THEATRICAL MILLINERY
Anna Netrebko as the title character in Massenet’s Manon
Federica Lombardi as Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni
Photo by Marty Sohl, Metropolitan Opera Photo by Ken Howard, Metropolitan Opera
Danielle de Niese as Ariel in The Enchanted Island Photo by Ken Howard, Metropolitan Opera
Taken during the rehearsal on March 20, 2012 at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City
The Magic Flute: final scene
City. She currently teaches in the Accessories Department, hosting a 15-week course that runs one night a week geared towards fashion milliners, and a three-day intensive class for professional development focussed towards theatrical designers and wardrobe people. Janet says: “I’ve learnt something from everybody I’ve ever worked for and I feel like I have a really well- rounded base of information and I like to share it with people.”
Some of the recent highlights so far have included Rusalka, with its fantasy wig-like hats full of twigs and bugs with the stylised ‘centrillion’. With a rooster’s cockscomb hat it was an opportunity to use such unusual materials and have some fun. And she always enjoys creating top hats, which is a skill that she learnt while working with Woody Shelp. By contrast, Janet confesses that her least favourite thing to do is create pieces for nuns. Due to the challenges of making headwear for vocal performers, aspects of the process such as covering ears, tightness around the neck and weight distribution of a veil all
need to be considered while fulfilling the outlined design. While she greatly enjoys the collaborative process with designers, directors and other members of the creative team, Janet says: “My biggest customer is the performer. It’s my job to make the performer feel very comfortable; performers should never have to worry or think about the headpiece. Their job is to perform at the highest level, so that’s my biggest person to satisfy.”
One of the most challenging designs that Janet has been presented with is to create a hat that gets lit on fire while being worn for the production of Così fan tutte. After a nervous start and consultation with the fire crew and performers, Janet set about exploring what fire-resistant materials could be incorporated into the piece to achieve the design. Janet compares the process of creating pieces for the stage to solving a puzzle. “I enjoy making sweet little bonnets,” she says, “but I also love doing the things that use new materials that are non- traditional. It stretches me, I really enjoy it. It’s solving puzzles and figuring things out that I really love.”
More information
www.millinersguild.org/janet-linville
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