Fading colours and meaningful silhouettes
Costume designer Silke Willrett on her creations for I Capuleti e i Montecchi
Seventeen years ago, German designer Silke Willrett met director Tatjana Gürbaca through a colleague. It marked the beginning of a long-term collaboration, which continues this season with a new production of Vincenzo Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi at Dutch National Opera.
Thanks to their years of collaboration, Silke Willrett and Tatjana Gürbaca have developed an almost instinctive understanding of each other. “After all these years and so many productions, we know each other so well, we almost feel like family”, says Willrett. “It also helps that we can easily refer to past productions and say: ‘We had this issue before – how did we deal with it then?’” However, that doesn’t mean they keep reusing tried-and-true formulas. “We don’t want to repeat ourselves just because we know something works. We’re always looking for something new, check the content carefullyand see every work as a new challenge.”
In the early, sometimes smaller-scale productions she created together with Gürbaca, Willrett would alternate between costume and set design. But as she became involved in bigger opera productions, she chose to focus solely on costumes. “Large productions like I Capuleti e i Montecchi often involve many singers, and thus require many costumes. While it’s possible to combine that with set, we actually prefer having more members on the artistic team. That way, more brains can contribute rather than just Tatjana and myself.”
Extensive conversations between the artistic team members are typically the starting point of each new production. “We talk openly, sharing personal ideas and associations – from ‘I just saw a movie where…’ and ‘do you know the paintings from that period?’ to ‘my grandmother used to say…’.”
From Instagram to medieval Verona
Willrett herself also draws inspiration from a wide array of sources for her designs. “I’m always collecting”, she says. “Things I come across on Instagram or on the internet, but also inspiration from fashion exhibitions, past productions, art history and other historical elements. This preparation phase often lasts several months – and that’s a good thing. It’s often when you’re not actively thinking about a production that you come across something useful.”
Willretts designs for I Capuleti e i Montecchi, which tells the famous love story of Romeo and Juliet (Giulietta in the opera), show a combination of various influences too. The chorus costumes in Act II, for example, feature elements typical of medieval Verona fashion, such as voluminous skirts, characteristic sleeves, and period footwear. In contrast, the soloists’ costumes have a more contemporary feel to them. “Because the costumes blend historical and modern styles, they can resonate with everyone in the audience and therefore offer everyone a way into the story.”
Moment of truth
At the time of the interview, the first costume fitting for the production – with the women’s chorus – has just taken place, marking the first time Willrett has seen some of her designs materialised. “It was very nice. Dutch National Opera’s workshops are amazing, and the women from the chorus were very happy with their costumes. A few of them I remembered from when I was here twelve years ago for The Gambler.” Still, that first fitting can be a stressful moment for a designer. “That’s when you need to be honest with yourself. When you see the design, the fabric, and the person wearing it all together for the first time, you sometimes realise that adjustments are needed. For me, the silhouettes created by the costumes are very important, so if the silhouette isn’t quite right, the costume needs to be altered.”
Silke Willrett
“I’m always collecting inspiration”
In I Capuleti e i Montecchi, the silhouettes become especially significant at the end of the opera, during Giulietta’s funeral. The entire chorus – men and women – appears in extravagant, deep-black costumes. “Romeo and Giulietta’s community is very wealthy – truly upper class – and throughout the opera, only the younger generation displays any love or feelings. The older generation is cold, strict, and distant. This is reflected in the costumes, which form strange, straight silhouettes – like shapes cut from black paper and held against the light.”
Breaking realism
The alienating silhouettes also contribute to breaking realism on stage. “It’s important to us that not everything is completely realistic. The set design, therefore, includes both realistic spaces and ‘dream spaces’. Having such crowd of eccentric silhouettes at the funeral serves that goal as well.”
Interestingly, Giulietta’s funeral is the only scene in which the women’s chorus appears. “That’s a fascinating idea from the composer”, Willrett notes. “In the rest of the opera, aside from Giulietta, we only see men. They engage in politics and make all the decisions. But at a funeral – an emotional event, and alongside birth one of the moments closest to the essence of life – it becomes clear again that they can’t do without the women.”
Prophetic qualities
That I Capuleti e i Montecchi will end in both literal and metaphorical darkness becomes increasingly palpable as the opera progresses, through both the music and the costumes. “At the start of the piece, everything is technically still open, but the music already makes you feel: this isn’t going to end well. I wanted to support that feeling by gradually making the colours fade away from the costumes as the piece unfolds – until at the end, at Giulietta’s funeral, everyone is dressed in black. I love it when something on stage changes subtly over time, while the audience doesn't initially notice. And that you suddenly realise: oh, now everything is black, and you understand that the transformation has started much earlier.”
Text: Rosalie Overing
Experience I Capuleti e i Montecchi at Dutch National Opera from 7 to 28 December 2025.