La Traviata

an opera by Giuseppe Verdi

Santa Fe Opera, Santa Fe, NM

June 28-August 24, 2024

Draping, Dressmaking, and Principal Artist team lead - David Arevalo

Creative Team:

Director - Louisa Muller

Costume and Scenic Design - Christopher Oram

Lighting Design - Marcus Doshi

Wig & Make-up Design - David Zimmerman

Violetta sung by Mané Galoyan

This production of La Traviata opened the 2024 season of the Santa Fe Opera, marked the house premiere of both the designer and principal singer, and was my twelfth summer with the company. As the season opener, the show had exceptionally high performance goals for ticket sales and attendance and required a significant financial and labor investment in all production areas, including costumes.

As a draper and team leader during the 2024 summer season, I supervised two assistants, two staff stitchers, and four apprentice stitchers over a ten-week week contract in the construction and alteration of costumes for five operas that performed in repertory as the season progressed: La Traviata, Don Giovanni, The Righteous, Der Rosenkavalier, and the Elixir of Love.

In my first collaboration working as a draper with La Traviata costume and scenic designer, Christopher Oram, I was responsible for the planning, management, and completion of all costume pieces for the principal soprano, Mané Galoyan, in her role as Violetta Valéry, while simultaneously managing the fit and completion of costumes for a collection of other principal artists and chorus singers. For the character of Violetta, I produced a four-piece silk lingerie set, a white and silver jet-beaded evening gown, a custom beaded "fancy dress" gown, and a traveling suit consisting of pants, a camisole, waist sash, and bolero jacket. The cost of the materials that I was responsible for, which included fine silks, trims, and hand beaded fabrics, for just this collection of Violetta Valéry costumes was approximately $9,500. The total labor hours that I managed for this collection of four costumes was approximately 1000 hours and consisted of work done by assistants, stitchers, apprentices, and volunteers. The total costume materials budget for this highly anticipated new production was approximately $250,000.

Over a six-week build period for the show, I custom draped and patterned all of the pieces, assembled and fit mock-up versions of each, and fit and finished the final pieces in silks and other fine fabrics. All of the pieces feature examples of couture construction techniques including custom strapless foundation garments, and various hand-stitching and finishing work.

About the Santa Fe Opera

"The Santa Fe Opera’s mission is to advance the operatic art form by presenting ensemble performances of the highest quality in a unique setting with a varied repertoire of new, rarely performed, and standard works; to ensure the excellence of opera’s future through apprentice programs for singers, technicians and arts administrators; and to foster an understanding and appreciation of opera among a diverse public."

Recognized in 2022 as “Festival of the Year” at the International Opera Awards, the Santa Fe Opera annually draws 85,000 people from New Mexico and around the globe. With an annual operating budget of $25 million dollars (2023), the Santa Fe Opera produces 5 operas that will perform in repertory during its summer season. From May to August of each year, the company’s year-round staff of 70 expands to 700. Experience always exceeds expectations here because everyone in the company is fiercely committed to striving for the best. As company founder John O. Crosby memorably put it, “Quality counts, always. Quantity must take a second place, if necessary.” Thanks to quality, the Santa Fe Opera remains a world leader in defining, refining and celebrating the art of opera.

Casts are drawn from the world’s most talented singers, and production teams of conductors, directors and designers are international as well. More than half the audience of 85,000 comes from outside New Mexico, representing every state in the union as well as 25 to 30 foreign countries.

Since 1957 the company has presented more than 2,000 performances of nearly 170 different operas have been given here, including 18 world premieres and over 45 American premieres, among them Lulu, The Cunning Little Vixen, Capriccio and Daphne. Recent premieres include the world premiere of The Letter (2009) by Paul Moravec, the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain (2015), the GRAMMY-winning world premiere of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (2017) by Mason Bates and the world premiere of The Thirteenth Child by composer Poul Ruders and librettists Becky and David Starobin.