COSTUMES We’ve often thought that to stage Haydn’s wondrous The Creation would be easy on costumes, since the main characters are Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In the slightly cooler climate of the Deanery Garden, rather more covering is required and we do like our performances to be family-friendly! Year after year we ring the changes with costume and production style and, whilst our music is firmly rooted in the 18th century, we aim at variety of fashion from different periods to keep our performances fresh. With tight budgets, excessive elaboration is usually impossible, but colour, style and detail are important to our concepts. Our costumes must be flexible, comfortable and match (in the garden at least) a range of climates.
Colour co-ordination: Nina, 1999 (costumes: Pauline Smith)
Toga party: La capricciosa corretta, 2006 (costumes: Pauline Smith) (Tamsin Coombs, Amanda Pitt, Adrian Powter, John Lofthouse, Peter van Hulle)
Period foppery: The Two Barons of Rocca Azzurra, 2002 (costumes: Pauline Smith) (Mark Saberton, Andrew Kennedy and Thomas Guthrie)
Period elegance: L’infedeltà delusa, 2005 (costumes: Fiona Hodges) (Nicholas Sharratt, Cheryl Enever, Huw Rhys-Evans, Kim Sheehan, Nicholas Merryweather)