Opera costume and set designer Tracy Grant Lord is setting the scene for her best show yet
Tracy Grant Lord was only 23 when she designed the costumes and set for her first opera, an experience she recalls as terrifying. “When you are young, with such opportunities, each step of the way is a completely new set of circumstances. You dive in and do your best – it’s sink or swim,” she says. “Thankfully, I swam.”
Tracy swam her way to a renowned international career in costume and set design, where she’s worked with the creme de la creme of the stage world. Her new work, Le comte Ory, might be her most ambitious yet.
Costume designing for a production involves creativity so that the performers can best adapt to their role. But it also has a practical side, which involves costume comfort and making outfits that will give the best manufacture of sound.
What drew you into the world of costume and set design?
I had strong skills in drawing and making objects when I was growing up. I began my professional career as a stage manager assisting with scenic painting and props making. Once I pursued a career in theatre, my natural skill set led me into design.
Fortunately, I was trained at a time when both set and costume design were taught together as one complete skill. I now feel this is one of my strengths as a designer for stage.
What are the considerations you need to take into account for opera, compared to ballet or theatre?
The overriding consideration is the support the performers need for their best musical performance. For a designer, this is both within a spatial and physical context.
Designing acoustically supportive scenery and positions onstage for the best delivery of performance is always a priority. That’s alongside costume comfort and required support assistance, such as firmness of garments for the best manufacture of sound.
You’ve designed for iconic stories such as Romeo and Juliet and Sleeping Beauty. How do you go about putting a fresh interpretation on a classic tale?
The opportunity to work on any of the classical stories and scores inside the repertoire is inherently exciting. These works, for opera and ballet in particular, remain important because of their beauty and universal musical accessibility.
They naturally inspire and are easily rendered in new and exciting ways especially as each new production has a new concept chiselled out by a new set of creatives and performers working together. This inserts freshness and energy into the project.
For example, Le comte Ory, a comedy by Rossini from the 19th century, which I’m currently designing for NZ Opera, is set in present-day Aotearoa. That’s because audiences seeing themselves and their society on stage is more relatable and therefore have much more opportunity for humour.
The New Zealand-based award-winning designer, who works in theatre, opera and ballet productions around the world, designed the set and costumes for Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte for the New Zealand Opera last year.
Do you have a personal favourite opera?
I am drawn to several styles and enjoy a variety, especially baroque. However, most recently, I have been introduced to a range of new 21st-century works, which I am finding incredibly engaging.
A lot of effort and skilled labour goes into making the costumes for an opera or ballet. “The more sophisticated the production, the greater the number of people required working behind the scenes to ensure the performers and audience have the best possible experience,” says Tracy.
Talk us through a typical working day.
At the moment, I am with the Seattle Opera working on a revival of Lindy Hume’s The Barber of Seville. We originally made this one in 2017 in Brisbane. The set and props are all in rehearsal and I attend various costume fittings on the new cast, view the new wigs being created and cover any new requirements that may be coming out of rehearsal with the new cast.
As well as this, I’m keeping in touch remotely with the New Zealand Opera team on pre-production for Le comte Ory, which opens in June.
Also, I’m working on two new future productions that require meetings via video links and collecting resources around images and technical information for the work in development. Managing my time around these commitments is certainly keeping me quite busy for the moment.
Tell us some behind-the-scenes costume design secrets.
I think that one of the greatest secrets from behind the scenes is the level of skilled labour required in manufacturing costumes for opera and ballet.
The more sophisticated the production, the greater the number of people required to work behind the scenes to ensure the performers and audience have the best experience possible performing in and attending the production.
These resources are significant and, as they are ‘out of sight’, often not understood or appreciated as well as they could be.
How do you usually feel on opening night? Excited? Nervous?
An unsettling combination of both, I’m afraid. Creating live performance has its own rhythm and often the premiere is the first time we all can truly see the work for what it actually is. Experiencing it inside an audience can be exhilarating when all is in place.
What’s been a personal highlight from your incredible career?
I have had many working highlights for which I am extremely grateful. Working with great artists is certainly a privilege. One of my favourites of all time was the choreographer Liam Scarlett –an exceptional and important artist of his time.
What’s your advice to someone wanting to get into the industry?
Enable yourself by finding people with experience inside teaching institutions and manufacturing production houses that you can gain insight from.
The skills are specialised and worth seeking out, both in New Zealand and Australia, if you can. Larger cities will be able to support companies of scale. They can then support production and skills that are of value to aspiring designers.
New Zealand Opera’s new production of comic opera Le comte Ory (The Count Ory) by Rossini is playing in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch from 30 May to 29 June. Book your tickets via Ticketmaster.
Text: Caroline Moratti
Photography: Babiche Martens
Additional Photography: Jinki Cambronero
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