Stories

Getting a peak into opera costumier Hannah Oellinger’s mind is a wondrous thing. In this conversation with Melodrama she shares how her imagination is fed by movie costumes (she shouts-out Eiko Ishioka), museum catalogues, fairy tales, Elsa Schiaparelli’s enduring wit, the Met’s Camp exhibition and Walt Disney’s dialogue with French baroque to name but a few. What emerges out the other end is uniquely and joyously Hannah: “Ridiculously huge sleeves, billowing skirts, crinolines made from pool floats, hairy tails, hairy legs, and of course, ruffles. Ruffles I probably love the most.” In brief, her designs are transportive.

Colour is also discussed: “It’s political,” she insists in disbelief that the Pantone color of the year is white: “I think it is sending the worst message imaginable!” Colour signals plurality, freedom, and disobedience for Hannah, in a world too often ruled by beige. She also mentions how her pet peeve is the conversation surrounding historical accuracy in costume design (referencing Margot Robbie’s “Wuthering Heights” and Bridgerton) which she believes to be an incredibly limiting view which: “Implies that there ever was such a thing as a historical accurate costume, which there almost never was!”

The young Armenian-American clarinetist Anoush Pogossian is at the start of her career, thinking carefully about who classical music is for. She is a fellow with Ensemble Connect which brings emerging classical musicians into Carnegie Hall and asks them to do more than perform: teach, connect, and find new ways to bring audiences into the room.

We spoke with Anoush ahead of a Carnegie concert about making music feel personal rather than abstract. “When it feels like something you want to share,” she says, “that’s when the bridge happens.”