Superstars in the Spotlight at the House of Music’s Next Exhibition

Rihanna, Billie Eilish, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Maria Callas, Édith Piaf, Ingrid Bergman and many other influential performers will be showcased through their personal stories and original costumes in the House of Music Hungary‘s temporary exhibition Divas&Icons, organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), from May 2024.

Divas&Icons will close at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in April 2024, and will be on show for the first time as a traveling exhibition at the House of Music Hungary. After Budapest, it will travel to museums around the world, reports Magyar Nemzet.

The exhibition will give an insight into the history of the great divas, from the greats of opera and silent film stars to the idols of today.

The exhibition offers a complete picture of the diva phenomenon, thus every generation will find something to interest them, from those interested in classic film stars such as Elizabeth Taylor or Marilyn Monroe, to those who were young at the time with Cher, Tina Turner or later Madonna, to those who are fascinated by Rihanna or Billie Eilish.

The exhibition will also set the tone for the coming year of the House of Music, with various related programs and pop-up exhibitions exploring the themes of the divas,

András Batta, Executive Director of the House of Music, stressed.

The first part of the exhibition puts the creation of divas in a historical context, exploring the stars of stage and screen who have shaped today’s popular culture through their existence, while the second part celebrates the modern diva.

The V&A’s exhibition features hundreds of objects from the museum’s own collection and items borrowed from around the world, design, costume, fashion, photography, music and film.

Visitors can learn the story of Ingrid Bergman through the dress she wore in the film about Joan of Arc, as well as the lives of Sarah Bernhardt, Josephine Baker, Édith Piaf, Marlene Dietrich and many other iconic performers. Several costumes are on show for the first time, such as Maria Callas’ dress as Norma from the 1952 Covent Garden production, or Marilyn Monroe’s fringed black dress from the film Some Like It Hot.

The exhibition also features iconic sets designed by Bob Mackie, including dresses worn by Tina Turner, Pink and Cher, among many others, and has also borrowed outfits from Billie Eilish, Rihanna, Adele, Björk and Whitney Houston.

Mártont Horn, director of the House of Music Hungary, said: “V&A curator Kate Bailey has built the concept of the exhibition with imagination and an impressive dramaturgy, exploring, among many exciting themes, how women are asserting themselves in a male-dominated world of music and film.”

Márton Horn added that

the Budapest exhibition will be complemented by chapters on historically significant Hungarian divas.

Discounted, early bird tickets for the Divas & Icons exhibition will be available from December 11 2023 – first as gift vouchers, and then from January 2024 onwards, full price tickets will be available for bookings.

Via Magyar Nemzet, turizmus.com; Featured image via Facebook/Ruth Hogan