Photo of Deborah Voigt as Brünhilde via.
I have had the great luck to see, in the past two weeks, the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD broadcast of Richard Wagner's Ring des Niebelungen. After four operas, a total of over 15 hours of pure delight, so quite an intense experience, I am in Heavens and just a little sad it's over.
I have grown to feel a lot of affection towards Brünhilde, a warrior-like Goddess who sacrifices everything for love. Even more, I am feeling a lot of affection and admiration towards Deborah Voigt, who's singing her: I find her weight-loss journey inspirational, but more on that later. She was a beautiful, playful and attaching Brünhilde.
I have decided to create an outfit inspired of Brünhilde's costume in "Die Walküre". In this production, she and her eight warrior sisters, who collect the souls of fallen heroes, are all wearing silver sequined armor-like tops and silver-gray asymmetrical skirts, and wing-like headgear on their hair, which is big, wavy and bouncy (I love Deborah's bright red locks!). What I liked about this costume is that it can easily be adapted for a night out. With a bright silver sequined top as the eye-catching piece, the goal is to keep the rest of the outfit toned down but still interesting. The skirt (which off the operatic stage is better in dark, matte grey than shimmery silver fabric) says both tough, impulsive warrior with the leather belt, and soft and girly with the romantic ruffles, which could simplify (but only) Brünhilde's personality.
Of course, it would look weird to wear warrior-like headgear to a social engagement, which is why, to complement the top, you can wear fine silver cuff bracelets and earrings. Runes, Gothic (not goth!), and Nordic-mythology patterns are a must, and so are silver wings, to symbolize the aerial quality of the Valkyries.
The nine Valkyries wore flat, black boots, which was a bit of a necessity given the acrobatics they had to perform (again, read any review of this production, or better, watch this, to understand what I'm talking about). This outfit could be worn with either flat riding boots, or, if you're like me and wouldn't be caught dead in flats unless you're jogging, you can wear high heeled ankle booties with black tights, to make your legs appear taller and seamless (which is necessary with this type of skirt). The mistake not to make is to wear a type of shoe that would overpower the top.
And this is the story of how an opera inspires an outfit!
Have a wonderful Sunday!
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