The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-02-26
COSTUMES AT THE OPERA.
MORE THAN 10000 ALREADY AND
VEN ONES BEING MADE.

A great stock Of clothing IL part 81 the re-
sources.of tho Metropolitan Opera Hvuse. Not
moro than fourteen OF the artists who sing
there own their own .wardroOes. All the 9TH
ers get their costumes from the theatre. There
are considerably more than $1,000 complete
costumes stored in the big closets especially
designed for them. and hundreds OF new ones
are now being made. These are all kept fresh
looking and in repair b. n corps OF seam
stresses and tallors, who are kept at work in
several large rooms day in and day out. winter
and summer. They are under the control OF
+. Castel-Bert. the chief designer. NJ. Cnstel-
Bert was seated in his Office with no fewer
than n hundred water.color plates, designs for
new costumes, In front OF him. when q Sun re-
porter called.
I'VE take care OF our costumes. and keep
them looking 30 fresh,' he said in response
to a question, by System. system. system! We
have from fifteen to twenty thousand costumes
to care for. and after l tell you some things
I'll take you to the wardrobe and sewing
rooms ard show you Just what the duties
are OF the people who work there"
THE leading artists all have their own cos.
tunes. do they not2" asked the reporter. as NJ.
Castel-Bert became absorbed in the plates in
front OF him..
"schumann -Heink doesn't W a costume to
her name" he answered. pushing the designs
back and settling down for a talk. You'll be
surprised to know.that not more than twelve
or fourteen artists own their own costumes.
and even they do not own them all. For some
operas we supply every costume. In very
MANY operas the soldier and ballet costumes
cant possibly be used anywhere else. Take
Romeo and Juliet:' then. there's 'Cavalleria.'
Tristan und Isolde. AIDA Faust and Lucia
| Don't you remember the Scots in the first act
Of 'Lucia2 Those costumes can't be used in
any other opera known TO man. Then tho
whole lot OF costumes In 'Trovatore' is use-
less for ANYTHING else. and L'Africaine.' Ma
non. Die Walkuere' and 'Goetterdaemmerung'
all require special costumes.
Soon after one season closes the manage
ment decides on the repertoire for the next.
and we begin work on the costumes, max
Ing new ones and getting the old ones into
shane. Seventy-fve people are engaged pre-
vious 10 the opening OF the season and are kept
busy until the costumes for every opera tn be
given are completed. Thirty-five are re-
tanned to keep them in order and that many
are now upstairs hard at work. Suppose we
go up and see what they are up to now, - lead
ing the way up a long flight of stairs.
THE dressing rooms. twenty OF them, arc
here" he went on. 'iand here is whore our
system begins. There are twenty-odd moro
on the other side Of the house. and men and
women known as dressers have charge of
these rooms. Twenty performers dress in
each room. and there is one dresser assigned
to every ten. This is a woman's dressing
room. and tonight Aida is to be given. You
see, the dressers are busy laying each cos
tune in place. While one act is being per-
formed the dressers lay out the costumes for
the next act in a similar way and help the per-
formers into them. When a dresser finds that
a costume has been torn or soiled or abused
IN any way. he or she takes a careful note of
the injury and reports to me the next day Just
what IL is. who wore the costume. and how
the mishap came about. l order it sent to the
repairing rooms at once. where 1t is imme-
diately set in order. and then stored in it's
proper place"
What do you do with the artists and cho,
rus people when they tear their clothesT"
Fine them. and sometimes quite heavily.
III through carelessness a costume Is torn or
spoiled the wearer is promptly fined. The
American men are awful. They don't care
what happens to the costumes. / never saw
anything like IL. Some OF them must spend
all their money IN lines. But the women. with
a few exceptions. are far more careful. and.
as a rule. are nice with their costumes.
Now wsIl go up u flight to where the cos
tunes are kept. There are more than 5000
in this room alone. and in less time than it
takes to tell it almost We can lay our hands on
any one OF them we want. and without doing
that can tell its exact condition. Type
written records are kept OF the costumes Of
Zach opera. You see every room Is numbered.
every closet and every shelf. Well. we look
at u record and find that on shelf number this
OF closet number that IN room number go and
so such costumes are to be found. If the cos
tume is In order no comment is made about
It. but IL 1t needs repairing or is getting worn
or needs anything the fact Is SO stated In two
or three words. or course. the mems cos
tunes are kept separate from those OF the
-Sn,n. n-l L. thf @..@a..@ 49, Ill a..
costumes Of the men artists. the big ones.
that they will wear in this weeks repertoire"
ID they own them ALP" asked the reporter.
No. but they own some Of them and leave
them here during the week for us to keen in
Gsae iibe The ct f thssI bo%fs s9 o Tbe t drss si G9st Tunes
OF the prima donnas are too small to hold the
costumes Of more than one artist ct a time.
House itself. / don't think that more than one,
artist ,could get her or his costumes Into them
Are the men as fussy as the women about
their dressing rooms and costpmesf'
Nj. Castel- Bert threw uD both hands. Then
sraeted mHanner Next he nuttered to him
to please men singers about their costumes
sltlve about their dressing room and other
privileges, let them get rid, OF that idea at
OF them. care about dressing like the people
who lived in the period they represent What
i THSyt RSoHE e Cd iGoh P the mo saq in shnaifSast
chorus CIR, who IL engaged to sing here up.
Why. II ! listened to all the complaints and
criticisms OF costumes made by the people OF
the chorus. do you know we'd never have the
costumes for any of the operas ready. Even
the, sIpers sometimes complain to me that
their costumes are not becoming. This wo-
man wants TO wear a pulled sleeve to give her
breadth. for a period when a pulled sleeve had
never been heard of. and another wants TO do
her hair high on her head before hairpins were
invented. That's the way IL goes. Here 10
one of our drsssnaking rooms" continued
the designer. leading the way into a big apart
ment where twenty five women were mt work.
Costumes of every color. size. shape and
condition were piled In what seemed to be
hopeless confusion. md the Seamstresses were
all sewing away and chattering about as hard
as they were working,
tune de- artment.' said NJ. tastel. Bert. work
from X O'Clock IN the morning until 49,. and
they are much better paid and have really an
easier time than they would working in dress.
making and tailoring esta nlishments. At
fcr 'The IronIlet., Norma, H..