Latest / The Art of Costume Podcast / Tristan und Isolde with Costume Designer, Clint Ramos - The Costume House with Spencer Williams
Transcript
- 0:13To the Costume House with Spencer Williams, a podcast
- 0:16dedicated to the art and storytelling of costume design
- 0:19in film and television. I am your host, Spencer
- 0:23Williams, and for today's episode, we're stepping onto one
- 0:26of the most legendary stages in the world, the Metropolitan
- 0:29Opera, for production that represents the mountaintop of
- 0:33operatic storytelling. We're talking about Tristan,
- 0:36Unisilda. I am so excited to be joined by
- 0:38the incredibly talented costume designer Clint Ramos, whose work
- 0:42on this production is nothing short of breathtaking.
- 0:45For many artists, Tristan Uni Zelda is a dream, a towering
- 0:49emotional and deeply visual work, and to bring it to life on
- 0:52a Met stage is an experience like no other.
- 0:55In our conversation, we explore how Clint uses color to a shape
- 0:59the emotional worlds of our title characters, from Tristan's
- 1:02deep connection to the sea to his Zelda striking presence and
- 1:06lush, evocative greens. We talk about texture and scale,
- 1:10and how even through the Mets HD Live series, the costumes feel
- 1:14reachedly dimensional, interacting beautifully with the
- 1:17movement of the set and precision of the lighting.
- 1:20We also dive into Clint's unique perspective as both a costume
- 1:24and set designer has influenced his approach to this production,
- 1:28and how that interdisciplinary lens shapes the world of Tristan
- 1:31Uni Zelda. And of course, we get into some
- 1:34unforgettable visual moments. The commanding presence of King
- 1:37Mark to bounce between opulence and modernity, and a powerful,
- 1:41intentional use of white throughout the opera, creating
- 1:44contrast, ritual, and emotional clarity against an already
- 1:48stunning visual landscape. This is a conversation about
- 1:51scale, texture, and the emotional language of costume at
- 1:55its highest level. So without further ado, let's
- 1:58step inside the costume house. I am so happy to be here today
- 2:12with the incredibly talented someone whom I've been wanting
- 2:15to talk to you for so long, costume designer Clint Ramos.
- 2:18Clint, thank you so much for being here.
- 2:20Hi, Spencer. I'm so excited to talk to you.
- 2:24The opera Tristan Uni Solda is such incredible production.
- 2:29And I mean, when I was asked to talk to you about this, I
- 2:32almost, almost was a little. I mean, I was nervous.
- 2:34I was like, this is like the mountaintop of productions.
- 2:36I mean, I don't even feel qualified to be talking to you
- 2:39about this. But, I mean, I can let this pass
- 2:42by. I mean, the costumes are
- 2:45incredible. So I'm excited to get into this.
- 2:47Yeah. Yeah, well, thank you for having
- 2:49me. Of course.
- 2:50Well, let's do this. So Wagner's Tristan Unizolda is
- 2:54such a celebrate opera. It is like the mountain top for
- 2:57so many performers and creatives.
- 2:59And to be a part of this production at the historic
- 3:03Metropolitan Opera of all places is an opportunity like no other.
- 3:07So first, I mean, can we just talk about what this experience
- 3:10has been like for you? I know this is your second time
- 3:12working at the Met. What has this been like for you?
- 3:15I mean, it's amazing, you know, to be working at the biggest
- 3:18Opera House really in the world, you know?
- 3:20But it's also like, you know, it's kind of like a yeah, it's
- 3:27like the mountaintop, you know, I the first time I did, this is
- 3:31my first time doing costumes at the Met.
- 3:33The first time I engaged with the Met was I was doing, I was
- 3:38designing scenery. So, you know, it was a little
- 3:45not easier. Costumes is always hard.
- 3:47OK, I'm just gonna lay it out there.
- 3:49Costumes is always hard. So yeah, I know it's been, it's
- 3:54been amazing. Yeah, it's been an amazing
- 3:56experience. Plus also the shop at the at the
- 3:59Met is just they're just unbelievable.
- 4:01You know, like they, they're basically at the top of, of, of
- 4:04their game and, and they're in the business of fulfilling
- 4:10designs and making your dreams come true.
- 4:12So right it was. Yeah, it was a joy.
- 4:15Well, it was incredible. So let's talk about our title
- 4:18characters. I was instantly struck by your
- 4:20use of color just from the very beginning, helping tell the
- 4:24stories of both Tristan and he's old.
- 4:27Let's start with Tristan, who at the beginning of this story is
- 4:30leaving the ship that carries is old on at sea.
- 4:32And with that, I feel like Tristan was very tied to the sea
- 4:36throughout the story with your uses of Blues, maybe some light
- 4:39purples. Yeah, very much yeah.
- 4:43I feel like that was very intentional with your use of
- 4:45color. Yeah.
- 4:47I think stepping back a little bit, you know, I think part of
- 4:51what we this particular productions concept was that the
- 4:55idea of this duality or this couple really stems from a
- 5:00contemporary framework. You know, so we do start them at
- 5:03the table wearing contemporary clothes, but the production
- 5:07employs like multiple kind of, I wouldn't say tricks, but
- 5:11devices, you know, where there are double S of the characters.
- 5:16So we can kind of radiate this idea that what's happening at
- 5:22the table is actually, you know, a container for the myth for
- 5:28this big fable that happens, you know, wherein we explore the the
- 5:33sort of the Celtic myth, right? And sometimes we have triples,
- 5:39you know, so you're seeing multiple results at the same
- 5:41time or you're seeing multiple Tristans at the same time.
- 5:45So it was important to me that we needed to sort of really trap
- 5:49these characters by color, right?
- 5:51And then so with Tristan, blue was immediate for me because he
- 5:56is sort of the invader from the sea, right?
- 5:58Although, you know, it is Isolde is also referred to as a sea
- 6:02maiden. I really thought it was more
- 6:05kind of about how she was grounded in the land, you know,
- 6:10and and Tristan was this force coming from the sea, you know,
- 6:14and and sort of exhibits this kind of violence that comes from
- 6:21a really angry ocean, you know. And so that's how, you know, the
- 6:25blue kind of started. And as with both characters as
- 6:29they, one can look at this opera as really a process of both
- 6:35falling in love and of dying, right?
- 6:37They both die these really protracted deaths.
- 6:42And so in many ways, that was a big inspiration for how I also
- 6:47deployed how we use those two colors for those two characters.
- 6:52You know, they slowly started to desaturate as we got to the end.
- 6:56And like you said, on the other hand, Ezolda is in very
- 6:59beautiful greens, quite the opposite of her seafaring love
- 7:02affair, very much grounded in the earth.
- 7:04Yeah, yeah. I mean, she's also like this
- 7:06kind of, she's a little witchy. Is that OK to say?
- 7:10No, that's this is very correct. You know what I mean?
- 7:13Like she, she creates these potions, you know, she's like,
- 7:16you know, so there's like there's something really
- 7:19grounded with like, I almost like looked at her as like, like
- 7:24she deals with herbs and like plant life, you know?
- 7:28So there was, there's really something kind of rooted in, I
- 7:34don't know, in, in, in the green in the forest, you know,
- 7:37particularly a Celtic forest for me, you know what I mean?
- 7:40Yeah, for her. I see what you mean.
- 7:42OK, so the next question has two parts to it so I want to break
- 7:44it down first. I love your use of texture
- 7:47because I got to watch this on the big screen through the Mets
- 7:50HD Live series. So with that, I got to see the
- 7:53costumes very 3 dimensionally because I was saying up close in
- 7:57my recliner seat. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 7:59And I got to see all the detail and I was.
- 8:01Very. Oh my God.
- 8:02Very fascinated by the overall scale of this production as
- 8:05well. Yeah, with all the moving sets
- 8:07and the lighting. So, yeah.
- 8:09And like you mentioned as well at the beginning, you made your
- 8:12Metropolitan Opera debut in 2023 as a set designer for X, The
- 8:15Life and Times of Malcolm X My questions to you, you know, how
- 8:18did texture play such a role in this opera?
- 8:21And how has your existence as a set designer before influence
- 8:25your process when it came to approaching the costumes for
- 8:28Trusted? And his soldier, I love these
- 8:31questions. Well, number one, I think at the
- 8:35set designer, I always think about like, what is the what is
- 8:39the sort of like backdrop really that these costumes are going to
- 8:42exist in, right. And so that's number one.
- 8:47And how can we both punctuate what the set designer is doing
- 8:50and what I'm doing, you know, for an overall effect?
- 8:52It's, it's never about like, oh, this is the costume moment or
- 8:56this is a set moment. It's really about like, oh, no,
- 8:59this is an opera moment. You know, every moment is an
- 9:03opera moment. It's, it's to both amplify the
- 9:09music, but also like really tell a story.
- 9:14The textures really came from, as you said, you know, I think
- 9:20nowadays when I was coming up and where I was going to school,
- 9:24everybody talked about operas, the scale, and it's far away.
- 9:28So you have to really make these choices like big.
- 9:32The trims are big, the graphics are big and all that.
- 9:34So you can see it from far away. But with the advent of HD, you
- 9:40kind of have to do both. You know, you kind of have to do
- 9:43like this, like big scale, but also when you really get into
- 9:47like the nitty gritty, you'll see the details of how many
- 9:50like, you know, jewels. That you put, yeah.
- 9:53I mean, cuz they get in there, you know, and then my big
- 9:56anxiety is always about the, the, the wig lace.
- 10:00But like any costume designers anxiety.
- 10:04But like, for me, the textures played a big part of it because
- 10:08it also allowed me to kind of really think about the bigger
- 10:13themes of what I was trying to do.
- 10:16Right. So when we think about is older
- 10:18and when we think about Tristan and the, the court that Tristan
- 10:22is bringing, I mean, is old is basically a captive right to
- 10:26write this court. I kind of wanted that court to
- 10:29be unlike the organic kind of life that is old that is coming
- 10:35from. So I wanted that all to be in
- 10:37metals and in leather, sort of like almost like this kind of
- 10:42like celebrated warrior class, right, but but elevated, right
- 10:46and is old. I kind of really wanted to use a
- 10:48lot of like organic shapes, you know, but still really grounded
- 10:53in like natural fibers, you know, but also natural elements
- 11:00like metal. Like, you know, she's wearing a
- 11:02lot of like gold because she is indeed a Princess, you know, but
- 11:05also a lot of like these jewels, like these like precious and
- 11:09semi precious stones. That's, that's sort of like
- 11:12really sprinkled on her as if it's no big deal, right?
- 11:16Like this is like, I'd imagine this culture that Isolde is
- 11:20coming from to be like, oh, right, Like these are the found
- 11:23gems and metals in in that land and this is what they're
- 11:27wearing, right? And then for the rest of the
- 11:30kind of like the bigger idea I worked with this idea of like
- 11:35pleats, you know, a lot of pleating, a lot of like weaving
- 11:39of leather. You know, the pleating really
- 11:41comes from this idea that number one, you know, as as they get
- 11:46more and more in love, you know, the idea of mortality and
- 11:52immortality and this idea of like, oh, how we need to really
- 11:55leave our bodies and ourselves, like the, you know, the self
- 12:00that we're so attached to is unfolding, right?
- 12:03And so this idea of unfolding and folding was really kind of
- 12:06like it, it, it, it, it, it was, it was very evident to me,
- 12:12right, that we needed to kind of like deploy some sort of like
- 12:15fabrication technique that kind of mirror that visually.
- 12:18And the weaving really is about kind of like this, like how do
- 12:22we merge these two spirits, these two, you know, these two
- 12:26souls, right? And then how do we UN unweave
- 12:29them right as they let go of, as they as they slowly die.
- 12:33And so that's kind of really the the idea behind the texture,
- 12:37right? And, and also really wanting for
- 12:41me, most of the opera happens in these tunnels and they're in
- 12:47these tunnels and these tunnels like like any other tunnel has
- 12:51like a ceiling above, you know, because it's and, and the
- 12:57lights, you know, have a heart. You can't really do like above
- 13:00the above the head lighting, right?
- 13:02Everything has to come from the front or from the sides, if you
- 13:06can access the side in this tunnel.
- 13:08So to me, a lot of reflective materials needed to be deployed
- 13:12in the opera, you know, because as is beautiful set was also
- 13:17very matte. It was like a matte Gray, which
- 13:20was necessary for a lot of the video content that we had too.
- 13:24Right. And so that's kind of like where
- 13:26all of these like ideas, like it was a confluence of ideas that
- 13:30that made me feel like, all right, like I'm just going to
- 13:32put as much like metallic and as much leather and as much like
- 13:37fabric, you know, fabric manipulation that I could.
- 13:40That makes made sense. Yeah.
- 13:42So with that, I mean, how much collaboration then do you have
- 13:45with other departments? I imagine this must have been a
- 13:48very large conversation with everyone else working on this
- 13:52opera. Yeah, no, it, I mean, we started
- 13:55working on this maybe two years ago, you know, Yuval, the
- 13:58director, Yuval Sharon, unbelievable opera director had
- 14:02like started like 5 years before the opera, you know, like really
- 14:06with this like idea of, of what he was trying to do.
- 14:09But when I joined the team, all of these were just ideas, right?
- 14:14And we, I remember that day we met like maybe two years ago in
- 14:18London and nobody had an A, you know, nobody had a solid idea
- 14:21about what the design would look like, right?
- 14:25And these conversations really are like, oh, So what is the
- 14:28opera about, right? And that's how we kind of came
- 14:31up with this, like, isn't like what's happening to them
- 14:33happening to every couple on earth?
- 14:36And what if, right, like, because there's this idea of
- 14:39the, of the, of the hourglass, right?
- 14:42And, and you've all had talked about this fascination about
- 14:45like how space, right? Like what is happening, you
- 14:51know, if you keep on zooming out and zooming out and zooming out
- 14:54and zooming out, the thing that we feel so intense about and
- 14:58feels like the largest thing that could possibly happen to a
- 15:01human being, like falling in love, right?
- 15:03Or death or all of that kind of stuff.
- 15:05But if you keep on zooming out, you know, in space, right, that
- 15:09is like a little Fleck of sand when you really consider it,
- 15:13right? And so that and also this idea
- 15:17of time and how compressed time is, right?
- 15:19That was the initial idea. Like, OK, what if this whole
- 15:23opera existed in a second? That conversation, that space
- 15:29between a couple when they're at a table, right?
- 15:32Either for breakfast or dinner. You know what I mean?
- 15:34That like really that, that kind of, you know, that those
- 15:38silences or whatever it is, what if it is held in that and that's
- 15:42how it radiated, right? So a lot of like the initial
- 15:46conversations were about feelings about our own
- 15:50relationships with our partners. And then over the months we
- 15:56start, it starts to give form and shape.
- 15:59And, and I know a lot of people talk about collaboration and
- 16:05sometimes like I've worked on projects where there really
- 16:08isn't, you know, we're kind of like existing in our own lanes,
- 16:13you know, And that's fine too. I love those projects because
- 16:16you know what I mean? But this was like, no, let's get
- 16:21into each other's lane kind of moment.
- 16:23And it was really satisfying. You know, a lot of the video
- 16:26content like Ruth Hoppin are amazing video designer and Jason
- 16:30Thompson Rick, they shot a lot of the fact that the textures
- 16:33that you talk about to create textures, you know, on that you
- 16:39see on screen. You know, one thing that we
- 16:42didn't talk about, though, was and, and we were just like, holy
- 16:46cow, like we've been in each other's minds so much that when
- 16:50Tristan appears in the third act in that, you know, kind of like
- 16:55painted robe, that it literally was like a manifestation of what
- 17:00they were projecting, which was this like sea calming itself
- 17:03down, you know? Yeah.
- 17:05Another character I do want to talk about, though, was I was
- 17:07instantly taken by King Mark. I mean, yeah, well, we were
- 17:11breaking hearts in the first two acts.
- 17:13I was half expecting to see this dopey king walk in, but instead
- 17:17we had this very opulent, well dressed, well mannered, put
- 17:20together, stately man, obviously incredible performance and his
- 17:24costume was astounding. I mean, you were just very taken
- 17:28with him and it blended well of this world.
- 17:31Yeah, it felt very contemporary tell.
- 17:33Me about. What inspired his costume?
- 17:36Yeah, King Mark, when you when you do this opera, you usually
- 17:40see the chorus, right? And that chorus is basically his
- 17:43Kingdom, right? That when at the arrival of like
- 17:46as old and Tristan, we chose to put the chorus and they're
- 17:53usually male. It's a male chorus, right?
- 17:55Like she's arriving into this like testosterone filled land.
- 18:00We chose to put them behind the scrim, right, like as shadows.
- 18:04So for me, like a lot of like what King Mark was was like he
- 18:07become he had become kind of like this repository of all
- 18:11those textures that I was talking about, the leather, the
- 18:13gold and everything, right. But I also was really interested
- 18:16in like, OK, Speedo, you know, the the bass baritone who plays
- 18:24him is like 6364. I was like, oh, that's a lot of
- 18:29surface area that we can actually like have fun with,
- 18:32right? And so for me, it was really
- 18:34about that, like, how can we make him both Byzantine, right?
- 18:37And also like reflect like modern couture finishings, you
- 18:43know, from like the stuff that John Galiano does, but also like
- 18:49the stuff like this, you know, amazing Dutch designer Fong Lang
- 18:54does, you know, which is like these appliques of metallic
- 18:58threads and fabric mixed with like leather and everything.
- 19:02And so that's kind of like he's like a basically in gold and
- 19:08leather and he's like the apotheosis of those two
- 19:11elements. You know, he is kind of like the
- 19:13element itself, right? You know, he wears this crazy
- 19:16crown and you know, it's like, it's like it's this crown of
- 19:19thorns kind of, you know what I mean?
- 19:21But like, it's, it's also it, it evokes this kind of idea of the
- 19:26power, right? And the magnitude of what this
- 19:32power can do, which is basically like, you know, capture a
- 19:38Princess and take her for his bride, you know, But he's mostly
- 19:44in goals and bronzes and Browns. And then he experiences this
- 19:47sort of spiritual kind of change to in the end.
- 19:51And we sort of desaturate him like we do with Tristan and his
- 19:54older. And Speaking of the
- 19:55desaturation, throughout moments in the opera, specifically
- 19:58toward the end, there's this absence of color, the specific
- 20:03use of white, especially as he's old, as lost toward the end.
- 20:07Through ritual and especially this incredible horn player.
- 20:11By the way, I really love his costume, which I can't get
- 20:15enough of. So talk to me behind the
- 20:17symbolism behind the desaturation we get to see in
- 20:21the final act. Yeah, in the final act, you
- 20:24really are exposed to the the biggest tunnel, right?
- 20:28And and we always looked at that tunnel as the portal to death,
- 20:31right? But instead of like being kind
- 20:33of like, you know, the Grim Reaper or something really dark,
- 20:38you know, we see death through is old as eyes.
- 20:41There's two versions of death here, right?
- 20:43You can die like Tristan saying, why the F did this happen to me?
- 20:49And why is this happening to us, right?
- 20:51And all that kind of stuff. And you sing a 45 minute song as
- 20:55you're dying, right? Or you could choose to die like
- 20:59is older and basically say, listen, we got to let go.
- 21:03We have to go. We remember we talked about love
- 21:06that goes beyond us and our bodies, right?
- 21:11We have, we just need to let it go, right?
- 21:14And so it's a manifestation of that, right?
- 21:16Like that the, the, the, the death portal is quite, it is
- 21:20sort of calming, right? That, that, that death is just
- 21:24the beginning of a higher plane, right?
- 21:27And we looked at the the horn player really, you know, he's
- 21:31like, you know, in in many sort of iterations of Tristan, he has
- 21:37a particular like profession. He's either like a court member
- 21:42or a shepherd or some, you know what I mean?
- 21:44Something like something like that.
- 21:45But in ours, we really looked at him as the sort of the
- 21:50gatekeeper to this kind of spiritual world, right?
- 21:55He is also where I deployed a lot of the pleading techniques.
- 21:58You know, it evokes a lot of those Japanese designers.
- 22:02And I just really wanted him to be kind of grand in a very quiet
- 22:07way, you know? So I experimented a lot with the
- 22:10shapes, you know, on him and behind him are like these 20
- 22:16dancers were, you know, dressed almost the same.
- 22:20But, you know, like really simpler to just kind of like
- 22:23radiate this idea that, you know, there are these almost
- 22:27like these molecular souls bouncing off of the, you know,
- 22:31tunnel, you know what I mean? That's kind of like the the idea
- 22:35behind that this is the white and the and the and the death
- 22:41tunnel, you know? Yeah.
- 22:43I love talking to you about this production.
- 22:46It was just so beautiful, so incredible to see.
- 22:49My first, I guess, watching opera on screen before I let you
- 22:54go. What did this experience mean to
- 22:56you, Clint? Oh, it was really to me, it's I
- 23:03enjoy these thought exercises. I'm more of like more than, you
- 23:09know, more than any other process.
- 23:12I think in the design, you know, kind of journey that that we all
- 23:17take as a designer, the idea of ideas is what I'm kind of
- 23:22addicted to, right? And it's almost like, well, then
- 23:25how do you make that happen? Like how do you convey that
- 23:29idea? Because most of them are
- 23:30philosophical. Most of them are like, you know,
- 23:33very heady, right? And then, and then you're just
- 23:36trusting the audience to to kind of like get what you're trying
- 23:41to do, right. And so, so to me, it really
- 23:44meant that that that design is such a tool for thinking, you
- 23:53know, particularly costume design, right?
- 23:55Like, you know, when we think about costumes, we immediately
- 24:00think about like, oh, they're clothes.
- 24:02And and hence they're, you know, they're highly attached to
- 24:05fashion. That's true too, right?
- 24:09But like, I think more than anything, when you design for
- 24:11the performing arts, you know, either it's be a Broadway show
- 24:15or an opera or a movie or anything like that.
- 24:17It really is about #1 story. But it's, but you get such an
- 24:22opportunity to imagine how to convey ideas.
- 24:25And that's, you know, working on this opera and at the mat like
- 24:30really meant that I could do that in it's sort of like most
- 24:37kind of like maximal and magnificent form.
- 24:39Do you know what I mean? Like until it it was highly
- 24:42satisfying, was a lot of work, but but it was incredibly
- 24:47satisfying when audiences are like, all right, I'm getting
- 24:50this, you know, I am getting this thing.
- 24:52I'm getting why they did it this way, you know?
- 24:55Yeah, Tristan Unisol, the costumes are Clint Ramos.
- 24:58Thank you so much for joining me.
- 25:00This has been such a pleasure. I'm so glad I could give you
- 25:02your flowers. Oh my God, thank you Spencer for
- 25:05the opportunity. It's an honor.
- 25:07Thank you so much. The Costume House with Spencer
- 25:10Williams is a production of The Art of Costume.
- 25:13This episode was hosted, produced and edited by Spencer
- 25:16Williams. To discover more conversations
- 25:18with the designer shaping film, television and theater, visit
- 25:22theartofcostume.com or follow us on social media at The Art of
- 25:26Costume. And don't forget to connect with
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