Costuming a Small Military of Virgins for the Met Opera’s ‘El Niño’

Within the Metropolitan Opera’s new manufacturing of “El Niño,” which reimagines the story of Jesus’ start and early childhood, there are singing and dancing Virgin Marys, Marys of the land and sea; there’s an Indigenous Mary, a Tropical Mary, a Golden Mary.

For the costume designer Montana Levi Blanco, differentiating this flock of Virgins was only one problem in bringing to life this new imaginative and prescient of the composer John Adams and the director Peter Sellars’s eclectic Y2K-era oratorio, which pulls simply as liberally from Latin American poetry and mystic hymns because it does from the New Testomony. Within the director Lileana Blain-Cruz’s imaginative and prescient, the motion takes place throughout a number of “planes.” It could possibly be loads to soak up.

Fortunately for Mr. Levi Blanco, 39, he has developed one thing of a shorthand whereas working with Ms. Blain-Cruz, whom he has recognized since he was an M.F.A. scholar on the Yale Faculty of Drama. The pair have collaborated a number of instances, together with on “The Pores and skin of Our Tooth,” for which Mr. Levi Blanco gained a Tony Award in 2022.

Within the case of “El Niño,” painterly surroundings by the set designer Adam Rigg evokes the pure atmosphere. And since the refrain is onstage for a lot of the efficiency, the query turned, What to do with these 5 dozen singers? The answer: Flip them into flora.

Mr. Levi Blanco developed 4 variations of the choral costume, all in the identical shade of avocado inexperienced, that could possibly be tailored to particular person refrain members. If a singer wished lengthy sleeves or a crop prime, say, or pants as an alternative of a skirt, the costumes may simply be tweaked.

“Each is a leaf,” he mentioned of the variation. “Every leaf is totally different.”

“El Niño” was first carried out in Paris in 2000. However Ms. Blain-Cruz’s “El Niño,” most likely essentially the most absolutely realized manufacturing of the work ever staged (most earlier variations have had minimal set design), takes a extra international view. In line with Mr. Levi Blanco, the inventive workforce discovered inspiration within the tales — and clothes — of migrants from not solely Central and South America, but additionally Cambodia, Indonesia and Congo.

The costume for the singer whom this manufacturing calls Mary of the Land (the soprano Julia Bullock), one among its two singing Marys, attracts on what the designer described as a unity in silhouette that exists in Indigenous cultures internationally. “There’s often a skirt, a shirt after which some sort of protecting that can be utilized in plenty of methods,” Mr. Levi Blanco mentioned. That is likely to be a scarf within the Caribbean, a shawl in Southeast Asia or a serape in Mexico, however the fundamental components are the identical.

“I simply wished to honor, sort of, this outdated however very acquainted silhouette,” he mentioned.

Land Mary’s visible counterpart, Mary of the Sea (the mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges), will likely be simply distinguished from the teal- and blue-clad “sea migrants” she seems with by an surprising palette. In her greenish-yellow skirt and matching floral bodice, Mr. Levi Blanco mentioned, “we’ll at all times understand it’s her.”

Three extra Marys, portrayed by dancers somewhat than singers, occupy what the present calls the long-lasting aircraft. These extra ethereal Marys have extra elaborate costumes than their singing counterparts — supersize silhouettes, ornate headdresses, intricate detailing — that extra instantly evoke non secular iconography.

In line with Mr. Levi Blanco, a vital a part of this manufacturing was taking ladies who aren’t usually mirrored in Christian lore in any respect and placing them entrance and middle.

“I feel it was inevitable that our interpretation of ‘El Niño’ would additionally embrace individuals who seem like us,” mentioned the designer, who’s half Black and half Mexican.

Along with her sunburst headpiece and shimmering robe, Golden Mary might be essentially the most conventional of the Marys whom audiences will encounter onstage, suggesting Catholic statuary of the Spanish Golden Age. Mr. Levi Blanco suspects that Tropical Mary, along with her iridescent scarf and ropes of pearls, may need been most significant for Ms. Blain-Cruz, who’s of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent. “That was a Mary that she grew up with,” he mentioned. However for him, Indigenous Mary had the best resonance.

Rising up evangelical Christian in New Mexico, Mr. Levi Blanco had an up-close view of the way in which that Christianity may merge with Native American and Mexican cultures — not simply non secular traditions, but additionally aesthetic ones.

Blanketed in floral motifs of beads and sequins, Indigenous Mary is “all about nature,” the designer mentioned. Even her oversize lace crown, which was initially impressed by conventional Oaxacan headdresses, ultimately got here to remind Mr. Levi Blanco extra of a shell. A lustrous abalone end accomplished the look.

Mr. Levi Blanco mentioned that his grandmother Stella, who ran a enterprise making lampshades and was half Yaqui Indian, was an essential template for Indigenous Mary. Though she died as “El Niño” was coming collectively, her grandson felt her presence all through the manufacturing. “Fringe, beads, all these items that I grew up taking part in with in her workshop, continues to be an lively day by day a part of my life,” Mr. Levi Blanco mentioned.

“She was my Indigenous Mary, you recognize?” he added.