The Kid

This kid LOVES his 18th Century outfit.. and is too adorable for his own good.

The season gets going...

Anna Bolena opened our season on Monday and tonight is its second performance. The bits I got to watch on the monitor backstage were amazing! I dress the little Elizabeth and the Handmaidens:

Nabucco

Monday night is our season opening, so this week was all about final dress rehearsals! Today was Nabucco. Im with the Men's Chorus on this opera and we have about 5 quick changes that we've been trying to master this week. It takes a lot of logistics to make changing 30 men at one time seamless!

Back in the Opera saddle...

Um, I kinda cant believe its been over a month since my last post. Boo on me! BUT, I was enjoying my summer vacay so much I just coudnt spare a minute for typing. So sorry. I spent three weeks in NC seeing family and friends and it was delightful!

I was truly depressed about returning to the city but I was also excited about starting my second season with the Metropolitan Opera!! This year Im thrilled to be one of 13 "steady extras", which basically means I am a full season dresser rather than being hired per opera like I was last year. I think my contract says Im guaranteed at least 250 performances... in an 8 month season! Phew!

This is my second week back, and since its still pre-season its just day work for now. I've been moving a lot of racks, unpacking crates, filtering laundry and dry cleaning, sewing in pit-pads, and repairing hem lines. Its been kind of nice to be 9-5 for a while and be able to come home and have dinner with the hubs. Im savoring this since it will go right out the window when performances start next month.

Also, we've been cleaning and purging from old boxes in storage- and every now and then my boss makes me dress up. Ah, sigh.

Orfeo

Ok, so there are only two more full weeks left at the Opera. I'm not gonna lie, its a lot of work, and I think we're all ready for a change of pace. The last show Im dressing is Orfeo designed my Isaac Mizrahi. He was at final dress today but I didnt get to meet him. The costumes are really cool, especially the Chorusters'. They are each a notable dead person from history like Marie Antoinette, Charlie Chaplin, Princess Diana, etc.

Here is a clip.

I dress the female dancers who are dancing hard in this Opera, as it is directed and choreographed by Mark Morris.



The last performance of Orfeo is May 14th, then I have one day off before ABT opens May 16th.

Ive been so lucky to have had such an amazing first season with The MET!

Phone Booth Humor

Just outside my door at work there used to be three old-school phone booths that you could sit down in and close the little door. I thought they were pretty cool, like a reminder that everyone didnt always have cell phones. They were other places in the bulding too, hiding in various liitle nooks and cranies. But yesterday there were removed. It was brutal. and loud. All day, bangging, and hammering, and slaming of metals. Well, today the little alcoves where they were are getting transformed into storage closets. If only I had know what a source of comedy these alcoves were going to be. Litteraly every one who walks by thinks they are really funny when they come up with "So who's office is that going to be? Haha!" Yep. Little offices. Very funny.

Quick Change

Dresses puddled and ready for a quick change!

Bohemian...

Posing on a part of the La Boheme set backstage a few months ago...

So delightfully interesting!

Next week the Met premiers a new production of Le Comte Ory and the women's costumes are AMAZING! These are just a few of the "peasant lady" costumes that I was prepping the other day. They are simple yet so elegant and cheery! I wish I had snapped a pic of the hats because they are adorable. Hopefully once the show opens there will be some good press photos to share. Here is what (Tony Award winning) Costume Designer Catherine Zuber had to say about her design:

“We have an active backstage life around our principals and chorus. So I looked at the costume design from the perspective of a company, culling from various time periods. The silhouettes of the peasants for example come from French traditional regional dress. I have always found the extreme shapes of the headwear of this period so delightfully interesting. Since the opera is sung in French, this approach seemed perfect. The color palette of the costumes was inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s famous triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights.”

Little Lambs

Today we had the final dress rehearsal for The Queen of Spades. This opera is beautiful both musicaly and in production design, but it is a beast of a show! We're all glad rehearsals are over and things can get moving. Im with the kids for this one and their costumes are adorable!! In the second act they play Pages but also Lambs in the "play within the play". Possibly my favorite children's costumes yet!

Dressing LOVE

Dressing the beautiful dancer Jaime Verazin as "Love" in Armida today. You can listen to the live Radio Broadcast- click here to find your station.

Then Im subbing -in on Iphigenie tonight. Hopefully I'll have time during the show to cut my fabric for Vogue 1224. I got a beautiful eggplant floral jersey 1/2 price from Paron. Hopefully the weather will warm up a bit by the time I have it done!

Costume DIva?

(Renee Flemming in Armida)



I havent been writing much lately because Ive been so busy at work. Then I come home and I dont feel like I have anything interesting to share because Im just working all day everyday. But then I thought that maybe some of you might just be interested in what goes on in my not--to-typical job, after all this blog is called Costume Diva, and I dont really talk to much about working with costumes, do I?

So starting today Im going to start filling you guys in on some of what goes on behind the scenes as a Dresser here at the Metropolitan Opera.

So first of all being a Dresser is a lot like what it sounds like; I help the performers get dressed. My "call time" is always 30 minutes before the first performer in my assigned area gets called to stage. Usually that is 30 minutes before the show starts but sometimes I might not have someone on until second or even third act. My first task is always to make sure all costume pieces are there and prepped and ready to go.

Then I hang out until the person is ready to dress. If they wear a wig that usually goes on first by someone from the Wig department. Sometimes the costume is super easy and they dont really need my help and Im really just there in case something goes wrong. In a huge place like this where every department is Unionized, rules are really strict and even though a person may not really need a Dresser, there has to be one present as long a a performer is in costume, for liability reasons, etc.

Then a big part of my job is doing "Quick Changes" back stage. Sometimes they are crazy fast (17 seconds!) but most of the time there is just not enough time for the performer to go aaaalllll the way back to their dressing room, change, then come back. (This place is HUGE and dressing rooms span 3 floors.)These are my favorite to do because when standing in the wings you get to watch some of the performance. Crew members are discouraged from being in the wings unnecessarily because there is always so much going on and you dont want to be in any ones way. Even though this place is enormous, when youre backstage with sometimes over 100 people, and animals, and set pieces, it can get a bit cramped!

Aside from working on shows I also do a lot of "Day Work" which is when we come in and do laundry, repairs, break down shows that have closed, prep shows that are opening, and also rehearsals. But what I actually do varies quite a lot from day to day. This company is different from any other Ive worked at because they dont do one Opera for a consecutive number of days. For example if there are 15 performances of La Boheme, they do not happen back to back, rather they are spread out over weeks and sometimes months. So out of seven performances in a week, there are about 4 different Operas being performed.

Also, as an extra Dresser (not salary) you are hired to work specific Operas. So next week Im only assigned to Queen of Spades and Boris Gudunov so I only have three shows. Additionally you are assigned to a specific area for each Opera. I tend to work the department consisting of the Children, Ballet Women and Super Women. Other departments are the Solo Men or Solo Women, Chorus Men or Chorus Women and Super and Ballet Men. Make sense?

Anyways, I hope that served as a nice introduction to what Ive got going on these days! This week Im in for "Day Work" all week. Tomorrow and Friday we start dress- rehearsals for Queen of Spades, then I work Armida Saturday Matinee and Im subbing in on Iphigenie Saturday night!

Mistake.

Last night a friend at the Opera said "FYI, Dont ever Google image rash ". Of course it was the first thing I did when I got home. Mistake.

NY Proud

I think its a rule that you arent a real NYC theater worker until you are inanimately familiar with the smell of dead mouse. Its kind of like the rule that you aren't a real New Yorker till youve been pooped on by a pigeon. New York strong. New York proud.

Looking Forward...

November is slow for me as far as the Opera goes. This job is unique in the fact that you are hired for specific Operas, and the performances of those specific Operas are spread out over weeks, even months. Neither Boris nor La Boheme have performances right now. La Bo has four shows in December, then I pick up Tosca in January, Nixon in February as well as La Bo again, and then Boris resumes in March with my final show being Tosca April 16th- then ABT's season begins one month later.

In the mean time Im selling away at Esprit and looking forward to a short run of ABT's new production of The Nutcracker at B.A.M. This means I will be spending my first Christmas in New York! My parents and sister will be joining me up here for the Holiday and I think it will be a really fun and unique experience to celebrate in the City! Now I have a real excuse to buy and decorate a tree!

Met Opera HD

Some of the most different and interesting performances at the Opera have been when we are filming for our live HD broadcasts. As if there wasn't enough going on with hundreds of people and massive set changes, then add an entire live t.v. crew into the mix. The best part about it for me is getting to watch the close up shots on the backstage monitors and actually getting to read the translations!



Check out Fathom Events and see if a live or encore HD performance is playing at a movie theater near you! The Boris encore is playing November 10th.

Suave- ey

Last night a 10 year old Opera boy told me he liked me because I am "suave-ey". Uh, thanks kid. You're really rokin' that, um, starving Russian street urchin look.

Opera daze...

Im loving working on Godunov but Im getting used to some of the major differences between Opera at the Met and Ballet at the Met:

1. Singing rather than dancing. Obviously. The power of all those voices and the orchestra is unbelievable. Although, the Opera does have their own ballet chorus but Im not dressing them. (Im with the kids!)

2. The sheer number of people. This opera has an enormous cast and therefor an enormous crew. I was standing in the stage right wings waiting for a change today- and literally almost 100 people were back there at once.

3. Age. The average age at ABT was probably 30. The Opera is more like 40.

4. Set. The sets are massive and the stage is raked.

5. Costume. They are bigger and heavier. Since most of the singers do little more than walk to position, stand, and gesture, the costumes can be very cumbersome.



Image by Rachel Papo

I was also asked to dress La Boheme (the original Rent). Glad I get to stick around!

Back to Lincoln Center!

Well, looks like its back to Lincoln Center for me! I'll be dressing The Met Opera's production of Boris Gudunov. Sweet. Divas and 4 hour shows? No problem!


photo by Nick Heavican for Met Opera