Looking back at a life in costume
Welsh National Opera (WNO) is known for its breathtaking costumes. Sian Price, the company’s head of costume, rounds up some of her favourites from previous years...
FOR Sian Price, head of costume at Welsh National Opera, this is usually her busiest time of year as she gets costumes ready for another season opening.
With WNO’s summer season unable to take place this year, Sian looks back at the costumes that have stood out to her over the years and her memories of making them...
THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN
“This production has been part of my WNO life for a long time. The designer was the late Maria Björnson and I was really lucky to work with her on a number of her productions for WNO.
“Vixen is one of mine and many others’ favourites and my earliest memory of this is from when we were based at WNO’s old headquarters in John Street, Cardiff.”
LA FORZA DEL DESTINO
“These monk costumes started life as a plain white robe made by our men’s cutter, Jane. We needed to create a template for the costume to send to the company who would be recreating the blood-red flocking on each one, so Greg from the workroom was dressed in the toile on a sunny Friday afternoon and it took a team effort to create the prototype.
“Costume designer Marie-Jeanne Lecca armed herself with a paintbrush and was happily dripping fake ‘blood’ all over Greg. Hours later, we had the prototype and, after many photos and some computer wizardry, we had images ready to send to the flocking company.”
WAR AND PEACE
“This was one of the biggest productions we have ever made. I tracked down a company called Hero, based in Poland, who made all the historical military uniforms.
“One of my favourite moments was when the boxes arrived at our offices from Hero. Each box would contain
the costume for a whole character and all it would say on the outside of the box was our delivery address and the name of the character.”
HANSEL AND GRETEL
“This production was the first time we had worked with the lovely John Macfarlane, an internationally-renowned theatre and costume designer. This image shows the dream sequence in the opera when the chefs serve dinner for Hansel and Gretel. We made all the padded bodies and chef costumes in this scene and prop-maker Mandy Dymond made the heads, as well as making the tree heads and sandman puppets which are in other scenes.
“With us having made the maître d’s tail suit already, John decided to make the fish head himself with the help of our milliner, Sue.”
IN PARENTHESIS
“This was a real moment in WNO’s history and was part of the company’s 70th-birthday season as well as part of the World War I commemorations.
“I was very fortunate to be able to buy all the men’s uniforms. They needed two each and one set needed to be broken down for the trenches. They also needed two sets of boots which arrived complete with metal studs in – not good for health and safety on stage and they would have destroyed the set floor completely.
“Step in the amazing John and Andrew from Cardiff’s Indoor Market, who took out and replaced them all with rubber soles and heels.”
DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NüRNBERG
“This, like War And Peace, was a huge show. Many hours were spent sourcing all the different fabrics, shoes and – my favourite – the costumes for Act II (pictured).
“This involved nearly everyone who was on stage being dressed in some sort of underwear, ranging from period corsets, petticoats, nightshirts, stockings, vests and grown men in white babygro-style sleepsuits.”
ROBERTO DEVEREUX
“These were challenging costumes – they are supposed to have the feel of being insects about them.
“Alexandra Deshorties sang the role of Elisabetta (Queen Elizabeth I) when we unveiled this new production and her costume is unique to this piece. The skirt is made from faux horse hair, bought from eBay – they use it in America and China to enhance the tails of dressage horses.
“Her steel corset involved her having to have a body cast taken, followed up by having thigh-high boots made which just happened to have hoof feet. Her outfit is completed with fingerless gloves and rings that have chains and claws. She also has a spider throne made by our clever props team.”
BRUNDIBáR
“This was the costume department’s first WNO Youth Opera for quite some years. We made costumes for all of the soloists, which meant making everything twice because there were two casts.
“It was a fun project which allowed us to collaborate with designer Bethany Seddon in finding ways to bring her designs to life.
“The ‘Brundibárs’ spent hours practising in heels to be able to wear their eight inch-high goth boots, which were to make them appear more menacing.”
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
“These are stunning costumes, not only because of the skill of the makers but because the fabric is amazing. Sue Blane was the designer for this production and she is well-known as the designer for the film and stage production of The Rocky Horror Show.
“When Sue and I saw the fabric samples, we had to use it. It’s a lurex linen – the Countess is silver shot with gold and the Count is gold shot with silver. They literally shimmered on stage.”
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