces, often unmarked or marked only with mould numbers were produced and sent to France and England until the Great Depression.