For a variety of reasons, with which I need not trouble you, we were invited to have a private tour of the Scottish Opera Production Studios, while we were in Glasgow. It was a chance not to be missed, and we even got to take Son No 2 along with us as well.
We met the Music Director, who was just waiting to do some auditions (we'd seen the auditionees all falling out of a taxi as we arrived), talked to a girl who was upholstering a bed frame for an upcoming production, watched someone struggle with the stiffening for a huge pair of comedy breeches for The Mikado, marvelled at the storage space in the paint studio, and all the stuff that was 'stored' inside it - think Massive Shed, for this one and creepily got to stroke some wigs made of real human hair.
The highlight for me was the wardrobe department. Miles of haberdashery drawers and racks and racks of clothing, from generic 'peasant outfits' to really detailed and specific historical dress for men and women. I was really surprised by the weight of some of this stuff. I have a fairly high threshold of admiration for singers as it is; they have to learn words and tunes. the words are often in an unfamiliar language, they must remember their moves, do this all under hot lights, make sure their voices carry across a large orchestra and in addition I now know that some of the time they are carrying a lot of extra weight in the shape of a costume.
The OH got to try something on
Sarastro's cloak from The Magic Flute. Sorry about the picture quality, I have been told it is over exposed and blurry, and it is - maybe my hands were shaking with jealousy because I didn't get to try anything? Or maybe it was just a case of taking the picture too quickly.
We finished our tour with tea and cake in the café; possibly we should have started there since the choice of cake was severely limited by the time we got there.
It was a wodeful experience and we were very grateful to be given the opportunity.
I am consumed by jealousy!!
ReplyDelete