Suzanne Calvin: So, how do the two of you know General Director Karen Stone?

Karen Stone: They were more or less morally obliged, if not contracted, to do a Fledermaus for me in Graz with Stephen Lawless.  And then, Stephen got asked to do a Fledermaus in Glyndebourne and because they didn’t want him to do one immediately before in Austria, I was asked to release him from his contract.  (laughter)  So they owe me!  I worked with Stephen at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden where we met 25 years ago – but how did you get to know him?

Benoit Dugardyn: A friend of mine was running the Ancient Music Festival at Innsbruck where Stephen was looking for a designer.  My friend said, “I know someone who would be very keen to do it, but he hasn’t done much before.”  Stephen and I met, talked and decided to take a chance on working together.  We’ve done, I think, fifteen productions since.

Jonathan Pell: ...Most importantly, our La clemenza di Tito in 1997, which was a stunning production.

John Gage: ...which ultimately went to Covent Garden in London.

Jonathan Pell: They had done a production everyone hated so, when they revived it the following season, they rented ours. (laughter)

Suzanne Calvin: I know which is more expensive but, which is more difficult?  Period costumes, or modern costumes?

Ingeborg Bernerth: Actually, modern costumes can be very, very hard because when you start thinking about contemporary clothing...well, just forget about it. (laughter)  I was a trained graphics designer and I started work in Hamburg at the State Opera, doing programs, posters, books and what have you for seven years.  After I married, I decided I needed a change of career...

Karen Stone: She married a conductor...a conductor...and not unknown.

Ingeborg Bernerth: And I went to work in costume design for other designers, as an assistant.

Karen Stone: So many take that route.  Were you an assistant Benoit?

Benoit Dugardyn: No, I was trained as an architect.  My father was an architect, my grand-father was an architect.  Almost by coincidence, I got an opportunity to work at Monnaise, the opera house in Brussels, where an opera aria brought about the independence of Belgium. 

Karen Stone: It really did, in an opera by Auber.  In those days, an opera was capable of starting a revolution!

Suzanne Calvin: How do you two feel about Donizetti’s music?

Ingeborg Bernerth: We like it.  I mean, I like it.

Benoit Dugardyn: I like it, too.  Of course, I do.

Suzanne Calvin: I was wondering: to what extent did the music drive your set design?  Do you work around the director as well as with the director?  (laughter)

Benoit Dugardyn: All the ideas that Stephen came up with, as soon as I started working on the model, everything fell into place.  Other times, it’s been much harder and Stephen comes up with lots of very good ideas but to make them fit into one concept is sometimes quite hard to do.  I tend to try to come up with a space that is very strong but also leaves the director and cast a lot of opportunities to experiment with the different elements.

Jonathan Pell: When Stephen first came here – he made his United States debut director our production of The Marriage of Figaro in 1991, it was the Mozart year – we quickly established “The Lawless Law.”  Because he has such an incredible imagination, he comes up with ideas all the time.  They don’t always fit but, they are great ideas.  So “The Lawless Law” was that you couldn’t proceed on any of Stephen’s ideas for 24 hours...

John Gage: ...forty-eight...My staff was told we don’t order anything for 48 hours. (laughter)  But regarding your original question, remember what Benoit (Dugardyn) said earlier in the set design presentation: He left “room for the lusciousness of the music.”  I think that’s very important.

Benoit Dugardyn: When I visited the Globe Theater, I learned that in Shakespeare’s time people didn’t say they were going to watch a play, they were going to hear a play.  I think this sort of opera, Donizetti’s opera, you come to hear, even if you are going to see something truly wonderful.