Lyric Opera 2024-2025 Issue 4 - Figaro

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 72 What was your path to Lyric? I didn’t actually start in costuming until I was in college. My under- graduate program required that we take introductory courses in scenery and costuming and lighting. And in the costuming course, I thought, Oh, this might be fu n. Working in the costume shop turned into summer stock work, then summers at the Santa Fe Opera, then graduate school. I got my master’s in costume technology and management at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. I was at Santa Fe Opera for 18 seasons, and at The Juilliard School for eight academic calendars. At Juilliard I was a draper, collaborating directly with designers and performers to help translate a design from rendering to realized costume. At Santa Fe, I started as an apprentice and eventually became the workroom supervisor, responsible for hiring most of the Costume Team and keeping tabs on the day-to-day flow of work. That’s an outdoor venue, for the most part — does that have an effect on your work? The theater itself is open air — covered but still exposed to the elements, especially wind and rain. We definitely had to consider the exposed travel paths on stormy summer nights: dressers would often accompany their performers with umbrellas. Adventures abound! What has been exciting about your role at Lyric? One thing that I’m really proud of is how our team works together. A collaborative environment has always been an important component for me in this career, and it’s something our team really excels at. At our busiest, we’ll have upwards of 25 people in the costume shop itself. And there are also dressers who are focused on running the shows. We had 22 dressers on Champion last season. So it can be a lot of people. What is something about your job that would surprise people? Some people are surprised that we will build new garments from scratch. The things that they see on stage aren’t necessarily pulled from our stock. It can be very fun to add newly built pieces into an existing show, as we’ve done so far for Rigoletto and Figaro this season. We have to make sure the new pieces merge with the existing ones so nothing looks out of place — then we’ve done our job right! You’ve been doing opera for a while — was that intentional? When I was figuring out career paths, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do, but I figured that music would be involved. My undergrad degree is in music performance — the flute — and technical theater. One of the things that I found throughout my training was that opera was a really good way to merge those two things. The proximity to the work itself, and the process, are really exciting for me. How does it fit? In a career, you’ll see everything. The challenges for Rigoletto are different from the challenges for Fidelio , and where our energies were put for those shows were very, very different. The storytelling overall is the most important thing, and our job is to assist in that. In Figaro , the costumes are very fantastical with a strong period influence- the details in these costumes parallel the embellishments in the music with their richness and layers. It’s truly a feast for the eyes. People of Lyric A behind-the-scenes conversation Hometown: Pittsburgh When did you start at Lyric? July 2023 First opera you saw live: Tosca was the first. I was at a theater conference as an undergrad, and we decided to have a fancy night out. Favorite opera? For a while, musically, The Barber of Sevill e, which I was introduced to very early on in my career. Rossini wrote really well for flute. Favorite Chicago spot? Roanoke has been a go-to restaurant — great scallops! Kim Buetzow Costume Director Kyle Flubacker