CFA Costume Designers Help Swedish Company Stitch Together a New Rigoletto
CFA Costume Designers Help Swedish Company Stitch Together a New Rigoletto
Susan Mickey and four BU students spent July in the countryside working with Opera på Skäret
Stefano Meo as Rigoletto and members of the chorus in Opera på Skäret’s Rigoletto, wearing costumes designed by Susan Mickey, School of Theatre director.
This article was originally published in BU Today on July 28, 2023. By Joel Brown. Photos by Andreas Hylthén
Excerpt
In rural Sweden, 140 miles northwest of Stockholm, Opera på Skäret stages its productions in a former timber warehouse on the wooded shores of Lake Ljusnaren.
“It’s really pretty magical,” says Susan Mickey, director of the BU College of Fine Arts School of Theatre.
“It’s a huge, huge edifice, right by the lake,” she says. “It seats about 800, and it’s very big, very high, like a barn, and they left the inside completely raw. Sometimes there are birds in the rafters singing along.”
Mickey, a costume designer by profession, working in theater and film, and four School of Theatre students spent the month of July there working on the company’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto, which runs July 29 through August 27.
“The singers go swimming in the lake every day between rehearsals, and someone told me they even do it during intermission, which is 45 minutes,” Mickey says. “It’s very, very beautiful.”
Her connection with Opera på Skäret is director Leslie Swackhamer, who Mickey had worked with before, including on a production of Madame Butterfly for the company six years ago. “The dates meant Rigoletto would fit into a college schedule, and she called me in November and said, ‘I’m doing another opera there—do you want to do it?’” Mickey says.
It was an easy yes. “It’s like opera summer stock, but the quality of the singers and musicians is way above that,” she says. “They are incredibly high-quality artists, and it is absolutely humbling to walk around and hear singers training, training, training, hearing them in the dressing room and the halls. It’s like being around professional athletes, it’s just incredibly inspirational.”
Working with Mickey were Gregg Wiggans (CFA’25), Yao Kuang Lee (CFA’25), Duncan Michael (CFA’25), and Dante Gonzalez (CFA’24). Wiggans is an MFA directing student who assisted Swackhamer, while the other three worked with Mickey and a handful of Opera på Skäret staffers to produce approximately 70 costumes for the production, which is double-cast.
Kidnapping plots, curses, mistaken identities
Rigoletto is the story of a hunchbacked jester who seeks revenge when his daughter, Gilda, is seduced by the dissolute Duke of Mantua. This being opera, of course, it’s not that simple. The three acts involve kidnapping plots and curses and mistaken identities. Latvian baritone Valdis Jansons and Italian baritone Stefano Meo alternate as Rigoletto.
Opera på Skäret director and founder Sten Niclasson directed the company’s previous Rigoletto in 2006, and he says if anything, the opera is more timely now in the era of Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, and #metoo. “It’s very accurate in some ways,” he says, about men who treat women as playthings.
“Leslie just really wanted to bring the story of Rigoletto to an audience in a way they could really understand and feel it—she wanted really good, clean storytelling,” Mickey says. The costumes are “modern dress, but with an anachronistic flair. At the very beginning at this ball, the men are wearing tuxes and coats, but with brooches and jewel tones and ascots and chapeaus. It almost looks like a Prince concert. It’s modern dress, but let’s say, ostentatiously baroque.”
Lee, an MFA student in costume design, made 24 Venetian-style gold masks for a ballroom scene and 18 animal masks for the kidnapping scene, including a ram, a lion, and a jackal.
“I was very excited to see the cast wearing the masks,” Lee says. “The process was quite challenging because I was the only person working on masks. The foam material that we got was a kind that I’m not so familiar with, so it took longer for me to complete my task. Yes, I was mostly off in the corner by myself. But I did get some help from our wonderful BU team and the makeup team.”
“I’ve been sewing lots of alterations,” says theater arts student Gonzalez, “making sure the clothes fit properly and comfortably, painting shoes and masks with Kuang, and helping Susan shop.”
Michael, an MFA candidate in costume production who was the costume shop supervisor and Mickey’s assistant for the month, made five dresses for the production. “I’ve never been to Sweden before, so that was the main draw for me,” Michael says. “Plus, opera is always exciting to work on, the drama, the prestige, it’s very glamorous. Now I’m getting to make beautiful costumes in a beautiful country.”
The BU team worked with Opera på Skäret staff from Turkey, Ukraine, and Switzerland as well as Sweden.
“This is an experience that links them not only with professionals in their field, but also with international artists, because people come from all over the world and work incredibly closely here,” Mickey says. “We eat together all the time and talk about how they work in their countries.”
This is an experience that links [students] not only with professionals in their field, but also with international artists, because people come from all over the world and work incredibly closely here.
The students aren’t getting class credit for the project, but may count it as an internship, she says. They got airfare from BU and housing and a stipend from the company. “It’s a programmatic requirement, they are heartily encouraged to work during the summer, and we help find them things,” Mickey says.
“We did Madame Butterfly with Susan, and we are very happy to have her back,” Niclasson says. “And she also [brought students] with her, which has been very nice. They are very competent and bring a lot of energy. We give them a lot of trust.”
More on the experience of working abroad.
Gregg Wiggans (CFA’25) MFA Directing
Gregg Wiggans’ role was associate director, assisting director Leslie Swackhamer in executing her artistic vision of the Rigoletto story. A typical day for Wiggans, a second-year BU MFA directing student, consisted of meeting with Swackhamer to plan the day’s approach. “What do we want to cover in rehearsal? Which cast do we have for the day?” Wiggans would then check in with designers to provide notes or adjustments discovered from the day’s previous rehearsal. Then staging the scene and offering suggestions for adjustments, while following Swackhamer’s lead.
For Wiggans, seeing ideas morph from theory to reality is what he loves most about directing. “Creating a whole world from the spark of the imagination, that’s creativity at its fullest potential,” says Wiggans, who through this process has learned the importance of clear communication.
“As an artist, my goal is always to clearly communicate my ideas to designers, actors, audience members, etc. With this process taking place in Sweden, where English is not the spoken language, and having singers travel from all over the world to be a part of this production; clear communication has been pivotal. Secondly, I would say humor. Laughter transcends language. If you can communicate your ideas and have a laugh; it’s a success regardless of the outcome of the production.
Yao Kuang Lee (CFA’25) MFA Costume Design
Just like Wiggans, Yao Kuang Lee has also learned that communication is essential, even when you speak a different language.
The first-year costume design graduate student’s role at Opera på Skäret was mask making. Lee explains how there are two masks needed for the storytelling of Rigoletto: one is a fancy gold mask for the party scene, and the other one is a scary animal mask for the abduction scene.
“During the first couple of weeks, my day mostly consisted of making mask patterns, followed by cutting out the material, reinforcing the masks, and finally, painting and decorating them. The pattern masking skill that I learned at BU School of Theatre has been very helpful during this process.”
Dante Gonzalez (CFA’24) BFA Theatre Arts Major, Costume Design Concentration
For Dante Gonzalez, seeing the magic that costumes create onstage is what makes them passionate about the art of costume design. “The hours of work that goes into each little piece of clothing brings each character to life for both the audience and the performer. It’s really thrilling to see how a person’s movements change from putting on a mask, let alone a whole outfit,” says Gonzalez, whose official role in the D&P team was as a first-hand, helping the lead draper/tailor sew the costumes.
While at Opera på Skäret, Gonzalez would do alterations, assist in fittings, and do some paperwork. He worked closely with the costume shop supervisor, Duncan Michael, and assisted Lee and Professor Susan Mickey with tasks like painting costume pieces and organizing accessories. He credits his coursework in costume production classes and the techniques he’s learned from CFA professors like Nancy Leary and Penney Pinette, and grad student teaching assistants, for a successful summer in Sweden.
“I’ve found while working in Sweden so far, a deep love of culture and language in myself. Every trip to the grocery store, conversation with a musician, and conversation with my coworkers is new and exciting because we have so much to learn from each other.“
Duncan Michael (CFA’25) MFA Costume Production
Duncan Michael was the costume shop supervisor and Professor Mickey’s assistant for the month of July, making five dresses for Rigoletto.
“I’ve never been to Sweden before, so that was the main draw for me. Plus, opera is always exciting to work on, the drama, the prestige, it’s very glamorous. Now I’m getting to make beautiful costumes in a beautiful country.”
The addition of the students with me here in Sweden has been a wonderful way to realize this process. They have really jumped in and worked their hearts out. I appreciate seeing the process through their eyes.
