Page 156 - Winterreise Coverage Book, 2021 - 22

A group of stage hands and carpenters work to prepare the set for Puccini's 'Madame Butterfly,' on Sunday, Feb.
6, 2022 at the Winspear Opera House in downtown Dallas.(Ben Torres/Special Contributor )

Opera productions require careful coordination of dozens if not hundreds
of set and lighting designers, costumers and production staff as well as the
singers onstage and instrumentalists in the pit. Many come from well
beyond North Texas, some even from abroad.

COVID has complicated everything, with individuals falling sick, flights
canceled and changing international vaccination and testing protocols.

“There’s an element of surprise every day,” said the Dallas Opera’s general
director and CEO Ian Derrer. “Are you going to have all your strings? All
your tenors? All your music and staging staff?”

But the company has embraced that unpredictably, Derrer said, thinking
ahead and drafting contingencies. Drew Field, the Dallas Opera’s technical