Travels of a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Chicago, Illinois. Haymarket Opera Company’s “La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina”, Sept. 22-Oct. 2, 2023.

Copyright © 2023 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

On Sept. 20, 2023, my plane touched down at the Minneapolis International Airport. I had just returned from a twelve-day trip in the UK, presenting a paper and touring historic theaters in England, Scotland and the Isle of Man. 48 hours later, I was packing a trailer of scenery for Haymarket Opera Company’s production of La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina. The show loaded in on Saturday, Sept. 23.

This was my fourth show with the same design team: Brian Schneider (Lighting), Stephanie Cluggish (Costumes) and Megan Pirtle (Wigs and Make-up). They are all remarkable individuals to work with!

Stephanie Cluggish (Costumer), Sarah Edgars (Director) and Brian Schnieder (Lighting Designer) with model. I handed off the La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina model during tech week for Marc’antonio e Cleopatra.

This spring we were tackling two shows in a compressed timeframe. Marc’antonio e Cleopatra, (June 2023) and La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (Sept. 2024). The first opera was very straightforward; two static scenes in Egypt, consisting of painted panels and a few profile pieces.

Here is an article about the Marc’antonio e Cleopatra production in Lighting an Sound America by David Barbour (pages 20-24). Here is the link: https://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=5eeb1f17-4f4f-4cb1-93d0-4d8c27a4a730

La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina is the only surviving opera by female composer, Francesca Caccini, dating back to 1625.  It included sea nymphs, entrances on dolphins and orca-bone boats, sea monsters, magical plants, and so forth. The plot posed a few challenges, as did the performance space. There is no fly tower or wing space at the Jarvis Opera Hall. From a logistical standpoint, there is not enough room to store large scenic elements anywhere off stage.

One of the ideas that I repeatedly tossed out at the beginning of the design process was creating a small-scale Baroque stage. This “stage-with-a-stage” meant that everything could be self-contained and easily accessible. In the end, my set consisted of a 16’x16’ platform, 8 step units, and a 28-ft. theatre façade, 8’-0” x8’-0” proscenium opening, and two doorways.

Set with jungle scene.

My small stage house had both upper and lower grooves for wings and shutters. The scenery consisted of a drop curtain (roll drop), scrim (roll drop), Jungle scene (roll drop), 2 jungle wings, ocean drop, 2 ocean wings, 3 water ground rows, 2 jungle shutters, 2 jungle wings, a dolphin profile, an orca boat profile.

Photograph by Elliot Mandel

Photograph by Elliot Mandel.

Painted detail from drop curtain.

Photograph by Elliot Mandel.

Painted detail from the jungle scene.

Painted detail from jungle scene.

Magical plants. Photograph by Elliot Mandel.

Ocean scene. Photograph by Elliot Mandel.

The Siren. Photograph by Elliot Mandel.

Water detail.

Photograph by Elliot Mandel.

Orca bones boat and dolphin on paint frame.

Sea monsters behind the scrim. Photograph by Elliot Mandel.

All of the scenic elements were painted simultaneously on a motorized paint frame. This meant that there were fewer staples and I was able to hop from one painted composition to another. This also helps unify all of the painted elements without having to repeatedly mix the same color as I would progress from one piece to the next.

The paint frame at Hamline University with my parents for scale.

The entire set was painted with distemper paint. In addition to setting up may standard palette, I built two new distemper palettes; one for warm colors and one for cool colors. It greatly helped for all of the foliage painting. Taking a 2’-0” x 2’-0” square of ¾” ply for the base, I covered it with canvas then painted it white. I drilled 2” holes around three sides of the palette to hold my containers of dry pigment paste. When not using a color, it remained capped. This meant that my pigments did not dry out and could easily change position.  Not having to scrape off the palette, or reconstitute the paste, saves time in the long run.

Small distemper palettes for details.

My larger mixing table.

Here is a link to the Marc’antonio e Cleopatra program: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55b3b5d7e4b049454c0f51c9/t/648bb2dad48b0a6599189357/1686876895061/2023_Haymarket_HASSE_program_web_final.pdf

Here is a link to the La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina program: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55b3b5d7e4b049454c0f51c9/t/650f0b72aecd2b6e8b35a256/1695484787494/2023_Haymarket_Caccini_program_web.pdf

To be continued…