Chicago Opera House 2003 and English National Opera 2004.  Set design Michael Yeargen, Directed by Elijah Moshinsky.

Monty Python, Toulouse Lautrec, and burlesque was my reference. The Lyric Director requested a more traditional approach.

Designs used stripes, vivid coloured Lautrec wigs, Victorian decoupage, Bigfrieze prints, roll-drops for dramatic effect. Girls' costumes comprised boned corsets with skirts and swimming bloomers underneath, changing in striped bathing tents or behind large parasols.

The pirates wore Jimi Hendrix Bohemian fashion and British punk:  big-girls' flowery blouses for the chaps, many tattoos, moustaches and a Mohican hairpiece from an orange feather duster.