Robin Roger chats with COC Ensemble Studio performers about how they created their visual signature.
We go to a concert or recital to listen to music, but our very first impression is visual. As that side door opens and the performer strides onto the stage, we rapidly appraise what we see and how it makes us feel. Once the music starts the sound dominates our attention but the performer is still plainly visible, and his or her appearance continues to influence us.
I’ve often wondered how musicians chose to appear as they do on stage. Given how much time, effort and expense they devote to their music, what headspace and resources do they have to give to appearance? And how much enthusiasm do they have for this part of the game? Some may be indifferent to the whole matter, content to comply with conventional dress codes, while others might feel that their presentation has almost magical powers to enhance their performance. I was once at a chamber music concert at which three men appeared in business suits, while the fourth wore jeans and a button down shirt. I thought he was a maverick rebelling against stuffy formality until he announced that his outfit was courtesy of the airline, which had lost his bag. I wasn’t sure if he announced this so we could adjust to the visual dissonance or whether he was explaining that he wasn’t quite himself in jeans, so we should reduce our expectations of him.
Surely, the need to appear attractive is the most intense for vocalists, especially female soloists, who offer full-frontal visibility while displaying their art. Withstanding intense visual scrutiny without the shield of a cello or the prop of a piano must require a great deal of careful thought and preparation, aside from musical training.
My curiosity about how singers arrive at this confident state was piqued at this year’s COC season launch, when two young women from the Ensemble Studio with strikingly different visual signatures each stopped the show with bravissima-worthy performances. In Turner Classic Movie terms, soprano Danika Lorèn, in a demure tea-gown length silk dress with a fitted bodice and waving blonde hair, was a latter-day Deanna Durbin and mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, in a sleek, tux suit, with skull-cropped short hair, was an insouciant Kate Hepburn. In the midst of opera rehearsals, preparation for this week’s showcase: An Evening with the Ensemble Studio, and the Quilico Vocal Award competition, Danika and Emily each took time to explain how they create their look. I was impressed with their voices before this exchange; since our discussion, I’m also amazed by their resourcefulness, ingenuity, and practicality.
For the COC launch, in each case, the young women gave careful thought to the way their outfits would allude to the Opera role they were performing in their excerpt. Danika, who sang Gilda’s aria “Caro nome” from Rigoletto, was inspired by the 2012 Michael Mayer production at the Metropolitan Opera. This accounts for the slightly Retro femininity of the tight bodice and full-skirted silhouette of this dress, as well as the modest ornamentation. Loren increased the flare factor of the dress to suit the sizzle of the occasion by hand-painting the skirt with a modulated spectrum of colours.
“For every performance, the style I chose starts with the music,” Danika told me. Given that she performs a range of music in a variety of locations, this results in a diverse wardrobe, much of which she creates or embellishes herself, using a host of skills including sewing, beading, and painting. When she sang in P.E.I., she painted a wave pattern on her dress.
Emily confirmed my hunch that she wore a tux at the COC launch because she was singing a “pants role”c— the young court musician Smeton from Anna Bolena. This is a common occurrence for Mezzos, and she will be wearing the tux again this week when she sings Ariodante at the Evening with the Ensemble Studio on Thursday night. But Emily has certainly performed in skirts and dresses. She even managed to turn a cast into an accessory, when she sang in the COC competition finals with a broken foot in 2015.
The elegant simplicity of Emily’s tux not only suits the aria she sang at the COC season launch and will wear a second time this week, it exemplifies her taste for quality over quantity in clothes, which she attributes in part to her Italian heritage. “There is […] an elegance and fearlessness to Italian style that I adore,” comments D’Angelo, who has a few basic pieces that she combines in different ways rather than an extensive wardrobe. She’s thought through her approach to fashion artistically, practically, financially and even environmentally, trying to source clothes from Vintage/thrift shops where possible, and giving her outfits repeat performances without hesitation. “No man would ever be called out for wearing the same suit twice, or 20 times,” she declares.
[bctt tweet=”“High Fashion and opera are a match made in heaven” — soprano Danika Lorèn” username=””]
It’s clear that both Danika and Emily get a lot of satisfaction from the wardrobe side of their work, even though this isn’t their central focus. “High Fashion and opera are a match made in heaven,” commented Danika. Emily was equally enthusiastic: “I enjoy expressing myself through my clothing, though I’m not a big shopper. With travel and moving around it’s not practical to have a huge wardrobe.”
It’s not surprising that two singers who are so accomplished already, would show such sensible discipline about their clothes, and also already have developed a strong sense of themselves that they express through their appearance. But for some musicians finding the right style and wardrobe is too daunting. That’s where consultants such as Liz Parker step in to make sure they are ready to meet the public and the media. This is the subject of part two of this series. Stay tuned.
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