This evening, opera fans from across Australia and perhaps the world descended upon the Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s (QPAC) Lyric Theatre to experience the first opera in the first of three “cycles” that Opera Australia are running of Wagner’s The Ring Cycle, Dash Rheingold. This serves as a two-and-a-half hour prelude for what will ultimately be four nights and over 15 hours of peak opera performance. Limited tickets are still available for the remaining two cycles, to commence December 8th and 15th, with information on how to book tickets available HERE. This is complemented by six performances of Aida, the constant shifting in performances supported by a unique digital approach to set design, pioneered by Opera Australia.
Whether you have the time and budget to attend a performance or simply wish to learn more about the creative processes that go into bringing such a major work to Australian audiences – you are in for a treat. Opera Australia has kindly offered a number of opportunities to interview their cast and creative ahead of the season. Following interviews with Conal Coad and Michael Honeyman around Aida, the final act of interview shifts focus onto The Ring Cycle, with the below Q&A with Anita Yavich, who served as costume designer for all four operas – Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung.
Anita Yavich, a distinguished costume designer, has established a remarkable presence in the world of opera and theatre with her visually stunning and imaginative designs. Yavich’s extensive portfolio includes her work on operas like Aida at San Francisco Opera, Cyrano De Bergerac at La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera, and Les Troyens at the Metropolitan Opera. She has also made significant contributions to productions such as Facing Goya at the Spoleto Festival, La Hija de Rappaccini with Gotham Chamber Opera, and The Rape of Lucretia at Houston Grand Opera. Beyond opera, Yavich’s Broadway credentials are noteworthy, with acclaimed productions like Fool for Love and Venus in Fur. Demonstrating her range, she has ventured into puppet and costume design for unique projects like The Sound of Music at Salzburger Marionetten Theater. These are, of course, just a sample of the productions she has worked on during her career. She has also been recognized with numerous awards, including the Obie and Lucille Lortel, Yavich’s career is a testament to her creative vision and acumen, and has surely resulted in some amazing costumes for this 2023 Opera Australia production of The Ring Cycle.
Scroll down to read the full interview:
With a history that spans many major production companies, can you share about your journey working in opera, and what has ultimately brought you to your role as Costume Designer for The Ring Cycle with Opera Australia?
I have been a costume designer for theatre, opera, dance and some films for 30 years! I have collaborated with the director Chen Shi Zheng on quite a few projects, and when he asked me to design costumes for the Ring, working with the great digital content creator Leigh Sachwitz, I was extremely excited because I know it would be an interesting and experimental journey that pushes many boundaries!
How did you incorporate the central themes of The Ring Cycle into your costume designs?
We want our designs to be experiential and invite instinctual imagination from our audience as they come on board to this epic journey with us. In order to do that, we have to distil all the extensive research that we have done on different cultures, past and present and come up with an ontological approach: I need to create new, pure and iconic archetypes for all the different worlds in The Ring! Whether it is the world of the Gods who are powerful in their military-inspired, tailored, floor length white coats – with DNA coding on their backs that can disintegrate and transform into something else (that is their source of power), or the world of the Nibelungens who live and mine gold underground who are inspired by reptiles and insects.
I researched different cultures of the world in terms of how they relate to their terrain, flora and fauna, elements like metal (especially for the chromed armors and skirts for the Walkures!) so that their costumes reflect their movement, circumstances and behavior… down to their survival mechanisms.
With Erda, the goddess of the Earth, I think of her as a banyan tree, we experience her as a forest because we have mistaken her aerial roots as other trees, but she is actually one single tree that has been there for a long, long time. On a meta level, as a spiritual entity, we the audience can’t tell the difference between her hair and the branches or the aerial roots of this tree/forest… This is how we create a sense of history, we show the evolution of a character’s state of being over time.
Our designs are aimed at creating a pure and universal visual language that focus on the way we perceive the world around us. Hopefully, this experience is not only about visual metaphors but also has a sensual and perceptual reality to it.
Building upon that, with Opera Australia’s production of The Ring Cycle incorporating more digital components than many traditional performances of it, did that have any influence on how you designed costumes, and if so, how?
I work very closely with the digital contents, they absolutely have influenced my designs. They also operate on an instinctive level, and they can jump from one realm to the next through association. They work very closely on the way we perceive, so the costumes need to be about creating characters as iconic archetypes to anchor them in the story.
Could you share a bit about what goes on behind the scenes in costume design for The Ring Cycle? How long does it take to create a costume from concept to stage?
These are very complicated costumes, some of them are made out of unconventional materials and the costume shop has to do a lot of research and development in order to figure out how they could work with these materials to create a form and structure…
Moreover, we have some major UV painted costumes that need to be on white fabric that does not glow under UV light. In the costume shop we actually have a special non glowing white thread that we use to sew all of the God’s and God’s helpers’ costumes, they named these the “God Thread!”
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced while designing costumes for The Ring Cycle, and how did you overcome them?
The biggest challenges have to do with creating the materials or finding the materials to create wearable garments out of. We were able to overcome these challenges because of the amazing costume shop and all the costume makers and craftsmen in the Opera Australia costume shop, down to the most resourceful sourcing expert who scours the entire earth for all of these materials!
Is there any costume design that you are particularly fond of having worked on for The Ring Cycle?
Too many to name – definitely the Rhinemaidens, all the Gods, all the Walkures, Erda, Alberich and Mime, the Norns…
Opera has traditionally appealed to a more mature audience. In your opinion, what can be done to make opera more accessible and appealing to younger generations, or have you seen younger audiences become more engaged with opera?
I don’t think opera should only appeal to “more mature” audiences, I loved opera ever since I was in my teens! I think it is about exposure on the media, telecast, and new productions with different interpretations by contemporary designers and artists, and definitely more commissions of new operas – this needs to be a living art form, that continues to evolve!
What advice would you give to aspiring costume designers, especially those interested in opera and theatre?
Be curious, read as many great works of literature as you can – stories from different parts of the world, travel and see the world! Talk to strangers, listen to different recordings of operas, go to live performances, watch films from all over the world and don’t do the dubbed versions, listen to the original languages of these films! Don’t just shop online, go out and touch the fabric of the clothes, use all your senses and be fully alive everyday!
Finally, do you have a favourite opera in The Ring Cycle, and/or a particular favourite moment?
Too many! But I would say one of the most moving moments is when Wotan banishes Brunnhilde at the end of Die Walküre. It is heart breaking to watch, I think about my father so much when I watch that scene! And the ending of Götterdämmerung: Brunnhilde’s immolation, and then watching how the Rhine overflows the earth after that. For me, it is more than catharsis, it is more like a transcending spiritual experience!
Thank you very much to Anita Yavich, for taking some time out of her busy calendar to answer some of my questions, and you can see their costume designs realised on the Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s Lyric Theatre stage over the next few weeks as The Ring Cycle is performed over three cycles.
Many thanks must also go to Opera Australia’s publicity team, especially Caitlin Eames, for facilitating this interview. For more information on session times and to book tickets for the Brisbane season of The Ring Cycle at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) Lyric Theatre, visit the Opera Australia website.
