Unmasking the secrets behind costume design
Royal Opera. She has worked extensively with David, Raimund and Fabrice in the past – which helped a great deal when the quartet were taking on such an ambitious project as the Verdi trilogy.
“We are an established team, all four of us,” says Marie-Jeanne. “We’ve done several shows together now and know each other well.
“We are all at the initial meetings with David where he is mapping out his ideas and what he would like to do. Then we all go our own ways a bit and then come together again. But everyone is working in different places so coordinating all of the schedules can be quite a challenge. There are emails and photographs but what helps enormously is that we have a creative past together.”
Designing and creating the costumes for a show on the scale of ‘ballo’ is a lengthy and detailed task.
“Ideally the costume design has to be delivered a year to eight months before the first night,” explains Marie-Jeanne. “First of all you listen to what the director has to say – that’s always the starting point. Then you have to do your research and sometimes you produce a mood board if there’s the time. Then there’s the preliminary drawings and then the final drawings.
“I am someone who thinks with a pencil so drawing is really important. Not only does it provide information to other members of the artistic team like the director, set designer, the choreographer and the lighting designer but it’s also very important for providing information for the workshops as they work from these drawings. At the same time you need to know what the singers look like, therefore I always ask for recent photographs before finalising the designs.
“The next stage is choosing the fabrics. I can’t stress enough how important this process is - you might discover a really amazing fabric that will actually inspire a costume design itself, that’s a very rewarding time in the process.
“Then you talk to the tailors and dress makers who will create the costumes. Sometimes it is necessary to do a prototype that will develop the costume for the actual costume fittings. Ideally the fittings should commence before the start of rehearsals but that is very often just the chorus that one has access to then. The fittings with the principals, the dancers and the extras happen once the rehearsals start.”
Designing costumes for so many different operas across the globe, Marie-Jeanne is used to working with different teams on the creation process.
“Each town and each company has its own specifics. Some companies maintain large workshops with huge fabric stocks and all the necessary items like shoes and hats being produced in house. Other companies have a much more streamlined policy, one has to continuously adapt.”
But she has built up a strong professional relationship with WNO, designing costumes for shows including last year’s production of Prokofiev’s War and Peace, Debussy’s Pelléas and Mélisande, Rossini’s Moses in Egypt and William Tell and Berg’s Lulu.
“Doing several shows with the same company, like WNO, you see the process of knowing each other and trusting each other gradually develop and you enjoy the benefits of it. At WNO we now know each other and know what to expect from each other. The costume team are real professionals. When I work with WNO now I have the feeling of coming home, which is a very special feeling.”
Audiences often have little idea how much time and effort goes into the costumes worn by opera singers.
talks to renowned designer Marie-Jeanne Lecca
Un ballo in maschera opens at the Birmingham Hippodrome on Wednesday March 6 on WNO’s Spring tour alongside The Magic Flute and Roberto Devereux.