Gretel Urban Designed Costumes for U.S. Turandot Premiere at Met Opera

Summary: Gretel Urban designed costumes for the U.S. Turandot premiere at the Metropolitan Opera, which opened during the opera company’s 1926-1927 season.

Gretel Urban’s costume designs for the U.S. Turandot premiere at the Metropolitan Opera: Festival Puccini @festivalpuccini, via Twitter Aug. 17, 2015

Gretel Urban designed costumes for the U.S. Turandot premiere at the Metropolitan Opera, which opened Tuesday, Nov. 16, 1926, and received 12 performances during the 1926-1927 season.

Gretel was part of the production’s design team, which was directed by Viennese stage director Wilhelm von Wymetal Sr. (1862-Nov. 11, 1937). The premiere’s program credits both Gretel and Tuscanese artist Umberto Brunelleschi (June 21, 1879-Feb. 16, 1949) for costume designs. The production’s set designer was Gretel’s father, Austrian-American architect, illustrator and set designer Joseph Urban (May 26, 1872-July 10, 1933).

Joseph Urban debuted at the Metropolitan Opera Nov. 17, 1917, as designer in the opera house’s new production of Faust by French Romantic Era composer Charles-François Gounod (June 17, 1818-Oct. 18, 1893). Three years later, his daughter Gretel debuted as a costume designer Dec. 23, 1920, in the Meteropolitan Opera’s premiere of Don Carlo by Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi (Oct. 10, 1813-Jan. 27, 1901).

The father-daughter design team collaborated on 17 Metropolitan Opera productions between 1920 and 1933. Joseph designed sets for 55 productions in his almost 16-year career at the Metropolitan Opera, from 1917 until his death in 1933.

Gretel designed costumes for 18 productions in her almost 13-year career at the Metropolitan Opera. She only worked on one production without her father. Guillaume Tell by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini (Feb. 29, 1792-Nov. 13, 1868) premiered as a new Metropolitan Opera production Jan. 5, 1923.

The new production’s director was Vienna, Austria-born stage manager Samuel Thewman (Feb. 27, 1872-March 22, 1940). The set designer was Pomponesco, northern Italy-born painter and stage designer Vittorio Rota (Nov. 8, 1864-November 1931).

Gretel worked on two production teams during her Met Opera career. In addition to Guillaume Tell, she costumed eight other productions for Samuel Thewman. In addition to Turandot, she designed costumes for eight other productions directed by Wilhelm von Wymetal Sr.

The Metropolitan Opera Archives Database credits Gretel Urban with costume designs for five productions that added to the opera house’s repertory as Metropolitan Opera premieres:
Don Carlo by Giuseppe Verdi (Oct. 10, 1813-Jan. 27, 1901;
Don Quichotte by Jules Massenet (May 12, 1842-Aug. 13, 1912);
La Vestale by Gaspare Spontini (Nov. 14, 1774-Jan. 24, 1851);
Le Roi d’Ys by Édouard Lalo (Jan. 27, 1823-April 22, 1892);
Pelléas et Mélisande by Achille-Claude Debussy (Aug. 22, 1862-March 25, 1918).

Gretel Urban designed costumes for the Metropolitan Opera’s staging of three U.S. premieres:
Così Fan Tutte by Wolfgang Mozart (Jan. 27, 1756-Dec. 5, 1791);
La Vida Breve by Manuel de Falla (Nov. 23, 1876-Nov. 14, 1946);
Turandot by Puccini.

She designed costumes for 10 new productions of operas already in the Metropolitan Opera’s repertoire:
Carmen by Georges Bizet (Oct. 25, 1838-June 3, 1875);
Ernani by Verdi;
Falstaff by Verdi;
Guillaume Tell by Gioachino Rossini (Fe. 29, 1792-Nov. 13, 1868);
L’Africaine by Giacomo Meyerbeer (Sept. 5, 1791-May 2, 1864);
Lohengrin by Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813-Feb. 13, 1883);
Roméo et Juliette by Gounod;
Thaïs by Massenet.

The last Metropolitan Opera production crediting Gretel Urban as costume designer is the opera house’s new production of Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel. Opening night was Nov. 5, 1927. Wilhelm von Wymetal was production director. Gretel’s father was set designer.

According to the Metropolitan Opera Archives Database, the opera house’s 1948-1949 season staging of Verdi’s Falstaff marked the last revival of a production costumed by Gretel Urban and designed by her father. Gretel shared costume design credits with German designer and painter Adolfo Hohenstein (March 18, 1854-April 12, 1928).

Gretel, also known as Gretl, was Margarete Urban’s nickname. She was born Jan. 7, 1898, in Vienna, Austria. Her father immigrated to the United States to design for the Boston Opera Company's spring 1912 operas. In 1912, Gretl, her mother Maria (“Meizzi”) Lefler Urban and her sister Helene (“Elly”) joined Joseph in Boston.

In 1918 Joseph divorced Meizzi. In January 1919, he married his second wife, dancer and pageantry specialist Mary Porter Beegle (ca. 1880-ca. 1966).

Theater art consultant Wendy Rae Waszut-Barrett notes on her theater blog, Drypigment.net: “Very little is known about her [Gretel Urban] private life and marriage.” The 1920 census lists Gretel as married to John Thurlow and living with her mother Meizzi and her sister, Elly Urban Helliwell, on Boyleston Street Boston, Massachusetts. Music publisher Carl Fisher employed Gretel as company vice president from 1950 until her retirement in 1981. She passed away Dec. 6, 1997, at the Holiday Care Center in Toms River, Ocean County, east central New Jersey.

The takeaway for Gretel Urban’s costume designs for the U.S. Turandot premiere at Met Opera is that the Austrian-American costumer designed for 18 Met Opera productions that encompassed five Met Opera premieres, three U.S. premieres and 10 new productions.

Turandot, Act II scene 2, as Turandot (Maria Jeritza) presents first of three puzzles to The Unknown Prince (Giacomo-Lauri-Volpi); Joseph Urban, setting; Gretel Urban and Umberto Brunelleschi, costumes; photo by Acme News Pictures for Musical America, Dec. 4, 1926: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Facebook Nov. 16, 2017

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Gretel Urban’s costume designs for the U.S. Turandot premiere at the Metropolitan Opera: Festival Puccini @festivalpuccini, via Twitter Aug. 17, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/festivalpuccini/status/633254699253239808

Turandot, Act II scene 2, as Turandot (Maria Jeritza) presents first of three puzzles to The Unknown Prince (Giacomo-Lauri-Volpi); Joseph Urban, setting; Gretel Urban and Umberto Brunelleschi, costumes; photo by Acme News Pictures for Musical America, Dec. 4, 1926: The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera, via Facebook Nov. 16, 2017, @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.134969600532.229232.20807115532/10159718785220533/

For further information:

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Festival Puccini ‏@festivalpuccini. “@MetOpera i bozzetti dell'allestimento di #Turandot del 1926, realizzati da Gretel Urban.” Twitter. Aug. 17, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/festivalpuccini/status/633254699253239808

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/07/joseph-urban-designed-sets-for-14-us.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Joseph Urban Designed Sets for Two World Premieres at Met Opera." Earth and Space News. Monday, July 16, 2018.
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Marriner, Derdriu. "Mar-a-Lago Architect Joseph Urban Also Designed Sets at Met Opera." Earth and Space News. Monday, July 9, 2018.
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Marriner, Derdriu. "Turandot Is March 24, 2018, Met Opera Saturday Matinee Broadcast." Earth and Space News. Monday, March 19, 2018.
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Met Opera Guild ‏@MetOperaGuild. "#OTD in 1926, Puccini's TURANDOT had its U.S. premiere at the @MetOpera! Below are the original costume designs by Gretel Urban. Catch TURANDOT tonight with Oksana Dyka in the title role. #TodayInOpera #TBT.” Twitter. Nov. 16, 2017.
Available @ https://twitter.com/MetOperaGuild/status/931168029093826561

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Available @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/photos/a.134969600532.229232.20807115532/10159718785220533/

The Metropolitan Opera @MetOpera. “Turandot premiered at the Met on this day in 1926. Check out costume sketches by Gretel Urban from the premiere production. Tonight, Nov 16, is the last performance of Turandot this fall. Puccini's final opera returns this spring on March 21.” Facebook. Nov. 16, 2017.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/MetOpera/posts/10159727478105533

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