; Isolde | paper portraits | Bert Simons | Portfolio

For Wagner's Tristan & Isolde at the Bayreuther Festspiele I made a paper portrait of Isolde.Multiple portrait were used as masks in the 3th act when Tristan is dying and Isolde appears to him in several hallucinations in which the paper portraits were combined with special effects.

3d model

Textured 3d scan of Eva Maria Westbroek who was originally casted for the role of Isolde. In the midst of the project Anja Kampe followed up as the lead singer and I also did her portrait. Unfortunaltly just a few weeks before the premiere a third change was made and Evelyn Herlitzius would be performing Isolde. So in the end my portrait did not resemble the portayed as intended..

firstieces

First paper pieces glued

head_anja

I also 3d printed the head which was used as a mold to produce the inner reenforcemnets which had to be made for the masks,

transparent

the final vacuumformed reinforcements were covered with the paper parts

bayreuther festspiele 2016

In total about 8 Isolde's appeared, here's one floating in the air and a beheaded one on the left

wagner spiele 2016

One of the special effects during the performance