You have about seven or eight tries to get it right. Then it's opening night. Heal is looking content at the moment. With Verdi's grand opera, Don Carlo, scheduled for its Melbourne season opening today, she's already been through piano dress trauma. It's time to admire the craftsmanship.
Opera is multifarious - it's more than a collocation of voices.
Instrumental to any performance are the costumes. And in Don Carlo, they are extraordinary. They love what they are doing and it really shows in their work. However, designer Paul Brown had previously stated he wanted to create an image of rigid hierarchy, akin to power dressing. Heal and headfemale cutter, John Papadopolous, understood perfectly their brief from Brown.