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The craft of constructing a character
When the singers enter the Costume department of the Teatro Real they are people; when they leave, they are already characters. In the middle: meticulous work on makeup, prosthetics and hairdressing recreate the image that the costume designer has developed for each one of the artists in the production. Elena Sanchez, coordinator of the department, reveals the secrets of her shelves to us.
Plácido Domingo played the protagonist in 2012's 'Cyrano de Bergerac', a production of the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, which required maximum care in positioning the prosthetics on Plácido Domingo every night so that it did not affect the sound quality.
2000 WIGS IN 20 YEARS
In the costume department they have sewn by hand more than 2,000 wigs since the reopening of the Theatre in 1997, a traditional craft which characterises all the production in this department that adapts each wig individually to the features of every singer.
01. Wigs created by the staff in the costume workshop at the Teatro Real. Photo: Javier at the Real
02. View from the outside the costume workshop at the Teatro Real. Photo: Javier at the Real
03. Scene of the opera "Journey to Simorgh", by the musical director José López Cobos in the Teatro Real in Madrid. (04/30/07) Photo: EFE/Juan. M. Espinosa
04. The actress Angela Denoke played Alceste during the suicide scene. Photo: EFE/Javier at the Real
05. Opera by Richard Strauss "The Woman without a Shadow" in the Teatro Real with scenery inspired by kabuki - Japanese traditional theatre. Photo: EFE/Sergio Barrenechea
06. Dress rehearsal of "The tales of Hoffman", by Jacques Offenbach, directed by Sylvain Cambreling. Photo: EFE/Javier at the Real
07. The wigs are handmade with natural hair. Photo:Javier del Real
'Nearly' impossible work
Another complex work was 'Andrea Chenier', in which the costume designer imagined a clear and very nuanced front that required the ends of the wigs to be first blurred with powdered marble and latex, to which a gradient was applied in white.
TATTOOS AGAINST THE CLOCK
'Carmen' imagined by Calixto Bieito required the costume department to tattoo many of the singers every day: a meticulous task in which they used printers to obtain the greatest possible realism.
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The Magical Workshop
The dreams of all costume designers take on life in the tailor's and costume workshop, where their designs are hand sewn with care using all types of materials in an artisanal work that stays alive only in the Teatro Real. Often, work demands that the clothes are adapted: customised based on the scene, to cover it with blood or snow.
A creative process that takes care of each detail
Within the Teatro Real there is one haberdashery with everything necessary to produce clothes for the hundreds of productions that have taken place in these 20 years since the reopening. This is just one sample of its work.
Captions
01. “Andrea Chénier”, by Umberto Girodano, with the montage by Giancarlo of Monaco. Photo: Javier at the Real
02. “Danzar al aire español” was performed at the Real in 2014. Photo: EFE/Javier at the Real
03. Scene from "Puss in Boots" (2006). Photo: EFE/Javier at the Real
04. Comic Opera “The Daughter of the Regiment” by Donizetti. (2010) Photo: EFE/Javier at the Real
05. The Briton David Wilson-Johnson preparing himself to act in the opera “Merlin”. (2010) Photo: EFE/Alberto Martin.
06. “Don Carlo” by Giuseppe Verdi is one of the most monumental sets that has passed through the Teatro Real. (2005) Photo: EFE/Javier at the Real
07. Scene from the opera by Verdi at the Teatro Real, 'Simon Boccanegra'. (2010) Photo: EFE/Javier at the Real
08. The singer Eleonora Buratto, in the centre, in the opera “I due Figaro”, by Saverio Mercadente. (2012) Photo: EFE/Javier at the Real
THE TEMPLE OF ORDER
When finishing a production, all the clothes are cleaned, photographed, labeled and organised by the archive department, who document the production and store it in the warehouse. Ovidio Ceñera shows us the warehouse of women's clothing.
THE REAL STORES MORE THAN 800,000 PIECES OF CLOTHING AND 5,000 PAIRS OF SHOES IN WAREHOUSES INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE THEATRE
“A GOOD COSTUME DESIGNER ADAPTS ITS DESIGN TO THE BODY OF EACH SINGER”
IN THE WARDROBE DEPARTMENT, 21 PEOPLE WORK ON THE PERMANENT STAFF, IN ADDITION TO 9 OTHERS WHO HELP DURING THE PERFORMANCES.