PASTA DIVA

Opera Restaurant Pasta e Basta

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When Hans Duijf visited the former ICA Café beneath the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Amsterdam, he immediately sensed the opportunity to realize a long harboured dream: an opera restaurant with long tables where, much like the Italian streetdinners, everyone was free to join. On the menu just pasta: Pasta e Basta. And opera, of course. The staff would sing arias and operas. He requested Peter Korver to create a rich, theatrical ambiance, featuring drapes, marble… and grand ladies. .

The White Dress

Peter Korver | Amsterdam

Inspired by the stylized marble segments of the Sala dei Cavalli frescoes in Mantova, Italy, Korver provided the walls with some twenty squares, marbled in rich, traditional pastel hues. On these he superimposed the drapes and dames in splendid trompe l’oeil fashion. The identities of these rococo clad characters remain undisclosed; one averting her face, her companions headless even. Upon closer inspection the wealth of costumes transpire to be draped across dummies, forming a middle ground between drapes and figure. The missing heads subtly foreshadow the dramatic events to occur in the later 18th century. Korver in this way achieves a beautifully layered interpretation of the given theme: the interior is imbued with the generous presence of grand dames, while simultaneously alluding to the elements of drama and violence inherent in their tales and Opera itself . .

Pasta e Basta | Amsterdam

The Red Dress
Peter Korver | Amsterdam 
One of  the other painted ladies
 in Pasta e Basta 

Following the success of Hans Duijf’s establishment, Peter Korver was again approached to render the particular scenes, this time in a 19th century warehouse in Rotterdam. Again he made use of costumed figures. However, next to also adding large, plastered tapestries, he now brought the opera heroines themselves to the fore. Above the arched doorways of the vaulted ceiling, some thirty medallions featured the names of the great Loved Ones, those cherished women that generally - if not always - meet an unfortunate ending. . .
The same cannot be said of Pasta e Basta. The restaurant may count itself as being one of the successes of the late 90’s and has made international furore. To this day it has lost none of its popularity

"Medea"
Pasta e Basta - Rotterdam

 one of it's 38 medaillons

Website.   :  www.peterkorver.com

Peter Korver | Amsterdam

For local & international enquiries please contact us at: peterkorver.nl

+31(0)655712412

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