SARASOTA – “It’s nice to be able to like your job, and I do, and have for years,” Sarasota Opera’s B.G. Fitzgerald said.
It’s his twenty-second year as assistant to Resident Costume Designer Howard Kaplan.
Now he’s working on costumes for Susanna’s Secret, set in 1915 Torino, Italy.
“They didn’t have zippers back then, so we do everything as if it were of the period,” Fitzgerald said.
Before the sewing comes the research.
“You have to read the libretto because in this case, they talk about the fact that she’s in a pink dress, a gray cape, and a pink hat,” Fitzgerald said.
So Kaplan put some ideas on paper, and it takes a village to put them on mannequins.
Hems, snaps, hooks: everything is done by hand.
“It’s a time consuming process, and not only our staff, but we have about 30 volunteers who come in for four hours a week, each, and do the handwork as well,” Fitzgerald said.
It’s hard work that pays off for Fitzgerald to see the costumes under the spotlight.
“In this particular case it’s the cut of the skirt, the multi-pleats on the inside that you’re not aware of until she moves and twirls, and suddenly the cut of that skirt is just amazing,” Fitzgerald said. “That’s a joy because most people, you wouldn’t realize what it took to do that.”
Susanna’s Secret is part of a double bill, along with Rita (Two Men and a Woman), that debuts Saturday at 7:30.
