SEATTLE — In the basement at the Seattle Opera House, a team works year-round to make sure costumes and hair drive the stories told on the opera stage.
Liesl Alice Gatcheco is the director of costumes hair and makeup for the Seattle Opera.
"In costume design, you get to dive into the psychology of who the character is," Gatcheco explained. "Color is so telling in the building of a character, the way things are cut. All these decisions are made to drive the story forward and entertain the audience."
But all this creativity has a deeply technical side. The costumes are custom-tailored.
"People who work here have mad skills. I love that things are made from scratch," Gatcheco shared. "There's couture happening in Seattle in this room, and so many people do not even realize it's happening!"
And what the actors wear on their heads is also a marvel. It takes 40 hours to create a single wig, and there are fifty featured in the production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.
A cast is made of each actor's head and individual human hair is sewn with a tiny needle onto the piece. And the hair textures selected, honor the actor's own.
The designer calls the hair pieces the cherry on top, the thing that solidifies the grandeur of the opera.
"I've had several singers say to me once I've put that wig on, I've become that person. It changes who they are and changes them into that character," said Ashlee Naegle, the assistant manager for costume, hair, and makeup.
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