Here’s a challenge worthy of television’s fashion reality show “Project Runway.”
Design the elegant costumes for a tempestuous diva who is harassed by a cruel police chief, stabs him to death to save her lover and leaps to her own death at the final curtain. She’s got to look great whether wielding a knife in a fatal embrace, singing a show-stopping aria or diving into a crash pad.
That’s one of many challenges for Heidi Ganser, Seattle Opera’s assistant costume shop manager and one of the backstage wizards behind the company’s production of “Tosca,” Puccini’s melodramatic opera that opens Saturday.
“Tosca” is Italian opera on a grand scale: big cast and sets, fabulous music, theatrical fireworks and sumptuous costumes, and there are a thousand details in an opera this big: Are the shoes and gloves right, is that vest buttoned correctly, did the wig adjustment work? Ganser has her eye on it all.
“Sometimes it’s hard to just relax and watch the show,” she said.
Seattle Opera’s “Tosca” is a traditional one, firmly rooted in its period and place: Rome, 1800. The women wear graceful high-waisted outfits. For men, the look is cutaway coats. Think Napoleon and Jane Austin with glamour.
There are many design details to consider, but none bigger than dressing Tosca, one of the touchstone roles for opera sopranos. It’s an example of when the costume designer and the fashion designer part ways.
“The big difference in costume design is you are telling a story,” Ganser said. “With fashion design, you are creating your own story.”
The costumes for this “Tosca” are from New York City Opera, but Ganser’s challenge has been to redesign the clothes for the principal singers. Seattle’s production has double cast the lead singers, and that means suitable costumes for a variety of shapes and sizes.
“Both of our Toscas are quite tall and striking,” Ganser said in a recent telephone interview. “It’s a look that has a lot of drama to it.”
And there are some givens, Ganser said. One is that Tosca always wears red in the second act. In Seattle, that means a gown made in multiple layers of velvet with a great deal of trim.
Work begins months before opening night and includes historical research. “We do get the measurements far ahead of time. We started working on the costumes about a month before the singers got into town,” Ganser said.
Opera costumes, with their many layers, are heavier than street clothes. For some singers the extra heft is a welcomed as a device to ground their voices, but the outfits can also be hot, especially under the stage lights.
“We do use a lot of silk and wool. We prefer to have natural fibers,” Ganser said.
Among the biggest challenges is making costumes that look just as good from 100 or 200 feet back as they do close up. This requires a solid understanding of color, contrast and detailing.
And perhaps a cheese grater. Creating costumes devoid of glamour can be just as challenging as making outfits with a lot of bling.
“Rags are very hard to do realistically,” Ganser said. The costumes for the company’s 2007 production of “Iphigenie en Tauris” got their drab look in part from a lot of shredding. “We have a full-time crafts person who does a lot of distressing,” Ganser said.
Like the rest of us, opera singers know what works for them. “Adjustments are made,” Ganser continued. “A lot of times, people are particular. A lot of times, they are right.”
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